'My Last Duchess'

AMDG Andrew Baird L5- ‘My Last Duchess’

‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning is a dramatic monologue in which the Duke of Ferrara is discussing the matter of a dowry with an emissary sent by a Count. The use of dramatic monologue allows the poet to subtly reveal the personality of the persona to the reader. The language used by the speaker allows the poet to evoke strong emotions in the reader, something I intend to prove.

The reader is given an early insight into the personality of the Duke in the very first line of the monologue:

‘That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall’

This early impression portrays the Duke as a very sophisticated man with a wealth of knowledge in art. This impression is continued when he mentions the very artist who painted the Duchess, ‘Fra Pandolf’. However, even at this early stage there are some hints that the Duke may not be all that he claims to be- the use of the word ‘My’ is very possessive, perhaps suggesting that the duke sees the Duchess as no more than an object. Furthermore the use of the word ‘Last’ implies that there have been many Duchesses and that the eponymous individual is just the most recent, suggesting that the Duke may be dishonest.

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This aspect of the persona’s character is confirmed later in the monologue, when the Duke says:

‘She liked whate’er she looked on

And her looks went everywhere’

Here the Duke is challenging the morality of the Duchess, clearly suggesting that she has been unfaithful to him, showing his jealousy. This jealousy is aimed principally at Fra Pandolf, who he thinks is trying to seduce his fiancée. This seems quite absurd to the reader as Fra Pandolf is a religious man and so this suggests that the Duke is a deeply insecure and extremely jealous persona. Of course this insecurity ...

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This aspect of the persona’s character is confirmed later in the monologue, when the Duke says:

‘She liked whate’er she looked on

And her looks went everywhere’

‘Will’t please you rise?’

This simple, polite sentence emphasises the casual manner in which the speaker moves on from the arranged murder of his fiancée. This manner is not only continued, but emphasised further still when the Duke reverts to the subject of money, discussing the situation with the ‘dowry’. This shows how superficial and indeed shameful a person the Duke is.

This shameful personality is brought out further still by the poet’s use of rhyme and rhythm, the very heart of the poem. The poet’s use of style represents the Duke himself- the poem has many example of rhyme, for example ‘Paint’ and ‘Faint’ and, ‘Durst and ‘First’- this would suggest that the persona was articulate. However, this is shown to be nothing more than a façade in the way in which the lines of the poem run together, showing that the poet is not as skilled in language as he would like to make out:

‘but/thanked/Somehow’

The Duke here is seen to be struggling to express himself, showing his lack of skill in language and emphasising that he has tried to create a false impression of himself. Even the rhythm of the poem, iambic pentameter, which is very regular and basic, reflects the simplicity of the speaker himself, in terms of his linguistic ability. The manner in which the Duke tries to cover up this limited ability emphasises his superficiality.

However, it is the poet’s clever use of word choice which is most effective in revealing the Duke’s personality. His repetition of the first person pronouns ‘I’ and ‘My’ make clear his possessive nature. He uses the phrase ‘that piece’ when speaking of the Duchess. This is extremely demeaning and shows his total arrogance and superficiality. The Duke’s character is revealed as murderous when he says the lines:

‘Paint can never hope to reproduce the faint

Half flush that dies along her throat’

Here the Duke is openly revealing to the reader that he was responsible for the murder of the Duchess as he focuses on “his” Duchess’ throat – a place which the reader can easily associate as somewhere that he would have cut in order to kill her. To ensure that the reader does not overlook this connotation, he adds to it the word “died”, to make clear his actions. The colour or “flush” disappearing from the Duchess’ throat symbolises her life, which would have been slipping away.

Again, the poet’s use of iambic pentameter adds to this effect as it stresses the word “died”, and so shows the Duke’s emphasis on her death. The detail used in the description of the throat in addition to this leads the reader to realise the depth of the Duke’s obsession with the incident, and that this is because it was him who arranged the murder. This brutal personality is further developed as the reader is told that the Duchess would ‘blush’ and ‘thank men’, which suggests to the reader that she is courteous and polite woman. This leads to the reader feeling sympathy towards her and therefore anger towards the Duke who took her life away. The climax of the monologue comes when the Duke says:

‘I gave commands

Then all smiles stopped together’

The use of the word ‘commands’ here yet again shows the possessive nature of the Duke and the alliteration in the phrase ‘smiles stopped’ emphasises it, which makes the awfulness of the Duke’s actions clear to the reader. Even the use of the personal pronoun ‘I’, something which is used repeatedly towards the end of the poem, emphasises the superficiality of the Duke and this leaves the reader feeling nothing less than hatred for him.

In his dramatic monologue ‘My Last Duchess’, Robert Browning successfully uses language, particularly word choice to gradually reveal the character of the Duke of Ferrara. The reader starts off being slightly unsure about the Duke but this quickly turns to hatred as he describes the murder of the Duchess. This revelation of character make the poem exciting and very enjoyable to read.