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Disclosure In Andrea Del Sarto

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Possession in “My Last Duchess” and “Andrea del Sarto”

The poems “My Last Duchess” and “Andrea del Sarto” by Robert Browning are both dramatic monologues, consisting of men talking about their wives. Both speakers are similar men of different background; both have their confidence depend on outside factors (wife, title), they both want to possess their wives, and they both mistakenly think that they have achieved this goal. Andrea del Sarto and the Duke of Ferrara are both men incomplete without their wives, and thus dependent on them. In the case of the Duke this dependence comes in an indirect way: his confidence comes from his title, and when his wife treats him and his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name” as she would anyone else, she makes him insecure. This, and the fact that the Duchess seems confident without him, makes the Duke envious of her. To get rid of his insecurities, he gets rid of her. Nevertheless, the way the Duke talks about his last wife, proves that her memory can still make his old wounds bleed. At the same time Andrea is aware that there is a dependence in the relationship between him and Lucrezia, though he convinces himself that he is the one in control. While he admits …show more content…

While the Duke gets closest to actually owning his wife, by owning a picture of her where she is “looking as if she were alive”, his sullen tone betrays him. He is still annoyed that he was unsuccessful at making his wife completely his own. The fact that he is preparing to get married again, and the double entendre of the word “object” when he is talking about his fiancée, proves his need to own someone real. In Andrea’s situation the roles are completely reversed. He tries to show some signs of physical possession, as holding Lucrezia’s hand or framing her face, but they mean nothing as long as she owns his soul. His love made him similar to a drug addict, who chooses his own

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