My Last Duchess Flashcards
Form
- Dramatic monologue
- It is the Duke of Ferrara’s monologue, listened to by the auditor being an emmisiary of the Count of Austria who is the father of a women he wishes to marry
- He slowly reveals unpleasant aspects about his character and his actions, with their being an increasing gap between the moral standards of us and the Duke
The Duke of Ferrara was called Alfonso II d’Este
Main themes
- Love
- Death
- Authority and control
- Jealousy
- Gender roles
Stanzaic structure
- One long stanza
- Represents the Duke’s love for his own voice, showing his high self perceived value and how he does not want to give anyone else the chance to speak
- It also shows how it is him controlling the narrative and what is said
Metre
- Iambic pentameter
- Shows his propensity for control, but also creates a conversational tone to represent his manipulative tone
- There are slight deviations in the form of trochaic words and lines to further show the Dukes manipulative style and how he does not want his desire for control and dominance to seem too obvious
Rhyme scheme
- The entire poem is written is rhyming couplets, with no irregularities
- However, the prevalence of enjambment makes the rhymes subtle, showing the Duke’s desire for dominance and control while ensuring it is not overt
Enjambment
- It creates a conversational tone and demphasises the rhyme scheme and metre, showing how he wishes to exert total control but not overtly
- It also shows how he likes to hear himself speak and does not want to give anybody else a chance to interject
Rhetorical questions to the auditor
- The auditor (the emmisiary) never responds, nor is he given the chance to
- This shows the authority Alfonso is trying to exert
‘That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall’
- The possessive pronoun ‘my’ shows his possesive character
- ‘Last’ is ambiguous, and foreshadows what might have happened to her, as well as objectifying her by making her seem like a collectible
- ‘That’s’, and the fact that he is referring to her through art is also highly objectifying, showing his predilection for ownership and being authoratatively possessive
‘Looking as if she were alive’
- Ambiguous statement
- Foreshadows how she might be dead
‘I call/That peice, a wonder, now’
- ‘That peice’ includes a pronoun which further objectifies the Duchess
- The lexical choice of the word ‘now’ shows how he valued her less when she was alive than now due to her negative traits, showing that her beauty is the only thing of worth to him
- He also likes that he is able to control a painting and it will stay loyal to only him, further showing his propensity for control
‘Fra Pandolf’s hands’ and ‘Fra Pandolf’
- Repetition
- He is attempting to bring value to the painting because it is his possesion, so he believes this will bring him authority
- This is further objectifying of the Duchess, and shows his self-importance and desire for control
‘and there she stands’
- Metaphor for the painting’s visibility
- Shows that he values the art far more than the person it depicts as it is easier to control and showcases beauty in the same way as a person
‘But to myself they turned’
- Personal pronoun
- Shows his superciliousness as he believes he is a virtuoso of art superior to all others
‘(since none puts by/The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)’
- Parantheses
- Add information to show his possessiveness and desire to have authority and control
- The possession he currently has over the painting is mimetic of the possession he desired to have over his late wife
‘if they durst’
Shows his possessiveness as he believes that only he is allowed to look at and explain the artwork and why the Duchess may have had that facial expression
‘called that spot/Of joy’
- A ‘spot’ is symbolic of a blemish or a stain
- It shows his resentment for her feeling any joy caused by other people, showing his desire for exlusive ownership and control over her
‘such stuff/Was courtesy, she thought’
- Sibiliance
- Shows Alfonso’s resentment of how the Duchess appreciated the compliments
- It makes Alfonso seem ridiculous as to the reader there is nothing wrong with what she did, showing his delusional, meticulous and unrelenting desire for control
‘She had/A heart…too soon made glad’
- Metaphor
- Shows the Duke’s disdain for how easily she is pleased, further highlighting the absurdity in his incessant desire to have exclusive ownership and control over the Duchess
‘she liked whate’er/She looked on’
- Polyptoton
- Highlights how he believes he is the only thing she should be looking at
‘My favour at her breast, The dropping of the daylight in the West, The bough of cherries some officious fool/Broke in the orchard for her, the while mule She rode with round the terrace’
