An Analysis of "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning

An Analysis of “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

“My Last Duchess” is written as a dramatic monologue, which is a poem that is read as if on stage, talking to an audience or character in a play. This method of writing has been used because the poem wants to give one perspective, the Duke’s, in an effective manner. By using this technique, Browning is also silencing the antagonist, the Duchess, and becoming the protagonist. The rhyming scheme consists of rhyming couplets, which give the poem a sense of order, and make the speaker, the Duke in this case, seem well educated and in control of their emotions and actions.

These methods of writing help show the character of the protagonist and the way he viewed the traditions during the Victorian times. There are two different views in which this poem can be interpreted, the Marxist, and the feminist. The Marxist view interprets the poem as if the Duke thinks of everything as his object, and the feminist viewpoint makes the Duke look as if he doesn’t treat the Duchess as he should.

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The Duke’s personality is revealed by different aspects in the poem, for example the rhyming scheme, rhyming couplets, makes the poem flow more easily, which leaves no gaps for interruption. This shows the Duke’s love of being the centre of attention and being in control. The Duke also shows this keenness of control when he says the painting is of “my last Duchess”, showing he treated her as just another article in his collection of art. The Duke also mentions Frà Pandolph in his conversation with the count’s servant, showing he is proud of the painting he has of the Duchess and he is showing off about having a great artist to paint this picture that he calls “a wonder”. However, when he says he calls “That piece a wonder, now”, he says it as if he didn’t appreciate the Duchess until she was dead. The Duke is also purveyed as a very clever, well educated person, as he has the ability to speak very poetically, but he does pretend to be inarticulate at times to let the reader/listener fill in the gaps, for example,

She had

A heart - how shall I say? – too soon made glad

Too easily impressed;

The Duke uses parenthesis here to add to the rhetorical flourish and argument he wants to create. He is also very worried about the behaviour of the Duchess because he thinks that it will make him look bad to the rest of the Victorian high society, this is because the women of Victorian times were expected to be an “Angel in the House”, and to be the very symbol of virginity and if they were not, they were automatically classed as a whore.

The feminist view on this poem is that the Duke is silencing the Duchess by talking in a monologue and not letting people hear the Duchess’ opinion. The poem is highly criticizing the role of women in the Victorian times. The Duke basically disapproves of the way the Duchess acted around other men because the women of the household were supposed to be the pinnacle of virginity and innocence during these times. However, the Duke did not like the uniqueness and independence the Duchess had, for example,

Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her, but who passed without

Much the same smile?

This indicates the way that the Duchess acted towards other men, and the Duke did not like it because she treated them the same as him, which was not acceptable in the Victorian times.

The Marxist interpretation of the poem revolves strongly around the abuses and unhealthy attainment of material goods in the Victorian society. The Duke is shown to be a very materialistic person in the way he speaks of the Duchess as if she were an object he had acquired instead of a loving wife.

I said

`Frá Pandolph’ by design:

This shows the Duke’s materialism, because he is showing off about having such a good artist paint a picture of his last Duchess. The Duke also takes innocent, worthless things, to us, like his “nine-hundred-years-old name”, which she, according to the Duke, took from him like it was anything else she had been given before by a man.

Near the end of the poem, the Duke’s love of control and materialism is summed up in one passage, in which he thinks himself as a powerful God taming a beautiful, excitable animal:

Notice Neptune, though,

Taming a seahorse, thought a rarity.