Essay On My Last Duchess

Margaret Atwood’s short story My Last Duchess aptly employs ideas from Robert Brownings poem My Last Duchess to highlight themes of importance in communication, The relationship between judgement and inadequacy. The author narrates a story of the trials of being a high school student from the point of view of a young woman who not only has to cope with the stress of an upcoming examination and the pressure her teacher puts on her to excel, but also the added trepidation of what the future holds for her relationship. Many aspects of her relationship with her boyfriend, Billy, and her teacher, Miss Bessie, parallel to the relationship illustrated by the Duke about his relationship with the Duchess in Robert Brownings poem. Similarly, many of the themes found in Robert Brownings poems also apply to Margaret Atwood’s work.

In addition to Herrick, Robert Browning portrays destructive side of human desire in the poem “My Last Duchess.” Browning depicts that desire motivates the Duke to become hostile toward his Duchess when she fails to live up to his expectation. Browning begins his dramatic monologue with a Duke talking to a count about his last Duchess on the portrait while negotiating marriage with his daughter. Strangely, the portrait of the Duke’s former wife is placed behind a curtain where only he is allows to draw. When the count settles on the bench while looking at the portrait, the Duke begins talking about unfortunate fate of his former wife.

“The courtly lady…possesses a curiously hybrid gender. While maintaining stereotypically female sexuality, she also holds, in principle at least, the status of a feudal lord.” Burns’ statement insinuates a reversal of power dynamics between man and woman in the courtly love lyric, implying that the woman’s stereotypical beauty and sexuality in courtship, is a gateway to subverting and overpowering the lovesick male, making her a superior lord. The Amour Courtois lyric is deemed inconsistent with the representation of woman as an empowered “feudal lord” due to the sheer objectification of femininity and beauty. Poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Dunbar commend a woman’s aesthetic appeal or satirise the lack of it, thus elevating medieval misogynistic expectations of physical beauty as a feminine necessity that objectifies women under the control of man’s advances. Throughout courtly love lyrics female beauty is a purely frivolous and superficial trait lacking predominant depth, to render woman as a “lord” would be poetically conflicting as the only power exemplified by female subjects in courtship is through the idolisation and sexual lust of the male devotee.

He did not want her to pay attention to anyone other than himself. The speaker from “Porphyria’s Lover” is also possessive. He is possessive over the dead girl’s body. He wants her to be his forever. In the poem, he says “she was mine, mine fair” (line 36). This means he believed she was a possession of his. After the speaker kills the woman, he manipulates her body and sleeps with her all night. The speaker from “Porphyria’s Lover” and the Duke from “My Last Duchess” also share personality characteristics as well as actions.

In Robert Browning’s poem, My Last Duchess, is about a conversation surrounding a portrait. The focus swirls around the untimely death of the duchess, Alfonso II last wife, because of some impropriety. She looks alive, and the duke attributes this to the skill of the painter, Frà Pandolf. This serves to remind the reader that the duke does not approve of the way the duchess handled herself. Evidently, the duke does not approve of the zest for life that the duchess exhibited. He of course compliments her beauty,

Love, death, and infidelity were weaved through the readings this week. In “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, the speaker is a Duke who is looking at a painting of his last (now deceased) Duchess and remembering her. His memories are not fond; he was jealous and possessive, and frankly, a bit of a drama queen. His suspicion is evident repeatedly, starting in line 13 where he states, “Sir, ‘twas not/ Her husband’s presence only, called that spot/ Of joy into the duchess’ cheek”. Lines 21-24 boldly say what he was alluding to earlier on, “She had/ A heart—how shall I say? —too soon made glad,/ Too easily impressed: she liked whate’er/ She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” She blushed easily and enjoyed looking at things, so in his mind she was a bit promiscuous. He thought his wife unfaithful basically because she was polite. This, as well as his uppity attitude, are both made clear in lines 31-34, “She thanked men, —good! but thanked/ Somehow—I know not how— as if she ranked/ My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name/ With anybody’s gift.” He thinks that his name alone is a better gift than anything else; he’s conceited and entitled.

