my last duchess Flashcards
thats my ____ _______ _______ on the wall
thats my last dutchess painted on the wall
will’t you ______ sit and ____ __ ___
will’t you please sit and look at her
since ____ puts by / the ________ i have drawn for ___, but i
since none puts by / the curtain i have drawn for you, but i
this ____, i gave ____________, / then ___ ______ stopped together
This grew, i gave commands,/ then all smiles stopped together
as if ___ ______ / my ____ of a ____-hundred-_____-old name / with anybodys ____
as if she ranked / my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / with anybodys gift
notice _______, though, ______ a sea- _____
notice neptune though, taming a sea horse
what century is my last dutchess set
16th
who wrote my last duchess
robert browning
what is robert browning trying to show
shows how unfairly women were treated in the 16th century and how everything his wife did seemed to be a problem
my last duchess can relate to?
power of humanity
memory
identity
what poems can my last duchess be compared to
london
poppies
“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,/looking as if she were alive”
-“last” = indicates that there will be more to come
-“my” = shows his possessive nature
-“as if she were alive” = appearance v reality bc painted so well
“Will’t you please sit and look at her?”
-Sounds like a request, is actually a command
“Since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I”
-Treat like an item, not a person, same as how he treated her when she was alive
-“puts by the curtain” = metaphor for his control
“She had a heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad”
-Duke thought she was too free spirited
-Appearance v reality = was she really that flirty?
“Her looks went everywhere”
-Says in a negative way bc wants to dominate everything
-Not traditional Victorian woman and that displeased the Duke
-Expects Duchess to be ‘obedient’
-jealousy
“As if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift”
-Wants her to show more gratitude
-Thinks the name is enough for her bc so powerful but not, shows the loveless nature of the marriage
-Duchess does anything to feel appreciated
“Who’d stoop to blame this sort of trifling?”
-Rhetorical question
-“stoop” = lower, Duke would never lower himself to insult her, but does
“and I choose never to stoop”
-Duke believes that class is important
-Shows his arrogance
“I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together”
-Euphemism for murder
-Caesura after “together” = replicates how Duke ended a life
-Shows the extent to how controlling the Duke is
“Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea horse”
-Back to boasting, shows is his priority
-“taming” = seahorse is under Neptune’s domain but still controls it, just like the Duke and the Duchess in death.
-Duke sees himself as a God
the poem
-About a woman succumbing to a man’s power
-Thought that the Duchess had overall control bc is always on Duke’s mind even when dead
context
-Dramatic monologue in iambic pentameter
-“Spoken” by Duke of Ferrara
-First wife died mysteriously
