My last duchess. Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess†by Camille… 2022-10-27
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"My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue written by Robert Browning in 1842. It is spoken by the Duke of Ferrara, who is giving a tour of his palace to an envoy from another noble family. As the Duke talks, he reveals that his last wife, the Duchess, was a beautiful and charming woman who was beloved by everyone. However, the Duke was not satisfied with her, and he had her killed because he felt that she was not showing him the proper respect and deference.
Throughout the poem, the Duke displays a disturbing level of control and possessiveness over the Duchess. He is extremely jealous and paranoid, and he feels that she is his property to do with as he pleases. He tells the envoy that he had the Duchess painted with a "faultless breast," but that he "gave commands," and "all smiles stopped together." This suggests that the Duke was not happy with the way the Duchess smiled, and that he wanted her to be more reserved and submissive.
The Duke's behavior is highly narcissistic and manipulative. He wants to be the center of attention and to have complete control over the people around him, including his wife. He is also extremely superficial, focusing on the appearance and demeanor of the Duchess rather than her inner qualities. The Duke's attitude towards the Duchess is reminiscent of the way that men in the Renaissance period often treated their wives, as objects or possessions rather than as human beings with their own thoughts and feelings.
Despite the Duke's cruelty and lack of empathy, he is also deeply insecure. He constantly feels the need to prove himself to others and to assert his dominance over them. He is obsessed with maintaining his reputation and his status, and he is willing to go to great lengths to do so, even if it means killing the woman he claims to love.
In conclusion, "My Last Duchess" is a powerful and unsettling poem that explores themes of power, control, and possessiveness. It highlights the dangers of toxic masculinity and the way that men in positions of power can use their influence to manipulate and harm those around them. It also serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of letting superficiality and ego drive our actions and relationships.
My Last Duchess: A Reflection of Victorian Age Essay Example
The duke brings up a final example, one he found particularly maddening. Or he might have had her shut up in a convent. Retrieved 31 May 2009. The duke would not condescend to correct her attitude. Before they head downstairs, the duke asks the addressee to look at one more artwork: a bronze sculpture of Neptune taming a "sea-horse. Browning characterized this poem as a dramatic lyric; but essentially it is a dramatic monologue, a genre typically associated with Robert Browning, where one person speaks to a presumed audience.
Either she was shallow, or an adulterer! What makes the Duke of Ferrara especially horrifying is that he feels no repentance and no need for repentance. The poem is written in rhymed iambic pentameter lines. What is the poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning about? Then, in not quite five lines, the duke refers directly to the proposed marriage arrangement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. As a child, Browning received musical education and became a pianist of some ability. The pace of the poem builds toward the revelation that the duke ordered his wife killed, then to the quick summation of his terms for the marriage arrangement. A basic device used throughout the poem is irony.
The duke believes he has the right to command his wife, his household, the listener as well as the painting of his wife. Whispers of Immortality A collection of Poems , 2007 ed. A letter from Mrs. In 1838, at the age of twenty-six, he made his first trip to Italy; and in 1844 he was again there, from August or September until December. The last date is today's date — the date you are citing the material.
Robert Browning: “My Last Duchess†by Camille…
The poem consists of twenty-eight heroic couplets. The Duke of Ferrara obviously considers himself superior to others and above laws and morality. The irony is that his criticisms of his duchess reveal his own murderous nature and how far he is from seeing it himself. There have been no checks on his abuses of power thus far, and there is nothing to suggest that he will not continue his egotistical and tyrannical ways. May 15, 1914 No.
The duke blames his late wife for smiling back at Frà Pandolf, for being courteous to everyone she encountered, for enjoying life too much. In this poem, the setting is based on Renaissance Italy, where a Duke is talking about his last Duchess to a man who is an envoy for his next Duchess. A Handbook to Literature 8thed. . The amount of time spent by Robert Browning in Italy is a further reason for expecting Italian art themes in his writings. Notice Neptune, though, 55Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, 56Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me! The character of the Duke is created by his own words as a shallow, egoistical product of a patriarchal authority. Moreover, it is shown to be unreliable, due to the layers of narration which are implemented by the poets.
What is the poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning about?
The last date is today's date — the date you are citing the material. Retrieved January 14, 2022. The genius of such characterization lies in the fact that the poet himself does not provide any moral judgement on the audacious nature of the duke. Instead of seeing an unfaithful wife as the duke pictures her, the reader sees the jealous and egotistical mind of the duke himself. Another possible clue of strangulation: distressing semicolons punctuate the murder scene, and those gaping pauses mark her gasps for breath and her erasure. The reader must work through the words of the speaker to discover his true character and the attitude of the poet toward the character.
The last date is today's date — the date you are citing the material. Notice Neptune, though, Taming a sea-horse thought a rarity, Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me! The Duke speaks about his former wife's perceived inadequacies to a representative of the family of his bride-to-be, revealing his obsession with controlling others in the process. Forty-nine out of a total of two hundred twenty-two poems by Robert Browning refer to one of the five fine arts—poetry, music, architecture, painting and sculpture. The ideas marked the birth of modern town planning. The second date is today's date — the date you are citing the material. Deciphering the hints and tracking the way Browning reveals the nature of his villain seem to fascinate students.
My Last Duchess Style, Form, and Literary Elements
Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? Browning to her old friend, Mrs. Eventually, "I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together. This technique, in which the syntactical pauses rarely coincide with line endings, creates a tension in the rhythm and places emphasis on the horrors the duke reveals as the sentences end in mid-line caesura. The second date is today's date — the date you are citing the material. Popularity It is difficult to define why this piece is so enjoyed by generations of readers. After saying that he alone opens the curtain, the duke promptly begins a catalog of complaints about the way his wife had acted. He has belittled his past wife, he has bragged about his belongings, he has puffed out his chest with the family history, but one of his final statements cements his personality and character.
Sculpture is so unimportant a feature of most of the poems that there was certainly very little temptation to enlarge on the facts for dramatic purposes, or for any other reason. The apparent pauses, shown by dashes, purportedly indicate a hesitation as the duke considers what to say, but actually they suggest his consummate arrogance and manipulative control of the situation. As he had others eliminate his wife, and as he had a painter and a sculptor create objects of art to his specifications, he assumes that the agent will provide the kind of duchess he wants. In the poems Ozymandias by Percy Shelley, and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, power is depicted as unstable and easily lost, creating a tone of mockery. He can open or close the curtain as he pleases; he can exert complete control. My favour at her breast, 26The dropping of the daylight in the West, 27The bough of cherries some officious fool 28Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule 29She rode with round the terrace—all and each 30Would draw from her alike the approving speech, 31Or blush, at least.
