The last duchess by robert browning. âMy Last Duchessâ: A Poem by Robert Browning 2022-10-14
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The Last Duchess, written by Robert Browning, is a dramatic monologue that explores the thoughts and motives of the Duke of Ferrara as he reflects on the life and death of his last wife, the Duchess. Through the Duke's speech, we learn that he is a prideful and arrogant man who is highly possessive of his possessions, including his wife.
The Duke begins the poem by showing off a portrait of the Duchess to the emissary of the Count of Tyrol. He boasts about the beauty and charm of the Duchess, and how she was admired by all who knew her. However, as the poem progresses, it becomes clear that the Duke's pride in the Duchess is not rooted in genuine affection or admiration, but rather in his own ego and desire to possess her.
The Duke reveals that the Duchess was too free in her expressions of kindness and affection, and that her lack of restraint was a threat to his own sense of ownership and control. He describes how he had to constantly reprimand the Duchess for her behavior, and how he ultimately resorted to having her killed in order to maintain his own dignity and authority.
Through the Duke's words, we see how toxic masculinity and entitlement can lead to selfish and dangerous actions. The Duke's possessiveness and control over the Duchess ultimately leads to her untimely death, and his own inability to see beyond his own ego and pride ultimately causes his own downfall.
Overall, The Last Duchess serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of toxic masculinity and the importance of treating others with kindness and respect. It also serves as a commentary on the often-fraught dynamic between men and women in relationships, and the ways in which power imbalances can lead to tragic consequences.
Robert Browning and My Last Duchess.
He finds it unacceptable that his own efforts, no matter their cost or the importance he holds for them, are held in similar regard to gestures from other men. In this paper, I will examine the connections of the narrators and how their desires cause them to feel insecure in their manhood. . Now this poem, written by Robert Browning during the Victorian era of England in 1842, is not written from his own point of view but that of a fictional character. He envies the sunset, some cherries given to her by an admirer, or riding a horse. The poem is made much more convincing and impressive with the use of ordinary language, colloquial words, the rhythms, the very conventional situation and many such features.
But does he stop there, fulfilling his extent? It is the diplomatic choice of words which conveniently hides the cunningness of duke. You know that guy. He continues to ask himself questions on how to comport himself but admits he will be unsuccessful. Summary This poem is loosely based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who lived in the 16th century. The readers see the duke pulling off his own face mask. He was so caught up in his jealousy that he was not thinking rationally.
The Duchess is lightheaded, he says. In this light, it is possible to read this poem as a criticism of Victorian attitudes to women. The device of including someone within the poem, someone to listen to the utterance, perhaps more than any other single element, accounts for the greater sense of reality. Thus the temporal setting allows Browning to again explore sex, violence, and aesthetics as all entangled, complicating and confusing each other: the lushness of the language belies the fact that the Duchess was punished for her natural sexuality. The Duke first reveals himself to be a man of jealousy, and arrogance.
He is making the man wait just to give us another piece of boasting! There she stands As if alive. The reference may be an indirect compliment to Ferdinand of Innsbruck, Count of Tyrol, whose daughter Alfonso married in 1565. Consider how, if at all, the story it tells and the character of the Duke continue to be relevant today. Any smile or blush that she gives, planned or unplanned, he becomes jealous. In fact, in lines 34 - 43 he has not even told her how much she upsets him. Insofar as the reader is brought to discern the character of the Duke by what he explicitly saysâthe direct contentâso we are also forced to judge his character by his cryptic silence and ambiguity. The duke represents a plethora of all ghoulish qualities, the misuse of power, and extreme oppression.
This work really kept me hooked until the end. The guy we all love to hate. In this poem the Duke somewhat personifies the green-eyed monster. The Duchess is a character with natural humanity. The Duke is a man who is full of insecurities. From fourteen to sixteen, he was educated at home, attended to by various tutors in music, drawing, dancing, and horsemanship. Robert Browning died on the same day that his final volume of verse, Asolando, was published, in 1889.
Robert Browningâs My Last Duchess Analysis Essay Example
It is his brazen attitude that establishes his prominent aristocracy. The Duke took passion and pride in what he had done to his wife. There is no moral judgement made, throughout the vague monologue. He also tried his hand at drama, but his plays, including Strafford, which ran for five nights in 1837, and the Bells and Pomegranatesseries, were for the most part unsuccessful. Her Husband, The Duke of Ferrara, is talking to his guest; delivering a long, conversable monologue, in other words. For people confronted with an increasingly complex and anonymous modern world, this impulse comes naturally: to control would seem to be to conserve and stabilize. His father worked as a bank clerk and wasalso an artist, scholar, antiquarian, and collector of books and pictures.
Robert Browningâs Poetry âMy Last Duchessâ Summary & Analysis
If a writer explicitly refers to the existence of a real-world audience or acknowledges that the fictional universe is fictional, that can be seen as breaking down the barrier between the creation and its recipients. It is a monologue in the sense that it consists of words spoken by one person. The Duchess even tried to argue that she smiled the same at everyone but the Duke was not trying to hear that. The couple moved to Pisa and then Florence, where they continued to write. He shows his arrogance by bragging about having his wife murdered to an agent of the count. This did not at all appeal to her husband.
âMy Last Duchessâ by Robert Browning (Dramatic Monologue)
Arguments can be made about the Involvement of the Duke in the death of his Duchess. Other figures of speech, metaphors, words and analogies are used by browning to signify the character of the speaker. The sheer audacity of speaking about his wife, who the duke himself murdered, clearly expresses the piqued state of his mind. The speaker plead guilty his act of killing the wife, also his careless confession lets the reader know the careless attitude of him. Secrets, conspiracy, and in the end murder all define this poem.
The poet undoubtedly becomes too much possessed, that he even cannot stand seeing others who gaze at the painting of his wife. This did not at all appeal to her husband. Browning mastered the art of painting characters through monologues or soliloquies. Once again, I remind you that the Duke is characterized as controlling, he even covers up the painting with a curtain, so he can control who can and cannot see her. It is not explicitly written how the Duke killed his wife, thus, the ambiguity draws readers in. The focus of this poem is not on what is proceeded between the wife and the husband, but on the husband -the Duke- himself; his personality, his authority and his controlling manners.
