My Last Duchess and Blank Space are two great pieces of literature. Blank Space was written by a popular singer named Taylor Swift, and My Last Duchess was written by Robert Browning. Someone who reads both of these works of literature might think that they are solely about two people who are jealous of their partners. On the other hand, the real meaning of these two works are completely different. In reality, Taylor Swifts song, Blank Space, talks about how the media depicts her relationships to be, and My Last Duchess, talks about psychotic controlling of the Duchess by the Duke, which possibly leads to her death.
Both My Last Duchess and Blank Space, have similarities in terms of jealousy, and the fact that they are both about previous lovers. The jealousy of the Duke in My Last Duchess, can first be seen when he says, “She had a heart—how shall I say –too much glad, too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on, and her
…show more content…
Furthermore, since the Duke is wealthy, he is able to get away with this murder, and is talking to a person who happens to want to marry his daughter. What is bizarre with this story is that, the duke seems to get jealous over the most simple things, such as when Fra Pandolf was painting her portrait, and the duke said, “Her husband’s presence only, called that spot of joy in the Duchess cheek; perhaps Fra Pandolf’s chanced to say “Her mantle laps Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint must never hope to reproduce the faint half-flush that dies along her throat”(Browning Ln 15-18). Throughout the story, he continues to talk about how this jealousy affected the Duchess, but the most interesting part is when he said, whenever I passed her; but who passed without much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive” (Browning ln
Harte showed Duchess’s emotional side of her. Her “...pent-up feelings found vent in a few hysterical tears...” (Harte, 2) shows the Duchess as emotional, a drama queen, spontaneous and impulsive. This was before she changed, though. “The Duchess, previously a selfish and solitary character, does all she can to comfort and console the fearful Piney.” (Moss and Wilson, 4) Duchess's character reveals that people can switch their habits no matter what the circumstances
They suggest that the spark for the plot was the failed assassination of Coligny. Salviati’s account substantiates this noting ‘things would not have happened in the same way’ if the shot had killed Coligny, indicating the plot was a royal reaction to fears of a Huguenot uprising. Sutherland qualifies this, suggesting that the plot against the Huguenot noblemen’ was never an ideal, but a desperate plot for a desperate situation, and this is representative of the Spanish Ambassador’s opinion that ‘the Admiral’s death was a planned action, that of the Huguenots was the result of a sudden decision’. Salviati’s account indicates the Queen Mother acted alone in the organising the general Massacre ‘exhorting Charles to the slaughter to all them that followed’.
The death of the female beloved is the only way deemed possible by the insecure, possessive male to seize her undivided attention. This beloved woman represents the "reflector and guarantor of male identity. Hence, the male anxiety about the woman's independence for her liberty puts his masculine self-estimation at risk" (Maxwell 29). The jealous and controlling males in Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess" possess a fervent desire to fix and monopolize their unconstrained female beloveds. Due to a fear of death, both speakers attempt to achieve control and deny object loss; by turning their lovers (once subjects) into objects, they ultimately attain the role of masterful subject.
‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Shelley and ‘My Last Duchess’ have many links and similar themes such as power, time and art. ‘Ozymandias’ shows the insignificance of human life after passing time whilst ‘My Last Duchess’ speaks of his deceased wife in a form of a speech.
Kate Chopin's use of irony in the story is particularly effective. She points out the various aspects that prejudice is unfair to the characters in her story. If Desiree had been the one of mixed race then she could have been considered by as the innocent heroine. Consequently, because Armand is the source of the suspect blood, Desiree becomes totally the victim.
She smiled at everyone she talked to, like a kind woman should (My Last Duchess, lines 43-45). She also seems to be a very happy and joyous woman with no flaws (My Last Duchess, Lines 13-15). She was a beautiful soul who seemed to love everyone, which is why she was not as perfect as she seemed to be to the world. Her imperfection was that she was too nice, to the point of causing her husband to feel jealous of the others she talked to. She always accepted peoples gifts to her with the same graciousness that she had used when her husband asked her to marry him (My Last Duchess, lines 32-35).
The themes within the poems are very parallel. You see the theme of Self-importance or pride and Jealousy contained in both poems. “The Last Duchess” the pride and jealousy stems from the Duke himself due to the Duchesses supposed lack of attention to him. “E’en
the Duchess's kindness toward others. Her benevolence "disgusts" the Duke, and causes him to "stoop" down to spouting off "commands" in her direction.
In ‘My Last Duchess,’ the speaker is conveyed as being controlling, arrogant, malicious, and capricious. The Duke shows signs of jealousy and over-protection towards his first wife. On the other hand, the narrator in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is portrayed as who has lost touch with reality, someone clearly insane. There a few hints that this character may be lonely and withdrawn. After Porphyria enters the room he is in, the tension immediately drops and the mood warms.
This exemplifies the Duke’s hatred and jealousy as a result of the Duchess not giving him special attention. When he talks about the statue of Neptune taming the horse, he is referring to himself by using the curtain over his late wife. This way his jealousy can be contained since the curtain will only be drawn by him and no one else. In this diabolical way, the Duke does feel immense jealousy, and he can have the love he always wanted. Robert James Reese states in his essay, “The Power of the Duke in My Last Duchess”, “The Duke felt that his wife was too appreciative of the attention that other men paid her.”
over his wife as he refers to her as a belonging; it also shows that
First Love is about a shy guy who apparently has seen a girl to which
The Duke of Ferrara was made jealous by everything the duchess did, no matter how unimportant it was. He was especially jealous of Fra Pandolf, the man who painted the duchess in the poem. A woman should be pleased only by her husband, as was not the case with the duchess and Fra Pandolf. She was “too easily impressed'; by the painter (line 23). Fra Pandolf was not the only man that made the duke jealous. Everyone who passed the duchess received “much the same smile'; as the duke (line 44). The duke expected to be the only man to receive a smile from his wife.
Imagine a single spotlight focus solely on you as you say exactly what you feel. Everybody wants to get their point of view heard. One of the most effective ways for an individual to solely get their point across is a dramatic monologue. A dramatic monologue is a type of poetry written in the form of a speech of an individual character. Dramatic monologue can also be known as a persona poem. Robert Browning was known for his dramatic monologues. “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” are two well-known poems by him. From these two poems I am going to compare the theme, use of imagery, and tone.
English literature is continuously developing into a more complex, and interwoven network of shared, or argued ideas. Proof of this goes back into all of the varieties of literature that we have discovered from times past, as well as anything new that is written today. One example of these works of art that has been studied intensely over the years includes the story of The Duchess of Malfi written by John Webster somewhere between 1580 and 1625. This is a story of tragic loss, desperate love, and vicious vengeance which all comes together to form one of the greatest tragedies of all time.