My Last Duchess Essay

The Duke’s Missing Piece Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” weaves the story of a powerful and arrogant Duke. There are three main characters within the story, but the Duke characterizes each and gives no opportunity for the others to speak. One reason, for the silence of the character for which this poem is named, is that the Duchess is dead, presumably at the hands of the Duke or by his men under his orders. The other character is a servant of an unnamed Count, the father of the next Duchess, the Count’s servant never has a chance to break into the Duke’s monologue. To analyze Browning’s work I will interpret it from a Psychoanalytic perspective. I will focus on the Duke and how he was able to kill his wife and feel that he had done no wrong. His actions stem from his inability to perceive morally right and wrong, that is to say, the Duke has an undeveloped superego, therefore, he acts on his needs only.

A person’s id is developed at birth and governs his or her base needs. For an example think of a baby; the baby will cry when hungry, lonely, or when it needs to be changed with no regard to why it should or should not cry in terms of morality. Next to develop is the ego. The ego develops once a person knows not to do something for fear of retribution. Think of a child who goes into a store and decides he likes an item, but will not take it home because he knows if his mother catches him he will be punished, that would be an example of a child with a developed ego. The final stage of development is the superego. The superego is when a person realizes that his or her actions have an effect on others and tempers his or her actions accordingly. Look at the child from the previous example. Had he not stolen the item because he knew it may hurt the owners of the store he would have a developed