Alexis Massey
February 12, 2003
Dr. Adams
Closed Reading Assign. #3
My Last Duchess
Lines 21-31
In these ten very elemental lines of the poem, Browning successfully exposes the true motives of his speaker, the duke, through his voice of reason at play during conversation with a potential “father-in-law.” At this point in the text, his audience discovers the reasons for his “failed marriage” with his former wife, and also learns of her “faults.” The speaker is obviously bothered by his wife’s “wanton ways” as she was “too soon made glad,/ too easily impressed; she liked whate’er/ She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”(lines 22-25). He had much to offer her, not excluding his prestigious “nine-hundred-years-old name” (l. 33). As an appreciator of the finer things and high society, he was disturbed by how easily entertained and amused she was by others and their little efforts. The duke is bothered by her nonchalant ways and cannot understand her excitement over the “bough of cherries some officious fool/ Broke in the orchard for her”(l. 27-28). As if his efforts weren’t enough!
