Jealousy And Paranoia In My Last Duchess By Robert Browning

Within “A Certain Lady” the main theme presented to the reader is that love can often be a one way road, ending in heartbreak and loss of emotion. Throughout the poem the speaker experiences many events within he life, between her and her husband, that help to exemplify the theme. The first example present to the reader is on line three. Her the speaker states, “And paint my mouth for you a fragrant red,” showing the reader how she would dress up for her husband, despite never needing to. However, further ahead in the poem the speaker is met by the apparent lack of effort exerted from the husband, going so far as to rehearse and recite the list of things he has already stated he loves about her rather than being genuine. In line ten the speaker states, “That I am gay as morning, light as snow,” in regards to how she behaves for her husband. This quote shows that she maintains a perfect body image, as well as, a pleasant attitude in order to please her husband. Regardless of her efforts, the speaker is forced to listen to her husband talk about other women that he has come across in his travels rather than talk about her. This can be seen on lines fourteen and fifteen, “And you bring tales or fresh adventurings -- Of

Robert Browning wrote the two poems, "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover." Both poems convey an thoughtful, examination profound commentary about the concept of love.

Robert Browning provides a critical view of gender and power relations in his dramatic monologues “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess.” The dramatic monologue, as S.S. Curry has written, "reveals the struggle in the depths of the soul” (11). Browning delves into the minds of characters to show their conceptions of women and ideas of power. He explores the mental processes of the characters, and invites readers to question societal ideas of power and gender. The mental pathologies of the speakers is emphasized, which forces readers to examine the sanity of their own notions of gender dynamics.

The poem “My Last Duchess” is a historical event that involves the Duke of Ferrara and Alfonso who lived in the 16th century. Robert Browning "My Last Duchess" presents a narrative about a recently widowed Duke who talks with an emissary had come to an arranged marriage with another lady from a powerful and wealthy family. In the perspective of Duke, power and wealth were integral in marriage and was determined to be married to a wealthy lady from a famous family. As the Duke orients the emissary through the palace, he stops and shows a portrait of the late Duchess who was a lovely and young girl. The Duke then begins by stating information about the picture and then to the Duchess. Duke claims that the Duchess flirted with everyone and did not appreciate the history of the family: “gift of a nine hundred years old name.”(33) However, when an individual continues to read the poem, it is evident that the Duke played an important role in killing the lady. Duke states that “he gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together”(45-46) he used these words to define the death of his beloved Duchess. The aim of the essay is to analyze literary devices that emphasize the content of the poem, which includes rhetorical questions, exclamation mark, and em dash.

“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and “ The Rape of the lock” by Alexander Pope are two poems that convey a theme of love and objectification towards women.For instance, both poems are similar in their use imagery and metaphors to grasp their audience attention. For example, in “My last duchess” the author shows the wife in the poem as an item controlled by her husband and uses his love for her as an excuse to abuse his power. Her life is ruled by him and she would have to deal with his insane jealousy because his obsessiveness is dominating his reality of his relationship . In this poem the male role has many characteristics one of them being paranoid and not helping him reflect on reality by him owning shrine of items that belonged to all his earlier wife’s. His late wife is shown as a piece of imagery where she is kept on a wall trapped not able to leave his sight or be allowed interact with others. (Browning,1-2) In “ The Rape of the Lock “ the poem starts off with Belinda,the main character, in a dream sent to her by her guardian Sylph. The dream sends a message to Belinda that she must be careful with all men in her life once she has received the message she awakens to a love letter at her sight and forgets the dream in its entirety. Throughout the course of the poem Belinda’s Sylphs are required to protect her chastity and help her contain her purity.. The man in her life is using her as an item and not as a human being.Pope encourages these characteristics

He barely speaks any words about himself, instead he chooses to tell everything about his wife’s life. When the narrator speaks of his wife’s first husband, he says “this man who’d first enjoyed her favors…why should he have a name?” (Carver 275). The way he words these phrases shows how he is trying to hide the fact that his wife has been with another man. The insecurities about the relationship probably began when the wife told the narrator that Robert “asked if he could touch her face. She agreed to this. She told me he touched his fingers to every part of her face, her nose—even her neck” (Carver 274). The narrator doesn’t say anymore on the topic and decides to move on, but the silence shows how he doesn’t approve of the situation. The narrator felt that his wife “told [Robert] everything, or so it seemed to me” (Carver 275). When the wife notices how the narrator is uncomfortable about Robert she says “If you love me, you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay” (Carver 276), which shows that she doesn’t have much stake in the relationship either.

