It requires little interpretation of the Dukes words to discover that his last Duchess was not only beautiful but charming, romantic and one who delighted in nature and the simple things of life
“Sir, ‘twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The drooping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard fro her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace”
Unfortunately, for the Duchess she seems naive and unaware that her husband required of her a respect and absolute attention to him alone. The flaw in his character, which proved fatal for the Duchess, was his obsession with beautiful and unique art objects
The most sinister aspect of this intelligent and powerful potentate, the Duke is his revelation that despite not liking the Duchess’ behaviour he chose “never to stoop” to tell her so. Instead he “gave commands” and had her killed. He is clearly much more comfortable with her as an art object in the painting.
“…….. There she stands.”
“Looking as if she were alive”
The obsession with unique art is reinforced as the duke guides the envoy down the stairs past a bronze statue.
“…Nay, we’ll go
Together down, Sir! Notice Neptune, tho’,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.”
This reference is symbolic. It mirrors the Dukes intention of assuring that the new Duchess will behave exactly as he wishes. Additionally this is one of the elements of action in the poem. Previously the Duke had ‘instructed’ the envoy to be seated whilst viewing the painting.
“Will’t please you sit and look at her?”
Now he is taking the envoy downstairs. This action recognised through the words of the monologue make it a dramatic monologue.
That the count is articulate as well as being an evil intelligent can be seen from manipulative way he deals with the Count’s envoy. The envoy is a servant but the duke appears to treat him as an equal. However, the envoy, the implied listener, can be in no doubt of the message he must return to his master.
“The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object.”
Again can be heard the blind, arrogant, egotism and unintentional reference to the new Duchess being an art “object.” Earlier the Count refers to his own capacity for apparently simple but menacing revealing speech.
“ …Even if you had skill
In speech- (which I have not)-to make your will
Quite clear to such an one”
It is clear that the Duke expects his new duchess to have been thoroughly prepared to behave at the Dukes absolute disposal and no other by the time she comes to be married. He does not expect to have to correct anything about her behaviour.
Robert Browning’s stunning, dramatic monologue, “My Last Duchess” is indeed the unintentional revelation of a powerful and murderous tyrant who shows no capacity for love only obsession control of all and everything around him and compulsive need to express himself through unique art objects. I found the Duke’s behaviour totally chilling, I was deeply shocked by his revelation that not only he had had his wife killed, but that he could talk about it openly and uses this evil murder as a warning to his next wife. Clearly Browning created a complex and thoroughly sinister character who, despite his cunning revealed aspects of his character which he did not intend to. It is an immensely skilful poem which has convincingly caught my imagination and become embedded in my memory.
