My Last Duchess Explication

World Literature 2112 Spring 2014
Poetry Explication
Instructor: Weaver
“My Last Duchess”, by Robert browning, is a dramatic speech delivered by the Duke of Ferrari which highlights the covetous and cruel nature of his personality and the questions which surround his bride’s death.
The poem begins as the Duke draws the attention of his fellow conversationalist, who is, we discover, a messenger representing the Count’s family whose daughter’s hand the duke seeks in marriage, to the image of his deceased bride on the wall. The Duke lionizes the work of the artist, Fra Pandolf, who exhausted a day’s worth of effort on the portrait to make it so lifelike. He invites the messenger to take a seat, and proceeds to discuss how all who have ever lain eyes upon that picturesque expression on the deceased’s painted face have inquired as to the reason behind the lively expression. He then reminisces about his late wife, remembering that it wasn’t solely his company which brought color to her cheeks. He ponders the possibility that the painter complimenting her brought forth such a response, as she believed that such attentions were all just formalities and politeness. He continues, scorning the nature of the duchess; she found something to praise in whatever she saw. He finds it disdainful that things so simple and unworthy as the sunset or a small offering of fruit some officer could make her as happy as his gift to her, his hand in matrimony and an ancient name. He says that no one could really fault the duchess for her flighty nature, but even if he had the power of speech required to make his expectations from her clear, it was beneath him to do so. He hints at the fact that the duchess seemed to smile at everyone in the same way that s...

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...onologue portrays a character that is as decrepit and maniacal as the language is beautiful. The duke is shown to be a controlling, a man who finds fault in the innocence of his wife’s youth, and condemns her to death. His controlling nature is evident from the start, in the way he dictates the emissary’s actions telling him when to sit and rise, and his pride that no one is allowed to draw the curtain but him. He has, in his imagination, reduced his once lovely wife to a mere possession, and refers to her painting as ‘a piece’ of wonder. Such is his ego that carrying on a normal conversation with his bride or telling her what he expects from her is considered by him to be beneath him. He chooses not to talk to her about her faults, which are naught but a liveliness of nature, a happy disposition, and a yearning for life, but rather ends that which he cannot control.