My Last Duchess' we experience the view that the male should have the main role in relationships, in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' we hear of a relationship where the woman is in total control

Raja Patel 10L ‘A Woman to Her Lover’ by Christina Walsh 01/05/2007

Set 6 ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning

‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ by John Keats

What differing views and experiences of male-female relationships do you find in these poems, and how do the poets effectively express them?

In the three poems we experience three different views of how male-female relationships should take place. In ‘My Last Duchess’ we experience the view that the male should have the main role in relationships, in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ we hear of a relationship where the woman is in total control of the man and has all the power. Finally in ‘A Woman to Her Lover’ we hear the view that both men and women should have an equal amount of power and no one should be dominant.

In ‘My Last Duchess’ the thoughts of a very possessive and arrogant Duke of Ferrara are shared. He expected his wife to behave in a very conservative manner and wanted her to treat others as inferior.

The Duke shows his position of power in the poem by referring to her as; ‘My Last Duchess’. The Duke uses the possessive pronoun ‘My’ which shows that the Duke doesn’t want anyone else to enjoy his wife’s company and he wants her all to himself. This shows that he has power over his wife as he refers to her as a belonging; it also shows that he is arrogant as well as dominant. Furthermore, we can see that the word ‘last’ implies that the Duke had previous wives; it also suggests that she is his duchess no more and so something must have happened to her. As a result of this we get the impression that the Duke simply marries then divorces, or kills, his wife just to receive her dowry, and to get more money.

Also, we can see that when the Duke refers to the picture of his wife, he immediately names the well known artist that painted it; “I call that piece a wonder … ‘Frà Pandolf’”. Here we see that the Duke shows off the fact that his painting was created by a famous artist, he may also be trying to give the impression that such a famous artist would only paint for him because he is so special. When he talks about his painting instead of praising his wife, he merely mentions the name of the artist and says how valuable it is. This tells us a great deal about the Duke’s character; not only does it show that the Duke thinks highly of himself, but it shows us the he is very self-centred. This is emphasised by the fact that he ends the poem with the word; ‘me!’, showing that he has an extreme sense of self-importance. Furthermore, we can see from the first two lines of the text Duke establishes his object:

“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive.”

This instantly gives the idea that his wife is dead from the phrase; “Looking as if she were alive”. This immediately grabs the attention of the reader and makes the reader want to find out how she died.

We can also see that the Duke is very arrogant and proud by expressing his disgust when his wife did not appreciate any of his gifts:

“ as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift.”

This shows that his wife ...

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“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive.”

We can also see that the Duke is very arrogant and proud by expressing his disgust when his wife did not appreciate any of his gifts:

“ as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift.”

This shows that his wife values his gift as much as she values something as common as a sunset, the Duke is astonished at this fact and doesn’t understand why. We can see that he is proud as he is under the impression that he is giving his wife a gift simply by marrying her. This expression also brings out the boastfulness of the character.

The Duke shows his position of power by eventually killing his wife:

“Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together.”

As his wife was being flirtatious with other men, the Duke had her killed, this illustrates the power that the Duke possesses, this is emphasised by the phrase: “I gave commands” which shows that the Duke simply has to say something and it will be done, confirming that the Duke is in a high position of power. Furthermore, we can see that the Duke is bragging about his power however, whilst doing this he reveals unwanted aspects of his character showing that he is a very cruel man by saying he murdered his last wife. Furthermore, we can see that the Duke is bragging about his power even more by saying that he has had an object cast in bronze: “Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!” Here we see that he shows off his high quality piece of artwork that was made especially for him by a famous sculptor. In addition to this, we can see that he is holding this piece of artwork with the same value as the picture of his wife which shows that the Duke believes that he is superior to everyone else.

The strong feminist views in ‘A Woman to Her Lover’ however, are in total contrast to the well-known ideas in ‘My Last Duchess’. Although at first ‘A Woman to Her Lover’ appears to only show the feminist views of relationships, it is in fact in search of equality between the males and females in relationships. ‘My Last Duchess’ gives the sense that a man has the leading role, and all of the power in any relationship whereas in ‘A Woman to Her Lover’, the ideas that both men and women should be equal in relationships are uttered.

