Two Personalities in My Last Duchess

Two Personalities in My Last Duchess

The poem "My Last Duchess" is about a powerful Duke, and his

beautiful, flirtatious wife who has two different personalities, one

that was reality and the other was the lady in the painting. The poem begins

and ends with him mourning the loss of his deceased Duchess, but from the

way that the mighty Duke speaks, he knows more about her death than he leads

us to believe. The Duke chooses his word very carefully, when he talks to

his friend about the painting of his wife. He only drops small hints, to his

friend about the death of his Duchess. Which leads me to believe that the

Duke killed his wife, or had someone to put her to her death.

As the Duke speaks of his Duchess, in the beginning, he sounds extremely

compassionate and caring towards her. The Duke had an absolute love for his

Duchess as most husbands and wives do. He sounded so proud of her and the

beauty that she posed: almost like she was a trophy. Despite all of the

pride and excitement that he showed towards her, there was an element of

distrust that lingered inside of his mind.

The Duchess created the element of distrust that was bestowed into the

marriage. The Duke explained that his wife was extremely flirtatious and

easily impressed. The Duke said, "Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er

she looked on, and her looks went everywhere." This line is telling about

the Duchess, as she was when she was alive. The Duke believes that his

Duchess is a cheat, and that she doesn't try to hide it either. A husband

can tell when his wife is interested in another man, cause she once looked

upon him in that way she is looking upon her new male interest. The Duchess

probably didn't know that her husband was watching her, while she was taking

interest to her lovers. She may have thought that she and her male interest at the time were alone,

cause not any woman, in that era would have been seen with another man

besides their husbands.

Given the fact that this poem dates back to the Duke and Duchess era, so

they lived in an old fashioned world. The Duke believes his wife is not

being faithful to him.