"My Last Duchess" By Robert Browning

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                                                                    "My Last Duchess"

                                             By Robert Browning

"My Last Duchess" is another dramatic monologue revealing the narrator's possessive behaviour

towards his wife. Robert Browning has written "My Last Duchess" in similar ways to

"Porphyria's Lover". Both poems have similar ideas and depict of possessive male figures.

The audience for "Porphyria's Lover" is the reader yet in "My Last Duchess" there is a direct

audience which is the count's servant and an indirect audience which is the reader. In the poem

Browning creates a male character who is the Duke of Ferrara. The Duke is a mysterious

character who appears to of thought a lot about his Duchess, "That's my last Duchess on the

war". This potrays his character's image as being a kind, gentle and caring person. The Duke

obviously admires his portrait of the Duchess, "I call that piece a wonder". "Looking as if she

were alive", this quote compliments the Duke for his artistic master piece yet has a more sincere

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meaning when you read on in the poem.

The Duke begins to show his possessive and materialistic ways. "Since none puts by the curtain

I have drawn for you, but I". This shows how he is determined and made sure that he was in

control of his relationship with the Duchess. The "curtain" shows how he does everything for her

and is control of her life, " Since none........but I". It shows that his whole life was devoted to

her.

The Duke then becomes critical of the Duchess and shows how he dislikes her ...

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