My Last Duchess Comparison

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Love is something that everyone is familiar with, it is a special emotion that is reserved for the use between two people who mean a lot to each other. It is a something that William Butler Yeats wants the other person in his poem, "When You Are Old" to remember for eternity, meanwhile in Robert Browning's, "My Last Duchess" the Duke does not mention loving his own wife. Both poems deal with the theme of love, however the way love is shown in both are nothing alike. In Yeats' poem, assuming he is the male character, he wants his wife to remember how much he loved her when he is no longer there to show her his affection. For the time being he is with her and can show her how much he loves her, but as time passes they will both grow old and he will pass away. It is then that he wants her to, "take down this book" meaning all the memories they created together and, " slowly read". His love for her transcends time and that is what he ultimately wants her to know. He asks her to remember how so many people loved her but …show more content…

The Duke is very controlling over the Duchess, even after she has died. "Since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I" says the Duke. When the Duchess was alive he could not have full control over who she made smile, but now that she has died he covers her portrait with a curtain so that he can select the people who she makes smile. He is disgusted by the way his Duchess appreciates him. "As if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody's gift", the Duke says to whomever he is showing her portrait to. He thinks that she is impressed by other men too easily, yet is not impressed by him although he has given her one of the most powerful names of the time. This seems to bother the Duke although at the same time he is not too worried about it, because he sees the Duchess as a commodity that can always be

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