My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is story of a duke recanting his story about his late wife. In this poem the author uses diction similar to conversational words as if he was speaking to someone or something, varied syntax, where he questions to engage the reader, and a vain and superficial tone where he places the value of his late wife to some simple bronze.
In this monologue a duke explains to his servant about his last duchess, one of the first things the reader will notice is the diction doesn’t seem to be informal or formal, it seems to be neutral. For example the poem opens up with “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall...” which is a very neutral word choice. The author neither uses flowery words but rather he uses plain language
…show more content…
to direct the poem. In this certain poem, browning classified it as a dramatic lyrical, however, it’s hard to discern the lyrical aspect in the poem since it’s a monologue, and it seems very conversational due to the iambic pentameter. Browning set up the poem in couplets where the reader can notice the rhyme scheme as well. In addition, throughout the poem, Browning used dialogue where he would address an unknown audience, but given it’s a monologue one can concur that it’s meant for an audience in a stage setting. Moreover, he only uses a handful of dialogue; Therefore, the narrative voice differs slightly from the dialogue voice. The reason this is so is because when reading the poem, one must keep in mind this is a monologue, so when the reader comes across dialogue, it’s a thought aloud and not actual dialogue said to another person but to an audience instead. Simple sentences to compound to run-ons to complex sentences, this variation of sentences is evident throughout the poem by Browning.
The more predominant sentence structure is complex. The first sentence of this poem is complex followed by another after that. The overall length of the sentences is lengthy. Browning incorporated a lot of commas in order to make his complex sentences, which are widespread throughout the poem. The level of formality of the sentences is somewhat high, due to the fact of the writing style and the incorporation of dashes, colons, and commas. It’s evident that Browning was an educated man due to his writing style because the formality of the sentences is very intellectual as opposed to a poem filled with simple sentences. Browning also incorporated into his poem the use of rhetorical questions, he only uses this technique a few times in his writing. For example, “How shall I say?” The context this is used is very sarcastic due to the fact it’s like he’s thinking of a way to say a rude remark in a not so rude way. Moreover, he also used “ Who’d stoop to blame this sort of trifling?” Similar to his other rhetorical questions, the way these questions are used in context seem to be very condescending. Apart from his syntax techniques, Browning uses his ability of rhythm and flow of the English language evident in this poem, with his couplets that are in iambic pentameter the reader will quickly notice how the poem is said effortlessly and has a
rhythmic pattern to it. The author uses his long syntax structures in order to provide detail of what he’s trying to explain. The tone of this poem varies slightly from the beginning to the end. In the beginning of the poem he speaks about his late wife to his servant and the reader will notice how the duke seems to be admiring his wife but then one will notice how there seems to be some type of underlying reason this is his “last” duchess. He compares her to the bronze statue mentioned at the end of the poem and seems distant in an appreciative manner, moreover, he mentions the duchess as a person who smiles easily and is easily liked and this seems to have raised an envy in the duke so he had her silenced, as mentioned in the poem, however it isn’t specified if it’s murder of just put away. Overall, the tone moves from admiring to distantly appreciative. In conclusion, the poem’s diction, syntax, and tone contributed significantly to the underlying meaning behind the poem which are several meanings ranging from moral meanings to the meaning for the characters associated with it. The diction introduces it at neutral and conversational while the syntax adds the genius to it with it’s complex sentences and structures while tone adds the emotion to the poem in order to produce this cohesive poem about a duke expressing his feeling about his late wife.
In ‘My Last Duchess’ Browning also uses iambic pentameter to also show how controlling the Duke is as the poem follows strict rules. [add evidence of him being strict]The use of rhyming couplets is to emphasise words at the end of the line and make readers think of the specific word choice.
Harte showed Duchess’s emotional side of her. Her “...pent-up feelings found vent in a few hysterical tears...” (Harte, 2) shows the Duchess as emotional, a drama queen, spontaneous and impulsive. This was before she changed, though. “The Duchess, previously a selfish and solitary character, does all she can to comfort and console the fearful Piney.” (Moss and Wilson, 4) Duchess's character reveals that people can switch their habits no matter what the circumstances
"Robert Browning." Critical Survey of Poetry: English Language Series. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Vol. 1. Englewood Cliffs: Salem, 1982. 338, 341.
Initially, both speakers in the literary texts are similar because they killed their lovers. In Duchess, the duke that is the speaker says blatantly that he killed his last wife. As the speaker says in lines 45-46, “I gave commands; then the smiling stopped all together.” These lines mean that he told her to stop smiling, but she didn’t listen to him, so therefore he killed her, thus the smiles stopped all together. He explained that he did this such action because she smiled too much. In the same way, the speaker of Lover explained that he killed his lover too. The speaker grabbed his woman’s hair, and wrapped it around her neck three times, and strangled her to death! “I found a thing to do, and all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her” (Lines 37-41).
