My Last Duchess

Question 1

Poet

Answer 1

Robert Browning

Question 2

Key Quotes

Answer 2

“Looking as if she were alive” - dramatic irony (sounds innocent but has sinister tone)
“Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on and her looks went everywhere” - Duke thinks she flirted a lot (suspicious of her)
“How shall I say?” - struggles to express his irritation

Question 3

Form

Answer 3

Dramatic monologue
Iambic pentameter (conversation with visitor)
Rhyming couplets = desire for control
Enjambment = carried away with anger and passions

Question 4

Language

Answer 4

Passionate vocabulary and punctuation such as rhetorical questions and exclamations of “good!”

Question 5

Themes

Answer 5

Power of humans
Memory
Pride

Question 6

Context

Answer 6

Duke of Ferrara of Italy 1561

Wife Lucrezia died of suspicious circumstances (poisoned rumours)

Question 7

Structure

Answer 7

Framed by visit to gallery
Caught up in describing Lucrezia as opposed to just art
Builds to confession before identity of visitor revealed and moves on to next artwork (zoom in then out, shift of focus)