Different Forms of Power Presented in My Last Duchess, A Woman to Her Lover and La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Different Forms of Power Presented in My Last Duchess, A Woman to Her Lover and La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Amongst the three love poems examined in this essay, the theme of male

or female power in relationships pervades throughout. The views of the

speakers are expressed and defined through literary and poetic

techniques. This gives the reader an insight into the speaker's

problems and dissatisfaction with a relationship, due to an imbalance

of power. However there are dissimilarities between the poems - for

example where in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" the female displays

supernatural power and dominance over a knight, the Duke in "My Last

Duchess" desires psychological power over his Duchess.

The poem "My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue written by Robert

Browning and spoken by the Duke of Ferrara. In the poem he displays

his megalomaniac tendencies towards his late wife and his belief that

his title symbolises his power over her. We also learn that he doesn't

want his wife for love, but to be able to exhibit her and 'show her

off' and enforce psychological power over, which is shown when he says

"if she let / Herself be lessoned". This shows that he wants to mould

her into the wife that he wants.

The Duke calls her "My Last Duchess"; here the use of the possessive

pronoun indicates to the reader that he feels his wife belongs to him.

This implies that the Duke has an authoritative and almost overbearing

character as he thinks of his wife more as an object, which he owns,

rather than a person. The Duke proves his power even further by saying

"Notice Neptune, though, / Taming a sea horse". This could suggest

that the Duke is try...

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...t describes the woman as "Full

beautiful" making "sweet moan". Here he allows the reader to build up

a mental picture and have an idea of what she looks like which makes

it easier for the reader to understand why he is controlled so easily.

In conclusion we can see that the idea of feminist power and dominance

exists in all of the poems. However each writer portrays women and

their power in different ways - Browning depicts them as being

subjugated by men, Walsh seeks to show the competence of women while

the woman in Keats' poem possesses supernatural powers. The main thing

that the three poems teaches us is that the role of the sexes in a

relationship can change, depending on the type and amount of power

they possess - the male can be the one who is trapped and exploited

while the women emerges as the dominant one.