My Last Duchess By Robert Browning

“Art is an expression of human creative skill and imagination” (google) Paintings are works of art created to express or let out a person’s creativity or feelings towards a certain subject. In Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue, “The Last Duchess”, he uses the painting as a symbolism of the Duke’s relationship with his former wife. Therefore, as the Duke tries to impress people with his wealth through the painting of Fra Pandolf, he instead unintentionally displays his true personality to others. Initially, the painting is used to reveal Duke’s jealous nature as he mistakes his wife’s friendless as flirting which later reveals his controlling nature. Ultimately, the Duke’s selfishness and greed for power is slowly revealed through abusing art to control his wife and others.

A vampire is defined as “a prenatural being of a malignant nature, supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking the blood of sleeping persons;” (1). Whereas a parasite is defined as “a person who lives at the expense of another, or society in general;” (2). A sleeping persons can be interpreted as an innocent person, this is due to countless stories and lore depicting vampires stealing the blood of conscious innocent persons. Therefore, by doing harm to the innocent, a vampire is living at the expense of the humans whose blood it steals, making vampires a form of parasite. In The Good Lady Ducayne, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Ducayne is genetically a human, but her mind has become fixated on life. By exploiting technology, her moral and ethical standards change, allowing for her personal relationships to become meaningless in her search for an elongated life. She goes so far as to steal the blood of young girls; this act of stealing innocent girls blood at their own expense, makes her a special parasite, human vampire.

The Duke of Ferrara is a character and the speaker in the poem “My Last Duchess,” by Robert Browning. The reader witnesses a man that is controlling and whom will destroy anything that he cannot control. One realizes immediately, the extent of the Duke’s need for power in the title and in the first line when he uses the term “My” which shows ownership (Browning). The Duke cannot control the Duchess’s “spot of joy,” (Browning line 21) therefore; he commands to have her killed (Browning line 45). He still feels the need to control the Duchess, even after death. This control is revealed when he opens the curtain and declares, “(since none puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)” (Browning line 9-10). The Duke is speaking to a

Dramatic Monologue in Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess and The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church

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.

says, and how he says it. In “My Last Duchess”, the speaker of the monologue addresses

There is seldom a more deeply rooted bond than that between an artist and his masterpiece. However, in the poem "My Last Duchess", written by Robert Browning, it is not, in fact, the artist that possesses this bond, but the owner of the artwork. This dramatic monologue seems to be a tragic love story at first; however, as the story progresses, is it revealed to the audience that the grief-stricken Duke may have had some issues with his blushing bride. While addressing a representative of his future fiancé’s father, the Duke relays his thoughts and feelings on the untimely demise of his former Duchess. The Duke is not remorseful over the death of his bride but is instead bitter that she did not fit his expectations of a perfect wife. This

“My Last Duchess,” written by Robert Browning, is simply about a male who was not specially treasured by his, now dead, spouse. The parody of Browning’s poem, “My Ex-Husband,” written by Gabriel Spera, is in a woman’s point of view pondering on a past relationship where she felt she was not properly respected. In both poems, the speakers are reflecting on past relationship conflicts pertaining to the importance they had in their spouse's lives. The speakers' in “My Last Duchess” and “My Ex-Husband” each have different personalities and values, which prompts each individual to react in different ways.

The short story, "My Last Duchess," by critically acclaimed, Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, is an intriguing and thought-provoking work of prose. Though it ties considerably to the famous work by the same name, written by Robert Browning, it also brings its own ideas, and symbols to the table. The most prominent symbolic link within this story is the representation between the characterization of Miss Bessie--the high school english teacher--and the narrator 's ideas, thoughts, and fears about life. The term life -- for the purposes of this essay -- is defined as the existence of an individual person and their course through the world. In “My Last Duchess,” the narrator 's life is symbolically represented through Miss Bessie by the character traits of a positive reputation, overcoming obstacles, and the solitary nature of people.

Robert Browning’s poems “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” depict a mastery of the dramatic monologue style. Said style contains a narrative told by a character’s point of view that differs from that of the poet.The character’s monologue consists of them discussing their particular situation that they find themselves within, this is meant to convey their internal information to the reader or audience. This in turn allows the reader a glimpse into the personality of the narrating character. Within “Porphyria’s Lover” and My Last Duchess” these monologues are used along with poetic devices to develop unique male personas. Between these two personas there are evident differences in class and within each class social issues arise within each work.

In "My Last Duchess", by Robert Browning, the character of Duke is portrayed as having controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits. These traits are not all mentioned verbally, but mainly through his actions. In the beginning of the poem the painting of the Dukes wife is introduced to us: "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,/ looking as of she were still alive" (1-2). These lines leave us with the suspicion that the Duchess is no longer alive, but at this point were are not totally sure. In this essay I will discuss the Dukes controlling, jealous and arrogant traits he possesses through out the poem.

“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.

Immediately, it is evident just how egoistic and possessive the Duke is. Even in the opening statement, “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,” it seems to the reader that this Duchess was owned by the Duke. The word, “last”, adds to the subtle mystery: was this the Duke’s last ever Duchess? Or is this just his last one until he gets another one? Personally, after reading the poem several times, I believe that it is the latter of the two, and that if the Duke sees something that he dislikes in his next wife he will simply get another one.

In the opening lines of “My Last Duchess”, Browning introduces his speaker, the Duke of Ferrara, who sets the stage to tell the story of his late wife to the Count’s emissary. As a dramatic monologue, Browning’s identity is dissolved into his character’s voice and persona; the first-person narration of the Duke dominates the perspective of the story; the emissary becomes a silent listener, whose presence is only known because he is addressed as “you” and “Sir” by the speaker throughout the poem. The relationship between the speaker and the listener within the narrative thus sets up an analogous relationship between the poet, Browning, and his audience

In "My Last Duchess" the Duke displays his views of a society controlled by high-ranking men - such as himself, however in the poetic voice of "A Woman to Her Lover", has a totally different attitude, where women and men share equal power. To illustrate this, the woman creates three hypothetical situations, each containing one of the expectations 19th century men had towards woman. In the first stanza, she discusses how woman are accustomed to be the "servant" and how their function was to "bear you children". Her use of powerful wording displays her resentment and rejection towards the idea. At the end of the stanza she says, "If that be what you ask, O lover I refuse you!" here the use of the refrain, not only indicates her assertiveness but also that she is only interested in someone who shares the same views as her.