The Duke is obsessed with his Duchess even though she is dead. He perceives that people think sexually of her from what they see in the painting but in reality they see a normal human being. “A heart…too soon made glad”. This remark by the Duke shows that he is sexually jealous of his wife and he has sexual paranoia and insecurities. There is a power reversal as he is jealous of her. “And her looks went everywhere” That is why the portrait is hidden behind the curtain. This symbolises his control over her. The author uses the symbolism of a curtain to represent control and power over women. This also shows that he had no control of his wife when she was alive.
There is a lot of misunderstanding between the Duke and Duchess. The Duke can’t realise that his wife was a normal human being and he prohibited her from talking to other people. He wanted his wife to be treated as a trophy that that just sits in one place and has to be admired. The Duke is socially impotent unlike his wife. This indicates Browning was interested in the conflict between men and women. He emphasises on the woman’s point of view of powerful men and how women don’t accept it. This is nonsensical.
The Duke is self-deprecating when he quotes, “Even had you skill in speech-(which I have not)” the Duke might be a bit paranoid or pathologically jealous. He is somewhat an ego-maniac because he only thinks of himself. He also thinks that the Duchess is not worth talking to. “I choose never to stoop”. This is another point Browning exposes about the stereotypical characteristics that the men and women had, and how the characters in the poem, were totally different to what we would expect of them.
The Duke has no appreciation for women and he has a hatred for them. The author has deliberately shown the Duke as a misogynist and a chauvinist to represent the power relationship between a man and a woman in Victorian times. The Duke treats women like objects. “At starting, is my object”. He expects his next wife to act like an object that he can control. Here Browning evokes the sexist characteristics of the men in Victorian times.
Eventually, he made plans to kill her as that was the only way to control her “I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together.” Since the Duchess is dead, she can no longer control her own actions. The phrase that said that the Duke gave orders to kill the Duchess is ambiguous. The Duke never stated that he killed her or that he planned to kill her. The Duchess’s death is un-clarified because it isn’t stated that the Duke killed her. If the painting of the Duchess represents her, then the Duke figuratively now has ultimate control over her. He decides who is to view the painting and when they are to view it “The curtain I have drawn for you, but I”.
Robert Browning has used a male narrator’s voice throughout both poems to show that men were the traditional bearers of power in gender relationships. Men are looked as the active agent and women are seen as the passive, although it is a totally different case in modern times. Nowadays women have just as much rights as men do and this contrast makes the issue of power more effective. Also he is the only one talking. The envoy is another person involved in the poem but he doesn’t say a word showing the Duke has control over him as well. “Who’d stoop to blame this sort of trifling?” All the questions phrased to the envoy are rhetorical.
The last three lines are related to power which the Duke desires and believes he has a right to have. “Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, which Claus Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!” The Roman god Neptune had control over the seas and so the Duke should have control over his wife.
‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is written with a different story line to ‘My Last Duchess’ but still there are similar themes that occur in both poems. The title, “Porphyria’s Lover” suggests possession, love, lust, supremacy, control and lunacy.
The rhyming scheme is different to ‘My Last Duchess’. The rhyming scheme for this poem is ‘ab ab ba’. The rhyme is every alternate line yet making the poem well structured. There are eight syllables per line. Examples of this rhyming scheme are: tonight, awake, spite, lake, break…The impact of this structure shows how tense and serious the atmosphere is and how there is a build up of apprehension.
The first few lines are very vivid. “The sullen wind was soon awake” Here is a personification. The wind is not able to express human emotions of sulkiness and spite. It’s a pathetic fallacy. These personifications are used to build up tension. Words like sulkiness and spite show that something dire is going to happen.
In the previous quote there is also a pathetic fallacy. “She shuts out the cold” This could symbolise the man’s agitation which she shuts out when she glides in. At this point we think maybe that Porphyria is a fantasy figure but as we read a few more lines Porphyria was taking sexual initiative meaning she had to be real. “She put my arm around her waist, and made her smooth white shoulder bare…” The effect of erotic iterative imagery is used here by Browning to create sexual tension between a man and a woman and also showing that the woman is the one with the power here and not the man.
The man alleges that she is too weak to stay with him forever and she can’t devote herself totally to him. He understands that she has social ties with other people but yet he wants her with him all the time. This is really an act of selfishness .She could be too proud. “Too weak for all her hearts endeavour…From pride and vainer ties dissever” But even though she has social ties she still manages to see him, show that passion does prevail despite struggles that occur.
This affair between the man and the woman could be against rules. “She was mine, mine fair” Here there is a repetition of the word mine to emphasise possession over the woman. At that one time she is totally his. The roles of power are reversed here. This has caused his male ego to be flattened by a woman. Few lines later there is a quote, “I found a thing to do” This seems mundane. The upcoming action is looking horrific. One syllable word effect is a good one for this sort of sentence.
There perhaps is a class struggle and when there is the role reversal the man wants to preserve that moment forever. “Porphyria worshipped me” He took care of the situation by murdering her. “In one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her” The murder part is nonsensical. But the strange thing is that he finds her more attractive now than when she was alive. Sex and death work well together to cause a creative effect to make us feel disturbed.
Now that she is dead he believes that she is content. “Laugh’d the blue eyes without a stain.” There is another sexual image mentioned however disturbing it may be. “Blush’d bright beneath my burning kiss” He doesn’t realise perhaps that could be the blood that rush up when he strangled her. The confusion created by how he treats this dead woman is effective.
Because she is dead he knows that he controls her. Here there is a power reversal. He feels he has done her a favour by killing her. Now she can’t reject him. The last sentence is related to God. “And yet God has not said a word!” This shows he does not feel guilty for what he has done. It is sort of a minor religious conflict with God because he is threatening God in one sense. Browning relates to God as we think this is very strange act the character has committed. The meaning is always powerful when God is mentioned as God is an ultimate. The character is not getting punished for what he has done.
In both poems there is an occurrence of death of the women significantly suggesting that men had more power as they were involved in the murder of their wives or loves. In ‘My Last Duchess’ the Duke hides the portrait of his wife behind a curtain and in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ the man hides the woman in his mind. In the female aspect of the poem they were socially superior to the men, who seemed to be insecure and lonely. In both poems the women sexually manipulated the men. This is another power reversal in these poems.