Murder
mystery
intrigue
All describe Robert Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess." From the speakers indirect allusions to the death of his wife the reader might easily think that the speaker is a bit crazy and committed a vengeful crime out of jealousy. His flowery speech confuses and disguises any possible motives; however, the mystery is left unsolved. Based on the poem's style and structure, it becomes evident that even if the speaker did not directly kill his wife, he certainly had something to hide.
This poem is about a powerful Duke, and his beautiful, flirtatious wife who has two different personalities, one that was reality and the other was the lady in the painting. The duke comes off as being very possessive. "Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,/ Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without/ much the same smile?" (43-45). I believe this being said, the duke is over examining things, the smile can simply come off as simply being a nice person, but to duke sees it in a different light. He views it as being flirtatious.
The poem begins and ends with him mourning the loss of his deceased Duchess, but from the way that the mighty Duke speaks, he knows more about
her death than he leads us to believe. The Duke chooses his word very carefully, when he talks to his friend about the painting of his wife. He only drops small hints, to his friend about the death of his Duchess. "I gave commands/ then all smiles stopped together" (45-46). These lines mean that the Duke, playing a very dominant part, tells his wife to stop smiling and flirting. Being told this, she still continues on, which I believe she does not notice or see herself as being flirtatious. As a result I believe that the Duke killed his wife, or had someone to put her to her death.
As the Duke speaks of his Duchess, in the beginning, he sounds extremely
compassionate and caring towards her. The Duke had an absolute love for his
Duchess as most husbands and wives do. He sounded so proud of her and the
beauty that she posed: almost like she was a trophy. Despite all of the pride and excitement that he showed towards her, there was an element of distrust that lingered inside of his mind.
As the reader examines "Prophyria's Lover" by Robert Browning, one recognizes the complete effort of the speaker to disguise his feelings toward the murder of his wife. The speaker goes through different thoughts in relation to the life he has with his wife. Many thoughts include the positive and negative parts about her and their relationship. Throughout the monologue, the speaker tells the readers of his struggles of coming to the conclusion of murdering his wife and the reasons to do so. In “Prophyria’s Lover”, the speaker is faced with many types of insanity before, during, and after the murder of his wife, Prophyria because of the love he has for her.
led her to neglect her son at the end of ‘I’m the king of the castle’,
of her. He is proud of her looks but is concerned that it will attract
Comparing Robert Browning's Dramatic Monologues My Last Duchess and The Laboratory Robert Browning was a Victorian poet who lived from 1812-1889. He mainly wrote dramatic monologues, this means you must have a speaker and a listener. Both "My Last Duchess" and "The Laboratory" were published in 1845. "My Last Duchess" was set in the Italian Renaissance and during that time to own large life size painting was a show of wealth. "My Last Duchess" was written in a time when women were to hold their husbands and everything that he did with the maximum respect and show little or no emotion towards anyone else. "
Robert Browning, the poet, uses iambic pentameter throughout the poem. He breaks up the pattern so that every two lines rhyme. Aside from being a dramatic monologue, the poem is also considered lyric poetry because it is a poem that evokes emotion but does not tell a story. The poem is being told in the speaker's point-of-view about his first duchess, also as revealed in the title, The Last Duchess. The setting is important because the duke's attitude correlates to how men treated women at that time. The theme of the poem appears to be the duke's possessive love and his reflections on his life with the duchess, which ultimately brings about murder and his lack of conscience or remorse.
Throughout "My Last Duchess," Browning uses diction to further increase the haunting effect of his dramatic monologue. His precise and scattered word choice is meant to make the reader recognize the underlying haughtiness in his speech to the Count's emissary. The Duke refers to his former wife's portraits "depth" and "passion" in order to place a cloudiness over the realism of the painting. This, along with the "faint" and "half-flush" appearance that "dies along her throat," brings about an overcast appearance to the poem. The Duke's "trifling" lack of "countenance" is evident in his jealousy of
The Speaker in ‘My Last Duchess’ is conversing with the servant of a count whose daughter he is proposing to marry. He treats t...
Robert A. Heinlein said, “A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” told from the perspective of the Duke in the form of a dramatic monolog. It showcases the Duke conversing with the Count’s representative about a hopeful marriage to the Count’s daughter as well as recalling his late wife. The Duke uses the opportunity to express his jealousy towards the Duchess. In “My Last Duchess,” a poem by Robert Browning, the Duke expresses the theme of jealousy to hide his inner struggle of insecurity.
over his wife as he refers to her as a belonging; it also shows that
may not be all that he claims to be- the use of the word ‘My’ is very
Another aspect of the duke’s character addressed in the poem is his condescending attitude. Two times in the poem the duke needlessly told the names of the artists who created the masterpieces that he owned (lines 3 & 56). He felt superiority over the emissary he was speaking to by dropping these names. The duke addressed the emissary as a “never read stranger'; (line 6). Not only was it patronizing for the duke to call him a stranger, but he called him unintelligent too.
has a listener within the poem, but the reader of the poem is also one
and ease the pain of his loss. The poem can also suggest to us that at
Duke is portrayed as being a very controlling gentleman. He thinks that no one but himself has the authority to show off his late wife portrait: "Since no one puts by/ The curtain I have drawn for you, but I" (9-10). The duke seemed like the kind of man who wanted his wife's company all to himself. He enjoyed having the power to try and control who she smiled upon. He felt she treated too many others the same way she treated him. Apparently, in his mind he t...
The character of this poem, right from the beginning feels a sadness that comes from the inner struggle between what society depicts as "should" and what a person really feels, "I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll,/ yes, yes, we know that we can jest,/ we know we, we know that we can smile!/ But there's a something in this breast/ to which thy light words bring no rest." (3-7) There is the beginning sense here that he is starting to see conflict within himself, first characterized by his emotions.