The quest for a hero in Browning's early long poems, his plays, and the ring and the book

Because of the intellectual turmoil and skepticism that characterized the nineteenth century, Victorian literature developed pronounced strains of anti-heroism. In this context, Robert Browning stands out as a writer who continued the quest for a vital and opti mistic vision of heroism. Browning made his earliest attempts to write extended works featuring heroic protagonists in his early long poems Pauline, Paracelsus, and Sordello. These early works were heavily influenced by Byron and Shelley. Browning used variations of the subjective confessional mode of presentation in these poems, and the protagonists show marked features of Byronic heroes and of Shelleyan personae.

These early poems also contain elements that attest to Browning's interest in orthodox Christianity and his interest in Carlyle's ideas on heroism, as they appeared in early works such as Sartor Resartus and the Hero-Worship Lectures. In his early poems. Browning attempted to integrate these elements with his interest in Byron and Shelley, but his attempted fusion led to inconsistencies and to unresolved tensions and irony. Also, his use of the subjective mode led to problems in coherence, point of view, and characterization.

Following Sordello, Browning began writing plays in an attempt to render his art more dramatic. In the eight plays he wrote between 1837-46, he experiments with a great variety of heroes, heroines, and villains in varied relationships in an attempt to clarify his vision of heroism and villainy.

With the exception of Pippa Passes, a closet-drama. Browning's plays were flawed and less than successful stage drama, but they were nonetheless an important part of the process that led to Browning's success in his masterpiece. The Ring and the Book Many of the materials and major themes of his early long poems and plays reappear and are integrated into Browning's own ecclectic vision in The Ring and the Book. In his use of multiple monologues. Browning discovered the artistic mode to reconcile his subjective and objective interests. The major characters in The Ring and the Book embody Browning's consummate vision of heroism and villainy.