عبدالمحمد موحد

This thesis is an attempt to study the function of silence in the selected poetry of Mathew Arnold, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Elizabeth Barrette Browning. The poems chosen are written in the form of dramatic monologue in which there is a silent present listener. Although a silent listener is present in other forms of poetry, they are not written in the form of dramatic monolgue which is the focus of this thesis. The prevalence of this form could be due to several reasons including the changes in social and political aspects of the age and Victorian poets have chosen dramatic monologue to show their criticism toward the newfound modern social, political and religious values. The function of silence in the poems under study here is proved to be a means to give the poet more authority to express his/her ideas and profound concern about the change of values in the British culture arising from industrial and scientific chaneges. The study has been conducted by applying different notions about silence to the poems under study and interpreting the poems in their context where required. Since the pragmatics of silence in the dramatic monolgue of the poets under study here has not been properly looked into, it is hoped that this thesis would provide an original contribution to the concept of silence in these poems.