Exploring Gender Dynamics in Browning's 'My Last Duchess'

His Last Duchess

Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue narrated by the Duke of Ferrara Even a passing gaze to this poem would paint a picture of a selfish prick of a husband and a wife whose mere fault was naivete, someone who was merely appreciative of the beauty around her, a quality that bugged her husband to the point where he accuses her of being unfaithful and gets her killed. The narrator of the poem indicates an arrogance embedded so deep in a bold sense of male superiority. However, a wise man once said ‘there is no smoke without fire’. While the Duke sounds a little mental for not being able to have enough balls to communicate with his duchess and being on a brink of remarrying after causing

The use of ‘mule’, instead of a horse or stallion, which are the common indication of male sexuality, it was a sterile mule that she took so much pleasure in riding. Her riding it also indicates duchess being in a powerful position, she had a sexual appetite that could not be sated by one man. A mule could be used as a metaphor for insulting another man who enjoyed the company of his wife in a conjugal horror suggested by her bough of cherries broken by “some officious

The carnal significance of ‘cherry’ in English folklore is undeniable and has been in use since at least 15th century. An association between cherries and virginity in “The Cherry Tree Carol” indicates that the idea was fairly established in English literature. In this Christmas song Mary declares her pregnancy to Joseph in a garden:"Joseph, gather me some cherries for I am with child". To which he replies “ Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee” (7-10 LF). Joseph’s enraged reaction suggests that he considers picking of cherries to be linked with the loss of virginity. Another example of the term ‘cherry’ being used in a similar manner is Thomas Campion 's poem “Cherry-Ripe” which mentions “There cherries grow which none may buy” (5-CSG), indicating that a woman’s intimacy is priceless and no one can afford to buy it. Several odd admissions of loss of control over his wife like “Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not, Her husband’s presence only, called that spot” suggest that she had needs that her husband alone could not fulfill. She has a weakness for men’s compliments that a cold hearted duke couldn’t provide. After he gets her killed, and lets the memory of his late wife to exist in a painting, he’s finally in control of her smiles and kindness that she