My Last Duchess

Question 1

Poems to compare it to

Answer 1

• OZYMANDIAS
• Exract from Prelude
• Kamikaze
• Tissue

Question 2

Context

Answer 2

• Victorian (published in 1842)
• based on a true story during the 1500 Italian Renaissance (Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara whose wife died under suspicious circumstances)
• marriage market - dowry, men would pay to marry - still in the Victorian Era
• legally owned

Question 3

Main theme

Answer 3

Power of man over woman

Question 4

Dramatic Monologue Form

Answer 4

• Duke’s perspective exclusively, silence all other voices
• present Duke as powerful and hubristic, because he dominates
• shows a Totalitarian need to control - reinforces his power through the absence of dissent
• no female voice - represents how women are still disenfranchised in the Victorian period
• Browning is criticising gender inequality

Question 5

One long stanza

Answer 5

• suggests the Duke is out of control and cannot express himself correctly, underlying inability to truly possess power, as he couldn’t possess the Duchess

Question 6

Rhyming couplets and caesura

Answer 6

‘She had/a heart - … - too soon made glad’
• mirrors Duke’s meticulous nature and his need for order
• contrasted by frequent use of caesura, ‘spot of joy.’
• creates tension between formal control of the iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets, and the erratic, disjointed nature of speech (shown by caesura)
• reflects underlying instability and precarious grip on power, as he attempts to mask his emotional volatility under a facade of sophistication

Question 7

Semantic field of innocence

Answer 7

• Duchess is presented with a semantic field of innocence, ‘spot of joy’ ‘smile’ ‘courtesy’
• appreciative and not materialistic - suggests that flaw lies in the Duke

Question 8

Fear of the Duke

Answer 8

‘I choose never to stoop’ - inability to confront fears, afraid

Question 9

Enjambent

Answer 9

• frequent enjambent, eg ‘called that spot/Of joy’
• reflects Duke’s inability to contain his anger as well as the Duchess’ free - spirited nature
• Duke represents patriarchal and hierarchal systems of Renaissance Italy by showing his disdain with the Duchess’ perceived failures
• also implies the Duke is uncontrolled and wild - can’t control himself although he attempts to control others

Question 10

Possessive Pronouns

Answer 10

• possessive pronoun of ‘my’ - immediately establishes he believed her to be an object belonging to him, thrusts his materialism even upon women
• conveys sense of ownership
• more possessive pronouns in the start - less in the second half, shows he is losing control over what he is talking about as well as the Duchess, belittles and reduces the credibility of his claims about the Duchess

Question 11

‘Last’

Answer 11

• ‘last’ hints at a chilling pattern of control, suggests she is merely one of a series of women subjected to his dominance
• adjective implying there could be more than one - therefore it emphasises the overall objectification of women

Question 12

‘painted’

Answer 12

• links to ideas of art - implies woman are art (something to be curated and admired for the pleasure of man)

Question 13

‘that piece a wonder’

Answer 13

• ‘piece’ - connotations with butchery and meat, only a fragment of her (appearance) was valued by the Duke
• patriarchal views