My Last Duchess Essay

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Robert Browning is the author of "My Last Duchess" and he shows the audience how it is a dramatic monologue. In a class lecture, the professor had mentioned that the poem is set in the 15th century. During that time, it was common for a young woman to be arranged in a marriage. As the poem unfolds, the audience learns the speaker of the poem, Duke Ferrara, is talking to another male character and begins to tell the story of his previous wife. As they are standing in front of the portrait of the Duke's last wife, now dead, the Duke talks about her imperfections. The reader discovers that the ex-wife's "imperfections" were qualities such as generosity, courtesy to those who served her, and an overall respected woman. What follows are examples …show more content…

More importantly, the Duke did not approve the behavior of his previous wife and will tolerate it again. As the story begins, the Duke is speaking to the other male character about the portrait of his previous wife. A painter by the name of Fra Pandolf had painted the portrait and it is said that Pandolf's hands may have wandered as well. The following lines can make the audience wonder about the relationship between Pandolf and the Duke's ex-wife. "That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands / Worked busily a day, and there she stands" (lines 3-4). The Duke is now left to wonder that if his ex-wife and Pandolf may have had a relationship of some sort. In the poem, the Duke does not reveal the painting to any person. He is the only person that is allowed to reveal the portrait from the curtains that cover it. Although he does not show anyone the portrait, the Duke had revealed the painting to the other …show more content…

A man had picked some cherries from orchard and she had ridden around the land in a mule. A Royal family usually rides around on a horse, not a lower class animal such as a mule. A family with such high class does not do physical labor such as physically go to the orchard. The Duchess was very courteous to the help around the house because she would thank them for their work. In other terms, the Duke did not believe that the Duchess was not mean enough. The people that worked for the family respected the Duchess because she was very kind to them, but in the 15th century, people were divided into class systems. The Duke and Duchess were highly ranked whereas the servants ranked at the bottom so it was very common for the high class to be snobby and rude to

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