The characterization of the Duke in “My Last Duchess” and the characterization of the speaker in “Porphyria’s Lover” further establish Browning’s messages about love. In “My Last Duchess,” the Duke is portrayed as arrogant and believes he is superior to others. Because of his status as Duke, his arrogance becomes prevalent, as he brags about his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name.” He also believes he is superior to others, especially the Duchess, as

First, in both “My Last Duchess” and “To His Coy Mistress,” both speakers have an intense desire power. In the former poem, the speaker shows himself to be jealous for the attention of his wife and, perhaps more accurately, the power this would give him over her. This is visible when he says he “gave commands” for her end, which he conveys to someone who represents a possible bride, revealing how he considers the power to do so an attractive feature for the representative to consider. The second poem’s speaker has placed all his stock in the power to have a relationship with this woman he “loves” so dearly. Read in this way, it becomes clear he is desperate for this false authority when he begins pointing out random things in nature and saying they should

The lover introduced in “My Last Duchess” is a Duke and he is characterized as a man of power and wealth as given by his title. He appears to be nonchalant and

Response to Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is an aesthetic monologue about the Duke of Ferrara’s painting of his late wife. The Duke is meeting with his potential new wife’s family to discuss his marrying the Count’s daughter. While giving a tour of his estate the Duke shows the family his painting of his late wife, the Duchess.

A woman’s beauty can easily captivate a man’s mind at first sight. The way a man describes a woman illustrates his perception towards her. In the poems “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare and “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron each poet describes a woman’s quality and the reason why they are attracted to the woman. The aspect of the tone in each speaker contradicts each person’s perspective. The speaker of “She Walks in Beauty” uses enchanting tone to enhance the nature of her beauty. In contrast, the speaker of “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” tone is insulting and cruel. In these two poems, the point of view and images reveal

Demanding and laborious are two characteristics that fit into the Duke’s character. Readers can interpret from the poem that the last duchess was doing things that made the Duke irate. And the line that says that the smiles stopped all together, gives a clue to the readers that the duchess does not take direct commands well (Browning). This would have made the Duke unsettled because he was not following orders and commands. While the personality of this women is very stereotypical almost. Even the readers can assume that she was being cheated on by her ex-husband yet; she still is very much in love with her ex-husband and wishes to not move forward into a new relationship. She obviously loves him enough to have his picture framed in a frame they received from their wedding (Spera). Since the readers do not have any more information that what is given to us in the poem, the speaker could be considered to be loving and kind-hearted. Those characteristics would make it difficult to let go and move into a new

hisdeceased wife. As the poem progresses the reader can begin to pick up on a bit of jealousy fromthe Duke. He states that “She had-A heart-how shall I say? - too soon mad glad, too easilyimpressed” (21-22). This shows that the Duke did not like the fact that his wife was friendly andeasily entertained. Dan Negrut, from The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies, helps furthersupport my claims of the Dukes jealousy by stating “Unconsciously, the Duke reveals himself asa tyrannical husband whose wife should have been made glad only by his presence, a wife whoseheart, should have been impressed only by him and who should have like and looked only at him”(p152) This could be seen has the Duke being insecure and afraid to lose his beautiful wife.

The melody of “My Last Duchess” is the battle between the so-called elite culture of the upper class and the vindictive behavior of the duke of Farrar. However, the sarcasm in this poem is how often the subject of love occurs throughout the duke’s sermon he is conveying to another nobleman. The duke reveals himself not only as a model of culture but as a master of

The poem itself has more generalized, universal, nameless feel. Browning uses this poem to show men marginalization over women at Victorian age, and how women were treated like the other during that time. I am conducting this research to analyze the poem in a feminist way to clarify how Robert browning uses feminist concepts in his poem. I will answer the questions, does my last duchess is a good piece of art that talks about women struggle at Victorian era? I will conduct my research by analyzing the poem line by line and describe it to the feminist theory. My research is cross sectional I am going to use qualitative way to describe the poem.