Have you ever feared your partner isn’t who they say they are? It tends to be a common fear among women, probably because of the amount of women who have married serial killers and didn’t even know it. The wife in the poem may not be afraid that she married a killer but she is definitely worried about not knowing her partner. Jane Kenyon in her poem Surprise uses selective perception, the double, and projection to show the wife’s fear of betrayal.

Greenberg is so clever with the use of verbal irony throughout the poem. The wife is really being sarcastic to her husband, in an attempt to reveal her desires that are evidently ignored. The main line that triggered my understanding was, "Not strong, not proud, not just, not provident, my lover would blame me for his heart's distress, which you would never think to do" (630). Once again, I initially thought she was complimenting her husband and showing him great respect. This strong, proud, just and provident man seemed perfect. However, the choice of words "...my lover would blame me for his heart's distress..." is what enlightened my thinking (630). The wife wanted to be so important to her husband that she would be the only thing that causes him distress. She actually resents this prideful man who seems to make everything else more important that her.

In the story “My last Duchess,” the Duke is speaking to the envoy of another nobleman of his second bride to be. The Duke describes the circumstances of his last duchess in which it was painted and boasted how Fra Pandolf the painter made her “look as if she was alive”. The Duke continues speaking about the unfortunate fate of his former wife. It is evident that a crime has been committed; He was jealous and annoyed of his easily impressed wife so he murdered her. His tone and demeanor is one of extreme arrogance and it is clear he is a dangerous man who poses a threat to any and all women he claims to love.

In her book Recollections, Browning describes what poetry means to herself. She explained that it “became a distinct object with me; an object to read, think, and live for” (Preston xii). Browning was described as a strong woman-poet who had little to no training. She came from the “Italian hills into a prim English feminine household, and inevitably assuming there that attitude of superiority to

“My Last Duchess,” by Robert Browning, depicts powerful husbands attempting to control the actions of their wives as they are free to do as they please. In contrast, women are expected to be faithful and attentive only to their husbands. The power and control of the Duke is conveyed by a painting of the Duchess. It belongs to the Duke and is referred to as “my last Duchess” (1). The use of “my” demonstrates the possessive nature of the Duke and his claim of the Duchess as his own personal possession, much like the painting itself. As the Duke persists on forcing domination upon the Duchess, he is greatly displeased to find that she treats and considers him as the same value as nearly any other man.

look at but he feels as if the Duchess takes him for granted and she

“My Husband Discovers Poetry”, by Diane Lockward is a very interesting piece of poetry that I have thoroughly enjoyed delving into. The idea behind the poem is that the writer felt angry and discouraged because her husband would never read her work, so essentially to get back at him she wrote a poem about cheating on him. She hid it away in the hopes that he would one day find and read it. This poem is Lockward telling the story of writing her poem, and what happens when her husband finally discovers it. The meaning of the poem is that we must support our loved ones.

Both of these works contain the unique ability, as portrayed by Browning, to create a deep fictional psyche that displays the strange relationship between man and woman. This relationship is displayed as one full of pain, jealousy, rejection and happiness, the majority of these emotion are contained in love and marriage. From this the reader can infer the nature of love being the conquering of class distinction and marriage involves sexist male inhibitions. Insecurities are seen in both poems and are evident in the perspective voices of the male protagonists, who are seen as incapable to handle their aggressive and possessive natures when it comes to love and marriage. Browning seems to be demonstrating the side of relationships avoided previously by Romantics and in doing so shows the negative implication on seemingly unruly

about the duke in the poem by what he says and how he says it. Through