- Asyndetic list of things which would please her
- Shows how the Duke believes the list to be endless and far too long since he believes only he should make her happy
- The fact that these are all normal things to enjoy makes the Duke seem further irrational in his desire to have exclusive attention and ownership of her
‘the white mule’
- Metaphor for less prestigious people
- Juxtaposes his perceived purity in her beauty, showing he is disdainful of her being made happy by less prestigious people (or just anyone that is not him)
‘-I know not how-‘
- Paranthetical clause
- Shows how he cannot fathom how or why the Duchess would value him equally or less compared with other men, highlighting his superciliousness
‘as if she ranked/My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody’s gift’
- Repetition of a metaphorical gift
- Shows his pretentiousness and perceived self value, illustrating how he cannot understanding how she would value anything equally or more than his importance
‘Who’d stoop to blame/This sort of trifling’
- Lexical choice of ‘stoop’ and ‘trifling’
- Shows how he views himself as too important to actually intervene and how he cannot understand why the Duchess would not just give him exclusive attention purely on the basis of his rank and authority
’-(which I have not)-‘
- Parenthetical clause
- Ironic, as the manipulative tone of the poem proves he does
- This shows how he is trying to control and manipulate the emmisary (even though he is unwittingly revealing certain things) so he can get paid a larger dowry
‘Just this/Or that in you disgusts me’
- ‘Disgusts’ is a severe word
- Shows how strongly he resents her behaviour
‘if she let herself be lessoned so’
‘Lessoned’ creates the impression that he treats her like a child, highlighting his propsensity for exclusive ownership and exertion of control
‘E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose Never to stoop’
- Polyptoton of ‘stoop’
- Shows how much dignity he believes he has based off of his importance, and how even to bother to directly tell somebody to change would challenge this dignity
‘but who passed without Much the same smile?’
- Rhetorical question and sibiliance
- Shows his disdain for her being indiscriminately pleased
‘This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together’
- Volta
- The turning point comes as he ambiguously reveals that he ordered her death, showing he has reached the apotheosis of his jealously and disdain for her being pleased by others
- The fact that he killed her shows not only how acute his feelings were, but also how he sees himself as important enough to take such extreme measures when there is something he dislikes
The curt clauses also makes it seem sinister
‘There she stands/As if alive’
- Repetition of line from the start of the poem
- Confirms the foreshadowing, now reminding us that she is no longer living and hinting that he may have had a role to play
‘Will’t please you rise?’
- Rhetorical question and juxtaposition to his admitting to the murder of the Duchess
- The common courtesy following his revelation of his murder of the Duchess shows how lightly he views the act, stemming from his self importance and how he believes he had the right to do it
‘The Count your master’s known munificence/Is ample warrant that no just pretence/Of mine for dowry will be disallowed’
- He is perfidiously trying to achieve the highest dowry possible by saying he recognises the Counts magnanimity
- The fact that he is blithely talking about finances shows that he is passing off his murder of the Duchess as insignificant and moving on quickly, highlighting his self importance
‘Though his fair daughter’s self…is my object’
- ‘Object’ is polysemus
- It shows not only how his main objective is to achieve yet another wife (continuing the trend of them being collectibles), but also his objectifying lens when it comes to how he views women
His manipulative tone is also showcased because he just revealed one of his main objects was the dowry, but now he is trying to cover it up
‘Notice Neptune’
- Alliteration
- He has now gotten distracted from what they were talking about because he has found another opportunity to showcase his importance, highlighting his superciliousness
- Neptune, being a powerful figure, is mimetic of how he sees himself
‘Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me’
- He is trying to add value to it by bringing in the proper noun of a famous (fictitous) sculptor to boost his own prestige
- The personal pronoun shows how he sees even Neptune as his possesion, being the last thing of many which highlights his propensity for control
