My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

Question 1

Theme

Answer 1

power, pride, control, jealousy, status

Question 2

Tones

Answer 2

Sinister, Bitter, Angry

Question 3

Content, Meaning and Purpose

Answer 3

• The Duke is showing a visitor around his large art collection and proudly points out a portrait of his last wife, who is now dead. He reveals that he was annoyed by her over-friendly and flirtatious behavior.
• He can finally control her by objectifying her and showing her portrait to visitors when he chooses.
• He is now alone as a result of his need for control.
• The visitor has come to arrange the Duke’s next marriage, and the Duke’s story is a subtle warning about how he expects his next wife to behave.

Question 4

Context

Answer 4

• Browning was a British poet, and lived in Italy. The poem was published in 1842.
• Browning may have been inspire by the story of an Italian Duke (Duke of Ferrara):his wife died in suspicious circumstances and it was rumoured that she had been poisoned

Question 5

Language

Answer 5

• ‘Looking as if she was alive’: sets a sinister tone.
• ‘Will’t please you sit and look at her?’ rhetorical question to his visitor shows obsession with power.
• ‘she liked whate’er/ She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.’: hints that his wife was a flirt.
• ‘as if she ranked/ My gift of a nine-hundred-year-old name/ with anybody’s gift’: she was beneath him in status, and yet dared to rebel against his authority.
• ‘I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together’: euphemism for his wife’s murder
• ‘Notice Neptune, though/ Taming a sea-horse’: he points out another painting, also about control

Question 6

Form and Structure

Answer 6

• Dramatic monologue, in iambic pentameter.
• It is a speech, pretending to be a conversation- he doesn’t allow the other person to speak!
• Enjambment: rambling tone, he’s getting carried away with his anger. He is a little unstable.
• Heavy use of caesura (commas and dashes): stuttering effect shows his frustration and anger:’She thanked men-good! but tanked/Somehow- i know not how’
• Dramatic irony: the reader can read between the lines and see the Duke’s comments have a much more sinister undertone.