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. "My Last Duchess." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed. New York: Pearson; Longman Publishing, 2007. 432-433. Print.
Love is everywhere in the world and the majority of the people will do anything for love. People will push the limits to what they do for love and it just makes you wonder of how much crazy people are out there and are willing to take it to that crazy level. Social media blows up everywhere when they hear about a story that the guy or the girl went crazy in the relationship and just did something crazy. Well there are two poems that author Robert Browning wrote about love and they are called “My last Duchess” and “Porphyria's Lover” and there are a couple things that you can compare and contrast about it like both have very jealous people and another is how crazy people can get and one that’s different is how they handle it.
may not be all that he claims to be- the use of the word ‘My’ is very
‘My Last Duchess’ is a poem written by Robert Browning in 1845. It’s a first person narrative of a duke who is showing the ambassador around his palace and negotiating his marriage to the daughter of another powerful family. As they are walking through the palace, the duke stops and looks at the beautiful portrait of his lovely last duchess.
The characters of My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover each speak as if the woman he loves is still alive, which neither woman is. My Last Duchess is a man speaking to another, telling him of his late wife, whose picture hangs on the wall. He talks of her traits and how she blushes, though she no longer lives. This perhaps represents that he hasn’t completely come to terms with the fact that he is alone. Throughout the poem, he seems to almost blame her, though the reader does not know what for; perhaps for leaving him alone. The speaker of Porphyria’s Lover is much more direct than the man in the previous poem. He speaks directly to the reader, and tells of his girl. He first describes her in a way that makes her seem like she doesn’t care about him. She comes in from a stormy nights an...
A dramatic monologue is defined as a poem in which a single character is speaking to a person or persons- usually about an important topic. The purpose of most dramatic monologues is to provide the reader with an overall or intimate view of the character’s personality. A great poet can use punctuation and rhythm to make the poem appear as if it were an actual conversation. Robert Browning, known as the father of the dramatic monologue, does this in his poem, “My Last Duchess.'; The Duke of Ferrara, the speaker in “My Last Duchess,'; is portrayed as a jealous, arrogant man who is very controlling over his wife.
Different Forms of Power Presented in My Last Duchess, A Woman to Her Lover and La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Browning’s works were the primary model for the basic form of the standard Victorian dramatic monologue which was based around a speaker, listener, and a reader. Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” became a model for the dramatic monologue form primarily because of the strict approach he took while developing the poem. One of the aspects characteristic of this work is the authors level of consciousness. Each element in “My Last Duchess” is thoughtfully constructed with form and structure in mind. This poem is filled with dramatic principle that satisfied the Victorian period’s demand for an action and drama that were not overtly apparent in the work. In the case of “My Last Duchess” the drama of the poem is how his character, the Duke, is introduced. In dramatic monologues the character’s self is revealed through thoug...
Both of these poems can be used read from different points of view and they could also be used to show how society treated women in the Nineteenth Century: as assets, possessions. Both of these poems are what are known as a dramatic monologue as well as being written in the first person. The whole poem is only one stanza long, and each line in the stanza comprises of eight syllables. ‘My Last Duchess’ is about a member of the nobility talking to an ambassador concerning his last wife, who later on in the poem is revealed to have been murdered by the person speaking, who is about to marry his second wife. ‘Porphyria's Lover’ gives an insight into the mind of an exceptionally possessive lover, who kills his lover in order to capture that perfect moment of compassion. ‘Porphyria's Lover’ uses an alternating rhyme scheme during most of the poem except at the end. The whole poem is only one stanza long, and each line in the stanza comprises of eight syllables.
In "My Last Duchess", by Robert Browning, the character of Duke is portrayed as having controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits. These traits are not all mentioned verbally, but mainly through his actions. In the beginning of the poem the painting of the Dukes wife is introduced to us: "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,/ looking as of she were still alive" (1-2). These lines leave us with the suspicion that the Duchess is no longer alive, but at this point were are not totally sure. In this essay I will discuss the Dukes controlling, jealous and arrogant traits he possesses through out the poem.
172). The Duke is not a modest man, but him making this seemingly humble statement in the midst of all his power stricken remarks establishes situational irony. Dramatic monologue can make an unforseen ironic statement have an ominous surrounding that totally encompasses the reader's attention. An individual may initially become very disturbed if an unannounced late night visitor knocked on their door, just as the Duke's unanticipated remark brought a weary feeling to the reader.