The Use Of Tone In Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess'

My Last Duchess Essay Within Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess, a situation was created to very clearly show us the true character of the Duke, while at the same time showing us how the Duke himself does not realize that he is giving way to his true self. His attempts to cover up his true self are misguided and easily seen through, especially with the very prideful manner in which he speaks and what he speaks of. The envoy, who is the in-text listener and audience to the Duke, is put in an interesting situation in which he absorbs not only what the Duke says, but how he says it.

Similarly to the father of English’s, Chaucer’s, literary critique of his time period the Canterbury Tales, Browning critiques the treatment of women in his time period known as the Victorian Era. Robert Browning was self-educated through his father’s grand library. By the time he was a teenager Browning had decided to make poetry his life’s pursuit. Robert Browning’s work was controversial for his time and didn’t gain any real success until after the death of his wife. The two poems addressing most directly the treatment of women in Browning’s time are My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover. My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue spoken by a Duke about his last wife. The Duke is

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.

In My Last Duchess, Robert Browning uses voice to create a sinister tone by the use of words he chooses for the Duke of Ferrara to use in his dramatic monologue. The Duke is an arrogant, selfish man who loves the arts. He introduces his deceased wife as “That’s my last Duchess, painted on the wall,” he says as if he owned her. The Duke was not happy when she participated in things that that he did not provide her with, she didn’t bow down to his aristocratic ways and this displeased him to a great extent. Then nonchalantly, he tells the ambassador that “I gave commands, Then all smiles stopped together.’ This is the dukes sinister way of confessing he had her murdered.

“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.

The Duke is going on and on and we only have one point of view. He is controlling what the audience perceive the characters as. Browning uses enjambment to make the rhyming couplets flow better in order to make the speech of the Duke more realistic. The easiness of the speech and the fact that it is flowing, shows that the Duke seems to have rehearsed everything that he is now saying to the agent. So he has had to think about what to say and wants to be able to manipulate the agent into taking his side and, indeed, wants to have control over the agent’s opinion of both him and his last Duchess. The duke's loss of control is also depicted through the rhythm of the poem. The enjambment in the poem reveals that the Duke is almost at ease with his wife's murder, because it is so flowing and he doesn’t get upset and almost doesn’t have to stop. Except for once; this is shown by the use of caesura, however as he only stutters once it seems as if he is just doing it for show. Near the end of the poem, the duke loses control. You can imagine the horrified agent rising to go and the duke's uneasiness as he loses control, and his desire to regain control of the situation as he says, ‘Nay we'll go down together, sir’ There is a caesura between ‘Nay’ and ‘we’ll’ which shows the Duke does not want to lose control but then has to pause as he thinks of a reasonable explanation for him saying ‘Nay’ to the agent leaving without him.

“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.

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.

Written by Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” is a poem about an egocentric Duke who has a painting of his last wife upon the wall and is trying to impress an ambassador who is negotiating his next marriage. Although it is obvious that the Duke is trying to persuade this ambassador, however, this is where the first mystery is created. It is almost as if he is trying to persuade no one more than himself.

Browning chooses to relate this story in the Duke’s first person perspective as he is talking to another character because it gives the reader special insight into the Duke’s sociopathic nature. First, the mere fact that he admits to committing a capital crime in front of another person shows how he thinks he is above the law. Then Browning

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

Robert Browning was a nineteenth century writer and poet whose works are famous worldwide.One of his poems that has been analyzed constantly is "My Last Duchess," a dramatic monologue of a Duke who is talking to the count's messenger about wedding arrangements through speaking about his last Duchess.He started off as simple,then his superiority complex took him over.

A woman’s personal identity often came second to her ability to behave as a trophy to her husband. In the poem, while Duke Ferrara is negotiating with a servant for the hand of a Count’s daughter, he refers back to some of his favorite possessions. One of the key possessions mentioned in the poem is a painting of the Duke’s late wife. The painting is spoken of as a piece of artwork to be prized as a possession rather than as a human being. In the book The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning : A Literary Life by Richard Kennedy, he says, “the curtain over the painting reveals that he sees the painting of his wife, and also his now deceased wife as something he owns and can put away or show off whenever he wants to”, which could reflect upon how Browning himself sees women.

Unit 4 Lesson 10 Short Answers 1.) Which passage in the poem reveals the Duke’s arrogance? Discuss how this particular characteristic is presented. The poem “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, has multiple examples of the Duke being arrogant. In the third line it says, “That piece a wonder, now: Frá Pandolf’s hands;” the Duke is bragging about being able to have that man paint the painting.

The main fixture of this poem is Browning’s use of the dramatic monologue. Even as it is the duke who is discussing the character of the duchess with the messenger, one can glean facts about his own character through his diction as he describes his wife. This as with the use of enjambment, the technique of inserting line breaks, and caesurae, emphasize the flow of the duke’s speech. It is not just a monologue in name; even written on paper this poem is so overflowing with different ideas that it seems like the duke’s thoughts were running into each other as he voiced his opinion about his late wife. As in all poetry, symbolism is present. The portrait covered by a curtain which ‘none but the duke could draw’ symbolizes of how the controlling nature of the duke is satisfied when, if not in life then after death, only he has any say in who should look upon his late wife. Also, the bust of Neptune that he points out symbolizes how he tamed his free-spirited wife, much like Neptune tames the wild spirit of the sea horse.