Analysis of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning.

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Analysis of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

   Murder…mystery…intrigue.  All describe Robert Browning’s poem, ‘My Last Duchess’.  From the speaker’s indirect allusions to the death of his wife the reader might easily think that the speaker committed a vengeful crime out of jealousy.  His flowery speech confuses and disguises any possible motives, however, and the mystery is left unsolved.

   The poem is a great example of dramatic dialogue, a poetic form used to narrate and dramatize.  It consists entirely of the words of a single speaker who reveals in his speech his own nature and the dramatic situation in which he finds himself.  This format suits this poem particularly well because the speaker, taken to be the Duke of Ferrara, comes across as being very controlling, especially in conversation.  For example, he seems jealous that he was not able to monopolize his former duchess’ smile for himself.  He also seems to direct the actions of the person he is addressing with comments such as “Will’t please you rise?”

   The title of the poem evidently refers to a wall painting that Ferrara reveals to someone yet unidentified in the first fourteen words of the poem.  “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall.” He says.  The line suggests self-satisfaction.  The emphasis in the title is on last, as the ending of the poem makes clear; the Duke is now negotiating for his next Duchess.  Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck are artists of Browning's own invention.  Emphasizing the word Last as the ending of the poem implies; the Duke, identified as "Ferrara" in the poem's speech prefix, is negotiating for his next Duchess.

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   Finding ourselves being given a tour of a grand home for the first time, by the owner himself, and being told, "That's my last wife painted on the wall," how would we react?  We might think, "How odd he didn't say her name.  I wonder what happened ...", or at least we might wonder until he finished his sentence with "Looking as if she were alive."  This clause, also sounding peculiar, tells us two things.  The Duchess looks out at us, the viewers, directly from the painting; and her depiction there is life-like, that is, we might be ...

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