My Last Duchess- Robert Browning

Question 1

describe what is happening in the poem

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

describe the form

Answer 2

• 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

Question 3

describe structure

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

describe the power and objection

Answer 4

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

Question 5

describe dramatic irony

Answer 5

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

Question 6

describe the status

Answer 6

status is really important to the Duke, he cares about others see him

Question 7

describe the feeling and attitude of pride

Answer 7

Duke very proud of his possessions and his status

Question 8

describe the feeling and attitude of jealousy

Answer 8

he couldn’t stand way Duchess treated him same as everyone else

Question 9

describe the feeling and attitude of power

Answer 9

Duke enjoys control he has over painting. He didn’t have this power over duchess when she was alive

Question 10

context

Answer 10

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

Question 11

“my last Duchess painted on the wall”

Answer 11

sounds as if he owns the Duchess, not just the picture of her

Question 12

“looking as if she were alive”

Answer 12

sets a sinister tone

Question 13

“will’t please you sit and look at her”

Answer 13

sounds polite, but he’s really being quite forceful

Question 14

“none puts by the curtain i have drawn for you, but i)”

Answer 14

he controls who looks at the painting, but he couldn’t control who looked at his wife when she was alive

Question 15

“not the first are you to turn and ask thus”

Answer 15

creates impression of a question from visitor, but we hear it through the Duke- he’s in complete control

Question 16

“that spot of joy” “that spot of joy”

Answer 16

repeating this shows that his wife’s blushes bother him

Question 17

“dies along her throat’”

Answer 17

reference to death is out of place and suspicious- could foreshadow death of the Duchess

Question 18

“too soon made glad, too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on,”

Answer 18

she was cheery a friendly- but Duke means this as a criticism

Question 19

“her looks went everywhere”

Answer 19

she flirted a lot- the Duke thinks so anyway

Question 20

“Sir,’twas all one!”

Answer 20

he sounds as if he’s justifying himself- he’s defensive

Question 21

“the bough of cherries some officious fool broke in the orchard for her, the white mule”

Answer 21

enjambment makes sound like he’s getting carried away by his anger

Question 22

“she thanked men, - good! but thanked somehow- i know not how- as if she ranked”

Answer 22

punctuation and repetition creates a stuttering effect, which underlines his exasperation with her behaviour

Question 23

“my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”

Answer 23

he’s proud of his history, his important family and the titles of ‘Duke’ and ‘Duchess’

Question 24

“stoop”

Answer 24

repetition in lines 34, 42 and 43 hints at how the Duke felt his wife was beneath him

Question 25

“even had you skill in speech- (which i have not)”

Answer 25

false modesty- he clearly does like speaking

Question 26

“disgusts”

Answer 26

word suggests he was more bothered about he Duchess’s behaviour than he’s letting on

Question 27

“-E’en the would be some stooping; and i choose never to stoop”

Answer 27

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

Question 28

“but who passed without much the same smile?”

Answer 28

he sounds suspicious of her- maybe he thought s was being unfaithful

Question 29

“i gave commands; then all smiles stopped together”

Answer 29

this seems to be a euphemism for his wife’s murder. “i gave commands” is cold and sinister

Question 30

“no just pretence of mine for dowry will be disallowed;”

Answer 30

he’s arranging his next marriage- his next Duchess

Question 31

“Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity”

Answer 31

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