Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
My last duchess Robert browning analysis
Analysis of Robert Browning 'My Last Duchess' Essays
Analysis of Robert Browning 'My Last Duchess' Essays
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: My last duchess Robert browning analysis
Power and Control in My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Power is the ability of an individual or group to influence the behavior of others through manipulation, coercion, persuasion, or domination. It is the possession of authority over others and the degree of influence that an individual or individuals have amongst their peers and within society as a whole. Therefore, the possession of power allows for the imposition of one’s will in a given situation. Power is used by a person or group to limit or regulate the courses of action which are open to other individuals with or without their consent. It can be obtained through wealth, status, prestige, numbers, or organizational efficiency. The exercitation of power can be blunt or subtle, legal or illegal, justly or unjustly. However, the basis of one’s power is the capability of compelling obedience through the threat or use of force.
In Robert Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess”, power is used to demonstrate the arrogant, jealous, and controlling nature of the speaker, the Duke. The first two lines of the poem introduce the reader to the topic of the Duke’s speech, a painting of his late wife. The lines, “that’s my last Duchess painted on the wall/Looking as if she were still alive” (Browning 1-2), appear to be about his late wife on the surface but mention of the Duchess is secondary to the self-importance expressed by the Duke in his speech. Furthermore, the lines reveal that the Duchess was relatively insignificant to him. By stating that the painting of the late Duchess “looks as if she were still alive” (Browning 2), instead of noting that the painting is lifelike, the Duke appears to have only valued the Duchess for her physical experience.
The history of the painting re...
... middle of paper ...
...ess’s portrait. Jealousy, arrogance, and a controlling nature accompany the Duke’s assertion of power over others. His power makes him feel that others, even his late wife, are below him and subject to his whim. He reacts with jealousy that his wife, who should be grateful for marrying into his family and obtaining the power of his lineage, showed affection to others. Moreover, the Duke felt he could not control his wife’s behavior. He viewed his lack of control over his wife as a threat to his power. As a result, he had her killed since his arrogance would not allow him to lower himself and speak to her. In the end, he compelled his wife’s obedience by having her killed, maintaining power over her through her painting.
Works Cited
Browning, Robert. “My Last Duchess.” Poetry X. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 16 Jun 2003. 08 Feb. 2014 .
In the novel, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, we watch as Taylor grows a great deal. This young woman takes on a huge commitment of caring for a child that doesn't even belong to her. The friends that she acquired along the way help teach her about love and responsibility, and those friends become family to her and Turtle. Having no experience in motherhood, she muddles through the best she can, as all mothers do.
In a time where horses slowly disappeared from streets, being replaced by automobiles, and on the impoverished Brooklyn tenement buildings, there resides the Nolan family. Surviving by just a few dollars a week, Katie Rommely Nolan, with an alcoholic husband, struggles to provide for her family. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, Katie’s beautiful hands are damaged by the products she uses to clean building, for just some cents a day. Katie’s life purpose is to obtain land and provide a successful life for her children, Francie and Neeley Nolan. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Katie Nolan struggles to achieve her American Dream of providing her children with a fulfilling and successful life, that is superior to hers, through the means of education.
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).
Robert Browning was poet during the Victorian Age, his wrote about love and established this through his characters. His works explore the nature of love, as shown in “Porphria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess.” Throughout both poems, Robert Browning uses multiple literary devices to help establish the theme of the nature of love.
Power. It is defined as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. Throughout time, certain individuals have acquired power in their society as a way to govern and keep order among their community. Power is not a new concept; it was used in the past by many emperors, kings, and queens, and is still being used by presidents, prime ministers, and dictators. Although, it has been used to further progress societies into what the world is like today, not all power has been used for the best of mankind. But what goes awry to make power turn corrupt? In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, it is illustrated how power can turn corrupt, when authoritative figures, who possess power, abuse it for their personal gain, rather than for the common good of the society.
Power has been defined as the psychological relations over another to get them to do what you want them to do. We are exposed to forms of power from the time of birth. Our parents exercise power over us to behave in a way they deem appropriate. In school, teachers use their power to help us learn. When we enter the work world the power of our boss motivates us to perform and desire to move up the corporate ladder so that we too can intimidate someone with power one day. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Kurtz had a power over the jungle and its people that was inexplicable.
In the poem “The Widow at Windsor” Rudyard Kipling uses the voice of one of the men to explain what it means to be one of Queen Victoria’s soldiers. The soldier explains how powerful the Queen is and how she uses her power over others to gain what she wants. He also talks about the soldiers that do her bidding. Any idealistic notions the soldiers may have had at the thought of being soldiers is countered by the reality of their day-to-day lives. Kipling’s own life experiences lends credence to the doublespeak that this poem brings to light. “The Widow at Windsor” uses a rapidly paced cadence to draw the reader into a conflicted world where soldiering for a powerful woman is a source of pride and disrespect and furthermore, the readers sees this duality of mind as demonstrable in any time period, regardless of the date.
“Nicole didn’t realize how much her family meant to her -- until she lost them.” Marilyn Sachs (title page). As Nicole ventures in the book, she finds out how important her family the moment she lost them.Her family tries to escape the Germans, but sadly they can't. Nicole has to find a place to hide, as the Nazis are still looking for her . The book is in form of a flashback. It starts in 1944 and ends in 1943. Nicole has to look for shelter in a school. The book A Pocket Full of Seeds by Marilyn Sachs is a fiction book. As Nicole goes through changes, the theme is developed in the story.
On the other hand, on “My Last Duchess”, the speaker is a Duke who is going to be remarried. As the speaker shows his new wife’s father a painting of his previous wife he describes how she was like. Unlike the previous poem, this one clearly depicts the speaker as a monster. He had his wife murdered for what comes across as fairly innocent crimes. In the following lines he states;
In “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” both deal with the love of a woman. The theme for both is power and how the speaker in both want to be in control over the woman. The imagery in “My Last Duchess” is based off what the Duke’s feel and what he shares with the servant. The imagery in “Porphyria’s Lover” is based on Porphyria’s. The tone in “My Last Duchess” is arrogant and ignorant because the Duke think so much of himself and foolishly shares all his flaws. The tone in Porphyria’s Lover” is rational the speaker makes sense of the murder of a woman he loves so much. Both poems displayed dramatic
...the actions of his guest to how the Duchess acted. Since the Duchess was loose in her behavior, Duke Ferrara ultimately sought to control her through murder.
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.
Power is authority and strength, which is any form of motive force or energy, ability to act, or control. When too much power is given, a dictatorship government can form, in which all decisions are made by one authority. In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell the author portrays how “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).
Power is essential to maintaining order and instilling rules within society, relationships and almost all aspects of life. With the appropriate control of power, individuals are able to attain anything that they desire. Once power is obtained, maintaining power and control is also important. Often once power is obtained, individuals believe that they don’t need to focus on the upkeep of maintaining power, this is what often leads to one’s downfall. Although power often comes with success, there are also downfalls to having power. Power can be dangerous and can lead to greed. Power can ruin relationships and often causes conflict as individuals tend to struggle with the shift in power or the new imbalance of power. Power has the ability to demonstrate one’s true morality and ethics. The pursuit of power has its costs.
the Duchess's kindness toward others. Her benevolence "disgusts" the Duke, and causes him to "stoop" down to spouting off "commands" in her direction.