In the first stanza of the poem, we can see that the woman examines how women are typically expected to be by men (as a housewife) the “servant” and “to bear you children”. The very fact that she is expressing these phrases in a critical and negative manner implies that she has a resents this idea towards this stereotypical view of women. At the ending of this first stanza, she states; “If that be what you ask, O lover I refuse you!” The use of the refrain here, not only points out her hostility, but also shows that she is interested in someone who shares the same views as her. This is in contrast to the attitude of the Duke, as he only wants a wife that will be inferior rather than an equal. Moreover, we can infer that the woman strongly believes equality is the main factor of a successful relationship even though equality was the very fact why the Duke’s relationship ended.

We can see that from the beginning of the poem, the woman shows her confident nature; “Do you come to bend me to your will”. She directly addresses the reader, which in this case is her lover. In the 19th Century, it would have been unacceptable for a woman to speak to a man such a authoritative manner; this shows the woman’s bold and daring nature. This is emphasised by her use of vocabulary; ‘bend’, ‘bondslave’ and ‘drudgery’. This magnifies her strong character but also shows us that she wants equality. She speaks in a very similar way to the Duke, both are confident and know what they want. The Duke may seem powerful, but we can actually see he is insecure, and with the woman, we can see that she may appear to be controlling, but by the end of the poem, she shows her true self. She uses words like ‘comrade’, ‘friend’, and ‘passion’, which is a more friendly tone, showing that she has an pleasant side.

In ‘A Woman to her Lover’, we can see that feminist views have been shown, where the woman in the relationship has partial power. However, in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, we can see that the woman has complete power, much like the Duke in ‘My Last Duchess’. This poem was set in the medieval times, where knights, were seen as heroes with power. However, in this poem we see Keats portraying a completely different image where the powerful and dominant knight is reduced to a shadow due to love. On the other hand the woman has supernatural powers as well as being very beautiful, she is a ‘faery’.

The title of the poem ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ immediately creates a sense of ambiguity in the readers’ mind as the title is in French and some people may not know what this means. The translation is “The beautiful woman without pity” this immediately tells the reader that the woman in the poem is going to have complete power over the man. Furthermore, the fact that the poem is written in the form of a ballad means the structure of the poem is going to be regular and have a regular rhyme scheme.

The female has the power of deception over the knight, which is the most crushing form of power out of the three poems. The knight explains how the woman seduced him by being sexually appealing, he describes her as ‘fragrant zone’ and ‘sweet moan’. This shows that, unlike the previous poems, the woman in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ uses her physical appearance to brain wash the man, this is in total contrast to the previous poems.

In this poem, Keats describes a relationship where the woman is in total control, and the man is inferior to the woman; this is the complete opposite to ‘My Last Duchess’. In this poem, the stereotypical roles of a man and woman have been reversed; the man is now portrayed to be the ‘damsel in distress’. The woman’s control over the knight is shown where she seduces him, showing his vulnerability and weak character, which is the total opposite of what we would expect of a knight.

The poetic voice of the poem is the knight, whose tone is hopeless, this is very unusual for a knight as they are portrayed as being strong and brave, and this is because of his unreturned love of the faery

“And this is why I sojourn here

Alone and palely loitering”.

The use of the adjective; ‘palely’ shows the knight has become insignificant and weak. The whitewashed tone used by the knight, contrasts with the assertive and bold nature of the woman in “A Woman to Her Lover”.

The imagery used in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ helps to convey a sense misery, which increases by the use of pathetic fallacy:

“The sedge has wither’d from the lake,

And no birds sing”.

The depressing surroundings help to convey to the reader the state that the knight is in, and also the state of his relationship. Furthermore, the fact that; “And no birds sing” has been used stresses the fact that he is deprived of life and happiness. The other main type of imagery used is sensual imagery ‘Full beautiful’, ‘sweet moan’, here, Keats allows the reader to build up a picture of the woman which helps the reader to visualise why the knight can be controlled by her.

In conclusion, we can see that wherever one individual in the relationship has had more power, whether it has been the man or woman, the relationship has ended in a sad state of affairs. In each poem the relationships are completely different, Browning’s poem views women as being inferior to men, Walsh’s poem views women and men as being equal and Keats views women as being faery’s, having supernatural powers and dominating the man. The main inference among the three poems is that the role of the sexes within a relationship can change, depending upon the characters in the relationships and the amount of power each person does posses.