My Last Duchess.

The duke must love very much as we can see from these lines, “……that pictured countenance/The depth and passion of its earnest glance(7,8).”  She must have bright eyes, and her cheeks are also charming. “…it was not her husband’s presence only, called that spot/Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek(13-15).”  Then I would think the duke is very rich and he married a very beautiful woman; he paid to the painter(s) for her portrait.  Maybe the duke is old or very ugly but the duchess is very young.  She is not fond of staying with her time with the duke and she has a heart to play around.  The duke can’t put up with that and killed her.  The poem reminds me a story 藍鬍子. He has several wives, and he is a man who has a tendency of jealousy and control.  Whenever he is suspicious about his wife, he kills her and marries another.  The duke is definitely superior to the duchess because he wouldn’t “stoop”.  He would have an obedient beautiful wife as he is collecting her.  He said, “That’s my last duchess painted on the wall/ Looking as if she were alive(1-2).”  We wouldn’t feel a person we love alive just on seeing his/her portrait on the wall so obviously the duke’s attitude isn’t loving her but more proudly owning her.

Is it possible the duke commands his wife she stop smiling and then she obeys? I don’t think so.  He rather possibly murdered her.  Why murder?  In 45 and 46, “Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;/Then all smiles stopped together.”  And because this poem, the woman is wild and easily pleased by other men, the duke is embarrassed and upset about this, and he said, “She had/ A heart…too soon made glad,/Too easily impressed(21-22)”, then it is an excuse to let him make some decisions.  Meanwhile, the time and place are Renaissance Italy but not now, it easily makes me connect woman to man’s possessions.  The time for feminists didn’t come yet.  All we see is from masculine side of the duke, a man’s perspective.  We see the duchess isn’t a good woman, and she deserves the duke’s punishment.  If the poem is put in nowadays, it surly will arise the public’s objection.  Therefore, the poem is suitable for Renaissance Italy time but not now.

Total word: 535