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My last Duchess
“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive.” The duck of Ferrara starts his monologue with a sight of regret that raises the sympathy of the readers and makes them feel that he had lost his beloved wife and is very upset about that. However, in the next few sentences he reveals the dark side of his character and brings the readers to a realization that the Duck of Ferrara is not a noble gentle man. In fact, he is a hysteric murderer who has killed his wife and is very arrogant, possessive, and oppressive.
Like many other renaissance Ducks, The duck of Ferrara is very arrogant and selfish. He is very proud of himself and his ancestors. He believes it is his wife’s privilege to be married with him and she should be thankful for “the gift of a nine-hundred –year’s-old name” that he gave her. The fact that “[his] favor at her breast, the dropping of the daylight in the west, the bough of cherries some officious fool broke in the orchard for her…all and each would draw from her alike the approving speech” disgusts him. He thinks he should be treated specially not like anyone else and with “Much the same smile,” but he can not stoop “to blame this sort of trifling.”
Duck of Ferrara is very materialist, possessive and greedy. He has a sense of ownership and a strong desire to control everything. He thinks of his wife’s picture only as a fine art work and refers to it as “a piece of wonder.” Her pure emotions and sentimental nature ...
“The Cask of The Amontillado” is not the short story you want to read to your child at bedtime. It is a creepy tale of a man who plots revenge on an acquaintance who has supposedly wronged him, a plot similar to other Edgar Allan Poe stories. This story is full of interesting characteristics such as hidden meanings, cunning dialogue between characters, and strange ironies, all assembled in a dark gothic setting. These details create an intriguing read, which is why this story needs to be analyzed to discover deeper meanings created in the mind of Poe and revealed in the lines of the story.
In the XII century the court of Henry II had a leading role in the construction of the idea of courtliness and was a propitious laboratory for the weapon of the courtiers: the word. A peculiarity of the cultural production at the Plantagenet court was the use of the literature to translate, fight or exegitize, in literary terms, the conflicts of the Angevin Empire. Was at the Plantagenet court that Walter Map wrote, between the secondo half of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth, the De nugis curialium which melted historic things with weird tales in a typically courtier style, as its author was. The reading of those stories needs to remind the double-nature of the courtly texts, the literary one and the
In his book Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais uses satire to address the dislocation felt by Renaissance Humanists. By providing an exaggerated fable, comical in nature, Rabelais poses a serious introspection into the extremes of both the Medieval and the Renaissance man. More importantly, however, he brings into question his own ideals of Humanism. Through an analysis of Rabelais’ satirical technique and by examining his social parody of the Medieval and the Renaissance man, we are able to better understand Rabelais’ introspection into the ideals of his own generation and to accept his argument that learning is transitory and often a necessary, yet futile, attempt to understand our world.
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe is a short story told in the gothic genre. Although this story was written decades after the popularity of the genre, The gothic genre through its descriptions of the atmosphere as well as its use of grotesque and macabre imagery creates a sense of alienation, chaos, entrapment, uncertainty, and terror in the reader. Gothic literature often deals with themes of death, fears and anxieties, good vs evil, estrangement, and revenge. Furthermore, gothic literature often ends with a sense of moral closure and resolution. The Cask of Amontillado use of gothic conventions can be seen in its setting. However, the story’s unconventional use of irony and omission of moral closure adds to the psychological
Furthermore, since the Duke is wealthy, he is able to get away with this murder, and is talking to a person who happens to want to marry his daughter. What is bizarre with this story is that, the duke seems to get jealous over the most simple things, such as when Fra Pandolf was painting her portrait, and the duke said, “Her husband’s presence only, called that spot of joy in the Duchess cheek; perhaps Fra Pandolf’s chanced to say “Her mantle laps Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint must never hope to reproduce the faint half-flush that dies along her throat”(Browning Ln 15-18). Throughout the story, he continues to talk about how this jealousy affected the Duchess, but the most interesting part is when he said, whenever I passed her; but who passed without much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive” (Browning ln
In ‘Medusa’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ their central characters have some remarkable similarities that represent a common theme. In each of the poems, both Medusa and the Duke of Ferrara represent the danger of power as they are both driven by jealousy to use their power to corrupt. The poets use strong language, a clear structure and harsh sounds to present the strength and power of both the characters.
In this brief monograph, we shall be hunting down and examining various creatures from the bestiary of Medieval/Renaissance thought. Among these are the fierce lion of imperious, egotistical power, a pair of fantastic peacocks, one of vanity, one of preening social status, and the docile lamb of humility. The lion and the peacocks are of the species known as pride, while the lamb is of an entirely different, in fact antithetical race, that of humility and forgiveness. The textual regions we shall be exploring include the diverse expanses, from palace to heath, of William Shakespeare, the dark, sinister Italy of John Webster, and the perfumed lady's chambers of Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick.
