Fliss' prep
FE
Felicity Easton
Sun 18/06/2017 14:37
To:
Nick Johnston-Jones;
How does Browning suggest the Character of the Duke in ‘My Last Duchess’ ? How the duke is presented in the poem can be seen through the form and the structure throughout it. Firstly,the way in which the poem is one, 56 line long, stanza suggests to us that the duke is controlling the conversation as there’s only a few end stopped lines and uses enjambment instead, meaning he doesn’t stop talking and doesn’t finish to hear the opposing person speak but he also maintains a clever way of presenting the speech as he involves intelligent and complicated sentences. Although it’s a poem with an iambic pentameter and a dramatic monologue, it still flows very nicely as it has rhyming couplets throughout the poem.
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Despite the Duke thinking very highly of himself, he comes across narcissistic and unlikable to the reader. As well as arrogant he’s especially boastful towards his wealth, ‘That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s’ emphasising towards the piece of art which is obviously important to him as it’s most likely expensive as this is how the wealthy display their fortune in this time period. The deliberation of repeating ‘Fra Pandolf’s’ as well as reducing the painter to the part of his body that does the work, ’Fra Pandolf’s hands worked busily a day’ he dehumanises Fra Pandolf, turning him into a tool instead of a person, this shows the character of the Duke early on in the poem. The duke treating other people as objects continues as near the end of the poem he warns the messenger that his future wife should be ‘At starting, is my object.’ This again shows how he treats people with little
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.
Browning, Robert. “My Last Duchess”. 1842. Literature. Reading Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 6th Ed. Avenue of the Americas, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 781, 782.
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
In My Last Duchess, Robert Browning uses voice to create a sinister tone by the use of words he chooses for the Duke of Ferrara to use in his dramatic monologue. The Duke is an arrogant, selfish man who loves the arts. He introduces his deceased wife, as “That’s my last Duchess, painted on the wall,” he says as if he owned her. The Duke was not happy when she participated in things that that he did not provide her with, she didn’t bow down to his aristocratic ways and this displeased him to a great extent. Then nonchalantly, he tells the ambassador that “I gave commands, Then all smiles stopped together.’ This is the dukes sinister way of confessing he had her murdered.
Robert Browning’s poems ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were both written in the form of a dramatic monologue. Both poems show a similarity because they are both narrated from the male lover’s point of view. As a result, the reader becomes more closely involved in the poems and can feel very strong emotions for the individuals portrayed than if the poem was written from the eyes of an ‘outsider’. This form of writing enables Browning to use irony, in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the literal meanings of the words. For example, in ‘My Last Duchess’ the Duke orders the death of his wife, though hides the true meaning in his words:
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 Sinister Duke in Robert Browning's My Last Duchess. In Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," a portrait of the egocentric and power-loving Duke of Ferrara is painted for us. Although the duke's monologue appears on the surface to be about his late wife, a close reading will show that the mention of his last duchess is merely a side note in his self-important speech. Browning uses the dramatic monologue form very skillfully to show us the controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits the duke possessed without ever mentioning them explicitly.
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
Another aspect of the duke’s character addressed in the poem is his condescending attitude. Two times in the poem the duke needlessly told the names of the artists who created the masterpieces that he owned (lines 3 & 56). He felt superiority over the emissary he was speaking to by dropping these names. The duke addressed the emissary as a “never read stranger'; (line 6). Not only was it patronizing for the duke to call him a stranger, but he called him unintelligent too.
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.
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.
Robert Browning’s speakers seem to love confessing, either through what the speaker suggests or how the speaker speaks. Death and Evil seem to be the draped in a mask of high social standing and beauty of his speakers. The themes of his poems usually portray multiple perspectives into the speaker’s dramatic monologues and the reader’s learn the many psychological levels the speaker exhibits. This is all prevalent in Robert Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess.”
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.