My Last Duchess Flashcards
Themes (4)
- Power of humans - London: tyrannical control over others, Remains: Power of the first-person narrator / monologue and reaction to death
- Power of nature - The Prelude: Power of nature over humans
- Identity
- Pride
About
The Duke shows off a painting of his dead wife, implies that he murdered her and may do this with his new wife. He tells of his disapproval of her gratitude to others and had her killed to stop this.
Big ideas (5)
- Social structure and class
- Art and materialism
- Jealousy and pride
- Control and corruption of power
- Message of narrator is different to message of writer: There is contrast between the writer who reveals the Duke’s narcissistic nature and the duke who reveals how awful the Duchess was even though we can see it was the other way around
“she had a heart too soon made glad // too easily impressed”
Power of humans – control over others
Shows disapproval of her ways as she is a kind person and not a snob as he is, did not belong to his stereotype, doesn’t fit in, not picky
Everything made her happy, she was grateful, appreciative, positive – everything that is normally good but he wasn’t satisfied, reveals more about his own character than hers
Repetition of “too” reinforces how she didn’t meet his standards personality wise
He is expanding on her faults, she didn’t discriminate against when she could be pleased
“she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-year-old name with anybody’s gift”
Power of humans – control over others
With a name comes heritage, wealth, legacy of the family, respect, title = power, status = honour but she appreciated it the same as just a sunset or bowl of cherries with a blush, smile and a thanks
She is naïve and doesn’t understand the value of this
“My gift” = she should be eternally grateful that HE chose to marry her, one way, self-absorbed
Believes he should be held higher than anyone else to her
“I choose never to stoop”
Tyrannical rule, narcissism, power of humans
It is a choice to tell her how he feels and, in his mind, reveals weakness but he is inflexible and refuses to
He would rather kill her than tell her she is upsetting him
He will not go down to her level to tell her of this disapproval as it reveals that he has a lack of control over his wife who should be his object to have utter influence over (society’s ideal at this time)
Arrogant, high social class
“I gave commands, then all smiles stopped altogether”
Power of humans – controlling, unjust rule, cruel
“I gave commands” – imperative sentence shows he used his power in a corrupt way to arrange her murder
He is callous and shows no remorse
Abrupt end to the sentence after “together” shows the sudden, unnatural ending to her life and how quickly someone with the Duke’s power can have changes occur and can end lives to suit them and their reputation
Threatening tone, no remorse, as if he would do it again if required
“Notice Neptune … Taming a sea-horse”
Power of nature – Gods, seas
Identity – materialistic nature
Neptune was the Roman God of the sea who was more powerful than the sea-horse
Duke = God, Neptune – powerful, sees himself as Godly, rules over everything – narcissistic
Duchess = sea-horse – no power, under the Duke’s control, no decisions, insignificant
“Taming” = taking control, act of killing her
“Taming” suggests she was out of control, dangerous, feisty but in reality she was a very positive, king and humble person however he wishes to see her as a threat to his authority, a flirt and a bad person
Structure (7)
- Dramatic monologue – Duke dominated the conversation whilst the messenger doesn’t speak once
- Iambic pentameter – mimics conversation tone as if it is just a casual chat
- Rhyming couplets: “painted on the wall… I call…” shows the Duke’s desire for complete control and organisation of his life, his despotic (tyrannical) nature and how articulate and proper he is in speech
- Use of first person gives the reader clear insight into the controlling and narcissistic nature of the Duke
- Dramatic irony: “dies along her throat” – hints at the murder of the Duchess, “dies” gives sinister undertone to the quotation
- 1 stanza shows the flow of the monologue without pauses, self-centred as the messenger cannot speak as he never stops talking
- Use of dashes from line 29-42 show a loss of composure as he remembers how he was treated
Context (5)
- Browning was a poet in the 19th Century
- He was the son of a wealthy bank clerk but didn’t fit in much in London society so went to Italy to marry poet Elizabeth Barrett from her over-protective father and as a result they were both used to controlling patriarchs in their families
- The poem is loosely about the Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara who was thought to have murdered his wife
- At the time many rich people paid artists to create paintings and sculptures
- The beauty of art was paid for by people who could have paid for their enemies to be assassinated which provides an interesting co-existence of stunning art with moral and political corruption
