Brief Character Analysis and Links to Study Guides: Robert Browning's Poem "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church"

Robert Browning's poem "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church" is one of his most widely read dramatic monologues. Though the Bishop in the poem is entirely fictional, his story is one that repeats itself throughout history: for the sake of propriety, his true character stands in contradiction to his role as a holy man, and upon his death bed, he, at last, can reveal his personality.

Where to Read the Poem

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/265.html ( A line numbered copy with notes can be found here.)http://www.bartleby.com/42/669.html

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=173002

Character Analysis of the Bishop: Faithless in Life and Death

The reader is given little evidence in "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church" concerning the Bishop's outward behavior as a young man, though we are given a great amount of information on his character as he lays upon his death bed. From his telling ramble, readers discover all there is to know about the beliefs and behaviors of this man.

One telling show of his personality appears when the Bishop first begins to speak and addresses his sons. At first, he calls them "Nephews," as would have been more proper for a man who taken a vow not to consummate with a woman, but the Bishop soon corrects himself and calls them "sons mine" (3). This action shows that, on his deathbed, he has given himself permission to use their rightful titles, in turn revealing to the reader that the old man's request is one he would not have given if he were going to live. This alone, shows much of his character, as a person who masks himself with his role and, throughout his life, pretended to be someone he was not.

The Bishop, free of the disguise he wore as a young holy man, spouts out his own ugly, crude thoughts, displaying for his audience his pride at outdoing the other holy man Gandolf in winning his sons' mother when she was still young and beautiful. He also reveals his greedy need for a grand tomb covered in pagan art. With only death to look forward to, his true colors show through. The Bishop believes himself to still be holy, if only because of its social reward, and is concerned with what his tomb will be like. He is excited by the idea of spiting his rival, Gandolf, even as a dead man: "That I may watch at leisure if he leers--/ Old Gandolf, at me, from his onion-stone,/As still he envied me, so fair she was!" (123-25).

At last, he is honest in his feelings concerning the afterlife. The Bishop is faithless, believing that he will still be watching and listening from his grave, not Heaven: "And as yon tapers dwindle, and strange thoughts/Grow, with a certain humming in my ears,/About the life before I lived this life/And this life too, popes, cardinals, and priests" (91-93). Not only does he appear faithless where religion is concerned, he also loses faith that his rambling wishes of an ornamented tomb will be met by his sons and implies that he will probably be as disappointed with is grave as his rival Gandolf.

A character analysis of Robert Browning's bishop in "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church" reveals a fictional man who lived a life of contradictions, masking his true feelings and beliefs for propriety's sake.

Links to Study Guides and Poetry Notes

Spark Notes provides a detailed Commentary as well as the full text of the poem:

Victorian Web discusses several interesting subject concerning "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church":http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/bishop/index.html

　http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section4.rhtml