Robert Browning's dramatic poem "My Last Duchess" defines how extremely a person may lose touch with reality, as a result of jealousy and self-love. This central thought is achieved through an aristocrat's conversation with a visitor concerning a painting of his ex-wife; within the conversation, the aristocrat--Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara--reveals that he has been a key figure in the murder of his late wife. The Duke's sense of reality and his misuse of power stand as important facets within the fabrication of the central idea.
The Medici’s were a prominent family in the Renaissance, who ruled Florence from 1434 to 1737. They are regarded as being one of the most powerful and richest families in the whole of Europe. The Medics used this great status and wealth to develop an improved Florence, one that was significantly influenced by the Renaissance. The Medici family can most certainly be regarded as the significant heroes of the Renaissance. This is due to their significant promotion and patronage in the arts, in turn bringing focus back to the antiquities, a major importance during the Renaissance period. Furthermore, the Medicis can be considered the great heroes of the Renaissance, due to their significant influence of Renaissance Humanist thinking. On top of this, although the Medici family were allegedly corrupt and supposedly paid many bribes in order to become so powerful, they still focused on benefiting the heart of the Renaissance- the city-state of Florence- and should thus not be considered the great villains of the Renaissance, but instead the heroes.
The downward spiral of the character Vindice, shows a large scope of emotion, starting with a quite normal grieving process for his partner, to seeking his revenge on the Duke, this revenge soon spiralling out of his control when he decides to get revenge on the whole of the royal family because the Dukes son raped Lord Antonio’s wife. Therefore the use of symbolism and imagery works well and the play follows an effective structure in which the tragedy becomes the tragedy of Vindice alone.
Written by Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” is a poem about an egocentric Duke who has a painting of his last wife upon the wall and is trying to impress an ambassador who is negotiating his next marriage. Although it is obvious that the Duke is trying to persuade this ambassador, however, this is where the first mystery is created. It is almost as if he is trying to persuade no one more than himself.
Is this piece of his work not only a satire on the cutting of hair, but a description of Pope's hopes of finding such a woman who is not as shallow as the characters he writes of? Once again, speaking though Clarissa, Pope states an effective and simple truth, "Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; / Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul." (N. 1)
The writer introduces a widow known as Paolo Saverini, her son Antoine Saverini, and his dog Semillante. They live in a small town called Bonifacio located in France. Paolo’s son was murdered in the town by Nicolas Ravolati, the body was then taken to the widow’s house. While grieving his death, she swore to avenge her son’s death by any means necessary. She then executes her plan by training the dog to kill her son’s murderer.
Murder, mystery and intrigue all describe Robert Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess." From the speakers' indirect allusions to the death of his wife the reader is easily lead to think that the speaker committed a vengeful crime out of jealousy. His elaborate speech confuses and disguises any possible motives, and the mystery is left unsolved. Even if he did not kill his wife, he certainly has something to hide. Based on the poem's historical references, style and structure, the Duke's controlling and jealous nature becomes evident.
Both of the poems, ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning and ‘Ulysses’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson, are examples of dramatic monologues, in that they solely consist of the speech of the protagonist. As a result, they have few or, in the case of ‘My Last Duchess’, only one stanza. Many enjambed lines and many irregularities in the basic form of iambic pentameter also hide the rhyming couplets in this poem. ‘My Last Duchess’ is set in Renaissance Italy and is the Duke of Ferrara talking to a servant of his prospective father-in-law, about a painting of his former wife. The narrator of ‘Ulysses’ is the man in the title, an Ancient Greek hero, talking about his loathing of his regal position and his wish to travel again before his impending death. Although they are both powerful men talking about their pasts, there are noticeable differences between the two poems, both in the protagonists themselves and the poetic devices used to present them. One of the clearest differences between Ferrara and Ulysses is the source of their power, and the kind of power that they wield. Ferrara’s power comes from his ‘nine-hundred-years-old-name’, that is, his position as the ruler of one of the many city states that make up the present-day nation of Italy. This was a position he was born into-not one which he earned. He obviously puts great value on his inherited status, as he refers to it as a ‘gift’ and objected when his wife did not consider it more precious than the gifts that other people gave to her. He considers himself to have been very generous by making her his Duchess, and he thinks that his wife should have ranked this generosity than that of others. He gives examples of other gifts which she thought of as equal in worth, such as: