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My last duchess Robert browning analysis
My last duchess Robert browning analysis
My last duchess Robert browning analysis
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Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a dramatic monologue about the Duke of Ferrara. In this poem, the duke shows off his painting of his late wife and recalls their past times together to a guest in his home. The duke’s comments about his late wife depict him as a jealous and controlling man.
Throughout the poem there are numerous examples that portray the duke’s jealous nature. An example seen is when the duke is talking about his late wife, “Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er / She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” The duke noticed his wife taking interest in other men and he wants to be the only man she shows any interest to. Another example is when the duke speaks of her smile, “Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, / Whene’er
I passed her; but who passed without / Much the same smile?” The duke does not feel as special to her especially when she gives every other person the same kind look she gives her significant other. He wants to be the only one the duchess shows affection to. Furthermore, there are also many more examples that reveal the duke’s controlling character. The first example seen is at the beginning of the poem, “since none puts by / the curtain I have drawn for you, but I.” The duke is controlling in that he and only he has the power to put the portrait of his last duchess on display. Another example seen is towards the end of the poem, “I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together.” As stated before, the duke does not like how his duchess smiled and was kind to everyone so to put a stop to it some speculate that he may have had her killed. Additionally, examples can be seen throughout the poem that expose the duke’s arrogance. The most noticeable example is when the duke speaks of how his duchess would thank other men for their gifts, “as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift.” The duke makes it seem as though by marrying her, he gave her the best gift any man could give a woman, their last name and it could not possibly compare to the flowers other gift her. Another example is seen later when the duke is discussing
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).
Have you ever fallen in love? Have you ever developed strong feelings for another? If problems arose between the two of you, were you able to overcome them? Well certain men in Robert Browning’s works couldn’t seem to. . . “overcome” these differences with their women. Browning grew up learning from his father’s huge library. His wife was much more successful at writing than him. Eight years after her death, his career turned around for the last 20 years of his life. During this time, he wrote many short dramatic monologues such as My Last Duchess and Prophyria’s Lover. These two very intriguing and disturbing Monologues, My Last Duchess and Prophyria’s Lover, by Robert Browning, involve two very messed up men whose actions are both alike in their idea of immortalizing their woman, but different in why they chose to commit the act between the two stories, and a conclusion may be drawn from this observation.
The purpose of this essay is to analyze and compare and contrast the two paired poems “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and “My Ex-Husband” by Gabriel Spera to find the similarities presented within the pairs. Despite the monumental time difference between “My Last Duchess” and “My Ex-Husband”, throughout both poems you will see that somebody is wronged by someone they thought was a respectable person and this all comes about by viewing a painting on the wall or picture on a shelf.
Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a haunting poem that tells the story of a seemingly perfect wife who dies, and then is immortalized in a picture by her kind and loving husband. This seems to be the perfect family that a tragic accident has destroyed. Upon further investigation and dissection of the poem, we discover the imperfections and this perfect “dream family” is shown for what it really was, a relationship without trust.
held, and he is clearly very controlling in his relationships. Browning's use of the first person narrative in "My Last Duchess" allows the reader to gain insight into the Duke's character and personality. The use of the servant as a listener also allows the reader to see how the Duke interacts with others and how he wants to be perceived. Overall, Browning's use of the first person narrative in his dramatic monologues is a powerful tool in revealing the thoughts and feelings of his characters.
It goes on to speak about sympathy in general and how Browning “delighted in making a case for the apparently immoral position”, how he found dramatic monologues the best form to do so, and how he went about it. It keeps going for a couple more pages on things which I will not go into because they have little relevance to any interpretation of “My Last Duchess”.
The theme of “My Last Duchess” is power, it is based on the Duke’s political and social power applied by the speaker. In this
The Themes of Love and Loss in My Last Duchess, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, When we Two Parted, and Villegiature
Anne Bradstreet’s creative ability was hindered due to her gender’s value in society. Molly Farrell investigates the political obstacles that Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley had to overcome in order to become successful writers. “Bradstreet here becomes a cunning navigator of intense external pressures as well as a disarming poetic performer who creates room for future women writer to navigate publication” [395]. She struggled to have her writing properly published and respected so she would attempt to make it politically accepted my men. Fortunately, according to Jane Donahue, others “finding sources of strength in their femaleness and inspired by achievements of other women, have asserted themselves confidently” [300]. Anne Bradstreet
In conclusion, Mr. Robert Browning depicts in ‘My Last Duchess” that the Duke is not an ideal husband by referencing how controlling he is over women and other people in his vicinity. Mr. Browning also references the Duke’s jealous and petty actions that make him seem desperate for a way to seek attention. That is why the Duke disposes of her since she was not giving him the proper care he wanted he decided that she was not worthy. The Duke is also not an ideal husband based on his views of how disposal women are to him. His jealousy and insecurity lead him to be an unhappy self-centered
The third character trait of the duke is his controlling behavior. In lines nine and ten he told the emissary that no one “puts by the curtain'; that he had drawn for him but the duke himself. He felt the need to control who ever looked at the painting of the duchess. The main evidence of his dominating behavior is in line 46. The line reads, “…then all smiles stopped together.'; The line is ambiguous, but the most likely interpretation is that the duke had his wife killed. The poem can be interpreted in several different ways, but in all cases the duke is a very controlling man.
My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is a dramatic monologue about a duke who is showing the portrait of his first wife, the duchess, to a servant of his future father-in-law, the Count. In a dramatic monologue, the speaker addresses a distinct but silent audience. Through his speech, the speaker unintentionally reveals his own personality. As such, in reading this poem, the reader finds the duke to be self-centered, arrogant, controlling, chauvinistic and a very jealous man. The more he attempted to conceal these traits, however, the more they became evident. There is situational irony (a discrepancy between what the character believes and what the reader knows to be true) in this because the duke does not realize this is what is happening. Instead, he thinks he appears as a powerful and noble aristocrat.
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...
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.
Throughout "My Last Duchess," Browning uses diction to further increase the haunting effect of his dramatic monologue. His precise and scattered word choice is meant to make the reader recognize the underlying haughtiness in his speech to the Count's emissary. The Duke refers to his former wife's portraits "depth" and "passion" in order to place a cloudiness over the realism of the painting. This, along with the "faint" and "half-flush" appearance that "dies along her throat," brings about an overcast appearance to the poem. The Duke's "trifling" lack of "countenance" is evident in his jealousy of