Robert Browning’s Optimistic Attitude / Philosophy towards Life and Love

Robert Browning is an optimist, and as an optimist, he is a moralist and a religious teacher holding a very distinct place among the writers of the Victorian Age. He is “an uncompromising foe of scientific materialism” as Hudson states. What we call Browning’s philosophy is not actually a philosophy of strictly technical sense of the term. Rather it consists of some frequent attitudes, opinions and views scattered in his poems especially in his dramatic monologues. Browning seeks optimism in any situation of life, preaches universality of soul and advocates God.   

           

Browning’s  optimism is clear in the very style of writing a poem that he picks up his central character in crisis or in some critical situation, then this crisis reaches the climax and ultimately resolved and he ends his poem with optimism. Such a poem is The Last Ride Together which, as Wikipedia writes, “stands for optimism, treatment of spiritualistic love where materialistic love is not seen, or is ignored.”

In this poem the rejected lover considers his failure to gain his beloved’s love to be “written and needs must be”; even bless his beloved’s name “in pride and thankfulness” and; realizes “what need to strive with a life awry?”. However, he claims for “only a memory of the same”, i.e. a last ride together. Eventually she gives her consent; and the lover regards it as a great achievement against the past hopes of ger getting united. He The speaker takes the gap between desire and achievement positively. He argues,

“She might have hated,- who can tell?

Where had I been now if the worst befell?

And here we are riding, she and I”

Moreover the speaker universalizes that failure is common to all human beings.

            “Fail I alone, in words and deeds?

            Why, all men strive and who succeeds?”

Thus Browning holds positive approach to the present that may be worst. His approach can prove a tonic for the tired minds.

           

Browning’s optimistic philosophy is also well expressed in Rabbi Ben Ezra. The Rabbi, the speaker, expresses Browning’s philosophy:

           

Regret for lost youth and terror for the old age are stock ideas. But the Rabbi invites everybody to grow old eagerly-

“Grow old along with me!

            The best is yet to be,

            The last of life, for which the first was made:”

Actually human life is an organic whole- both youth and old age are equally important for human life; our times are planned by God.          

           

Browning’s optimism stresses on the constant struggle of human life. The Rabbi encourages,

            “Strive, and hold cheap the strain;

            Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!”             

Moreover, According to Browning, life’s value lies not in achievement but in aspiration, in spiritual condition that distinguishes human from animal and it is struggle which can lead to achievement and to spiritual development.

Browning   looks at the failure in this world in a very unconventional way. The speaker in The Last Ride Together holds that some of his desires must be left unfulfilled on this earth so that they can be accomplished in the next life; it is hope of this future happiness which helps him face death readily.

“Earth being so good, would heaven seem best?

 Now, Heaven and she are beyond this ride.”

Thus there must be gap between aspiration and achievement in human life.

              

               However, Browning does not consider life on earth unimportant. As Fra Lippo Lippi says,

               “The world’s no bolt for us,

               Nor blank, it means intensely, and means good.”

Rather, the soul may not be the body, the breath is not the flute, but

               “Both together make the music, either marred and all is mute.”

            Browning preaches immortality of soul. In The Last Ride Together the speaker perceives that through their death his and his beloved’s souls will enter into eternity and their ride will continue eternally. They will achieve in the next world what they have failed to achieve.

            “The instant made eternity,

            And heaven just prove that I and she

            Ride, ride together, forever ride?”

Browning’s firm faith in a benevolent God is beyond any doubt. His characters, even the knaves have firm faith in God, and rely upon His mercy. They constantly talk of their relation with God, and are sure of their ultimate union with Him. The Rabbi in Rabbi Ben Ezra says,

“Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:

            What entered into thee,

            That was, is, and shall be:

             Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.”

Here wheel stands for time, Potter for God and clay for man.

Andrea in Andrea Del Sarto thinks if his wife had inspired him, he would have produced works like Rafael and Angelo. However he is not  sure of it. Because,

            “All is as God over-rules.” 

Browning’s optimism is founded on the realities of life “on imperfections of man”. It is not ‘blind’ to the evil prevailing in daily life routine. He knows that human life is a mixture of good and evil, of love and the ugliness, of despair and hopefulness. In the famous lines of “Pippa Passes”, he says:

“God is in his Heaven –   
All is right with the world!”( Pippa Passes, line 221 (1841)

That is, man should not leave everything upon God.  Actually there can be no progress without overcoming obstacles, no joy without suffering, no virtue without sin.

Thus his optimism is based on his theory of evolution that life is constantly progressing to higher and higher levels. Man progress in the moral and spiritual sense is only possible through persistent struggle against evil, our foe. Evil is the opportunity offered to us by the divine power to advance spirituality.

“Evil is, therefore, a way of man’s moral progress.”

Love plays an important role in Browning. It is love which harmonizes all living beings. It is on love that all Browning’s characters build their faith saying:

“God, Thou art Love I build my faith on that”

(Paracelsus: Part V: Paracelsus Attains, 1812-1889, written in 1835)

Life in this world is worth living because both life and the world are the expressions of Divine Love. Moody comments,

   “Love, as the supreme experience and function of the soul, testing its temper and revealing its probable fate, holds the first place in his thought.”

In “Evelyn Hope”, the lover does not despair as he derives consolation from the optimistic faith that God “creates the love to reward the love” (Evelyn Hope). True love is sure to be rewarded in the life after death, if not in this life.

               Therefore, we can conclude that Browning speaks out the strongest words of optimistic faith in his Victorian Age of scepticism and pessimism. As

Moody comments,  

“Browning's robust optimism in the face of all the unsettling and disturbing forces of the age is thrown out in sharp relief,”

Of all English poets, no other is so completely, so consciously, so magnificently a teacher of man as is Browning whose “poetry is intensely charged with moral purpose.” However, according to modern criticism, in certain cases, Browning’s optimism can be interpreted as false or hollow optimism. Sometimes, it seems a justification of failure than optimism; it seems a hope against hope or a hope for the impossible. Yet his poems are full of courage and inspiration, telling people that there are no difficulties if they have self-dependence and self-control and if they are optimistic.

Works Cited:

  

Hudson, William Henry. An Outline History of English Literature. London:

G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. 1993.

Moody, William Vaughn. A History of English Literature. NY: Charles

            Scribner’s Sons. 1918.