My Last Duchess

Question 1

What does the title tell us?

Answer 1

My –> Possessive pronoun indicates she’s like a possession to him
Last - Ambiguous word –> Reader gets an insight on the Duke’s previous wife and the poet emphasises it’s sequential, like a collectable

Question 2

Looking as if she were alive.

Answer 2

Simile –> It’s ominous as we sense she may be dead

Caesure (.) –> Gives the reader a pause for thought

Question 3

That piece a wonder, now.

Answer 3

That piece –> Objectifies her
now –> Diction indicates Duke regarded her as less when she was living

Question 4

Will’t please you sit and look at her?

Answer 4

Rhetorical q. –> It’s a demand; he has power over who can see and admire her beauty

Question 5

(since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

Answer 5

Parenthesis –> reveals that the Duke’s controlling

Question 6

called that spot

Answer 6

Metaphor –> Reference to blush as if it’s a blemish (A flaw)

Question 7

courtesy…cause…calling

Answer 7

Alliteration –> Highlights his growing anger

Question 8

how shall I say?

Answer 8

Rhetorical q. –> Indicates he’s furious she didn’t reserve her emotions exclusively for him

Question 9

What do lines 20-31 tell us?

Answer 9

Irony –> There is a list of great qualities which encourages the reader to like the Duchess which exposes the Duke to be irrational

Question 10

dropping of daylight in the West, the bough of cherries some officious fool

Answer 10

Semantic field of nature –> Evokes she was innocent and simplistic

Question 11

She rode…She thanked

Answer 11

Repetition of 3rd person pronoun –> Accentuates how obsessed he is with her

Question 12

(which I have not)

Answer 12

Irony –> The iambic pentameter and dramatic monologue proves the opposite

Question 13

‘Just this Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, Or there exceed the mark’

Answer 13

Dialogue –> Reveals the Duke by showing antithesis of the Duchess

Question 14

if she let herself be lessoned

Answer 14

Sibilance –> Suggests she was insolent and didn’t listen - she was difficult to control

Question 15

I gave commands

Answer 15

Asyndeton –> Reveals he ordered her execution which reveals just how harsh the Duke actually is

Question 16

Then all smiles stopped together

Answer 16

Euphemism and sibilance –> It’s ominous and the poet portrays the very sinister side of the Duke

Question 17

Will’t please you rise?

Answer 17

Rhetorical q. –> It’s an order

Question 18

dowry will be disallowed

Answer 18

Alliteration –> It’s alarming, we learn he’s arranging payment for his next marriage who is most likely going to end up like his “last duchess”

Question 19

Taming a sea-horse

Answer 19

Draws parallels to his own behaviour –> The sculpture of Neptune taming a sea horse which reinforces the Duke’s wish for control & dominance over women

Question 20

Nay, we’ll go… (until the end)

Answer 20

Juxtaposition –> Highlights objectification of the Duchess

Question 21

Claus of Innsbruck

Answer 21

Fictional sculptor –> The duke shows off the exclusivity of his possessions

Question 22

cast in bronze for me!

Answer 22

Exclamatory sentence –> Shows how pompous he is because he has a great amount of ego and vanity

Question 23

How is the poem written? why?

Answer 23

Written in dramatic monologue within 1 stanza which highlights his narcissism

Question 24

Does this poem have a meter /rhyme scheme? Why?

Answer 24

The poem uses iambic pentameter in rhyming couplets which indicates the tight control

Question 25

What does the enjambment represent?

Answer 25

Enjambment depicts the conversational tone