My Last Duchess- Robert Browning Flashcards
describe what is happening in the poem
- Duke proudly points out portrait of Duchess to visitor
- Duke was angered by Duchess’s behaviour
- He acted to stop Duchess’s flirtatious behaviour, but doesn’t say how
- Duke and guest walk away from painting and reader discovers visitor come to arrange Duke’s next marriage
describe the form
- dramatic monologue written in iambic pentameter
- rhyming couplets show Duke’s desire for control
- enjambment suggests he gets carried away with his anger and passions
describe structure
- poem framed by visit to Duke’s gallery, but Duke gets caught up in talking about Duchess instead of describing the art
- poem builds towards a kind of confession, before identity of visitor revealed , and Duke moves on to talking about another artwork
describe the power and objection
Duke felt need to have power and control over Duchess. He saw her as another of his possessions, to be collected and admired, just like his expensive artworks
describe dramatic irony
things the Duke says about Duchess seem quite innocent, but they often have more sinister meanings for reader. gap between what Duke tells his listener, and what the pet allows us to read between the lines
describe the status
status is really important to the Duke, he cares about others see him
describe the feeling and attitude of pride
Duke very proud of his possessions and his status
describe the feeling and attitude of jealousy
he couldn’t stand way Duchess treated him same as everyone else
describe the feeling and attitude of power
Duke enjoys control he has over painting. He didn’t have this power over duchess when she was alive
context
in 1561, the Duke of Ferrara’s wife, died in suspicious circumstances- there were rumours she was poisoned. Hearing about this event probably inspired Browning to write this poem
“my last Duchess painted on the wall”
sounds as if he owns the Duchess, not just the picture of her
“looking as if she were alive”
sets a sinister tone
“will’t please you sit and look at her”
sounds polite, but he’s really being quite forceful
“none puts by the curtain i have drawn for you, but i)”
he controls who looks at the painting, but he couldn’t control who looked at his wife when she was alive
“not the first are you to turn and ask thus”
creates impression of a question from visitor, but we hear it through the Duke- he’s in complete control
“that spot of joy” “that spot of joy”
repeating this shows that his wife’s blushes bother him
“dies along her throat’”
reference to death is out of place and suspicious- could foreshadow death of the Duchess
“too soon made glad, too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on,”
she was cheery a friendly- but Duke means this as a criticism
“her looks went everywhere”
she flirted a lot- the Duke thinks so anyway
“Sir,’twas all one!”
he sounds as if he’s justifying himself- he’s defensive
“the bough of cherries some officious fool broke in the orchard for her, the white mule”
enjambment makes sound like he’s getting carried away by his anger
“she thanked men, - good! but thanked somehow- i know not how- as if she ranked”
punctuation and repetition creates a stuttering effect, which underlines his exasperation with her behaviour
“my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”
he’s proud of his history, his important family and the titles of ‘Duke’ and ‘Duchess’
“stoop”
repetition in lines 34, 42 and 43 hints at how the Duke felt his wife was beneath him
“even had you skill in speech- (which i have not)”
false modesty- he clearly does like speaking
“disgusts”
word suggests he was more bothered about he Duchess’s behaviour than he’s letting on
“-E’en the would be some stooping; and i choose never to stoop”
Duke is so prod that even criticising his wife would have been beneath him- he believes she shouldn’t need to be reminded how to behave
“but who passed without much the same smile?”
he sounds suspicious of her- maybe he thought s was being unfaithful
“i gave commands; then all smiles stopped together”
this seems to be a euphemism for his wife’s murder. “i gave commands” is cold and sinister
“no just pretence of mine for dowry will be disallowed;”
he’s arranging his next marriage- his next Duchess
“Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity”
he returns to subject of his art collection, which emphasises his power and wealth. The story of his last Duchess is a subtle warning to his visitor about how he expects his next wife to behave
