The unbroken verses give the poem a rolling and rushing feel. The rhyme keeps the reader’s voice in a steady rhythm, but also serve to drive the unbroken and almost furious plot and pace of the poem. The fact that there are such obvious places to include verse breaks but makes the choice not to include them notable.
The poet sets the poem with traditional Gothic rain and wind battling over a lake outside. One might even say that the “elm-tops” being torn “down for spite” strongly foreshadows the narrator’s horrendous plot of cutting off Porphyria’s oxygen supply. The weather outside clearly reflects the inside psychological storm brewing and “vexed” emotional state of the speaker.
As Porphyria enters the room, she first fixes the grate and warms the cottage. The narrator basically mentions that his first reaction to her is most certainly warm. He carefully describes her taking off of certain clothing. Nothing revealing, only her cloak, shawl, gloves, hat, and letting her hair down, but his description of each give the impression of extra sensual indulgence. This is notably the first of many times her hair is mentioned, for repetition is a warning in this piece.
Due to the emotional state of the narrator, he begins or has been deluding himself and the reader feels a hint of his insanity. He comments with confidence about how she enjoys his company and worships and will gladly surrender to her passions with him, but she does not care to break her “vainer ties” with another (probably a husband). His personal dispute draws another outcome that “she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good”. The repetition of “mine” makes clear the idea that he wants to keep her through any means.
He then strangles her with her own hair, and the hair’s importance becomes very clear. The symbolism behind Porphyria’s pure golden mane; her hair serves as one of her seductive tools, but it also kills her. The poem draws on the reader toward classic imagery of female blondes in distress, therefore giving her hair an innocent yet seductive quality.
After the brutal, yet considered murder, the narrator repeats to himself that “No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain”. It sounds as though he is trying to convince himself of this false statement. This obsessive repetition serves more to make the readers unsure about this claim than to reassure them of its real truth. As they sat in his morbid display throughout the night, the reader is left with the assurance of his actions because “God has not said a word!”.
As shocking as this poem may be, it also makes some sober points. The author chooses to destroys the absolute credibility of the narrator. Browning allows the readers to look into a situation they would otherwise prejudge from a totally different perspective. The average reader would automatically reject a person who strangles his lover without really attempting to see the situation from the jealous lover’s point of view. With this poem, Browning allows the readers to slip into a channel of thought and then violently jerks them out with a murder. The voice of the narrator is what makes this poem a unique and interesting.
The poem “My Last Duchess” shows the Duke’s lack of moral character. This is illustrated by his need for control, his jealousy, and in his view of his last Duchess as a possession.
He often hints that he has a strong desire to control his former Duchess. He tells how he is displeased when she does not treat him better than she treats others. The extremity of this need to control her appears in the following: “This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together”. It is apparent that since he could not control her, he simply did away with her, probably having her killed. Another point that can illustrate his commanding nature is the curtain he keeps closed in front of his Duchess’s painting: “none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I”. He is able to monitor who is able to see the painting of the Duchess, something he had no control over while she was alive.
Yet another example can be seen at the end of the poem, when he shows a sculpture of Neptune taming a seahorse. As the guest observes, “The statue of Neptune taming a seahorse is a symbol of brutal male domination of the beautiful and natural”. The Duke might have meant to hint that he had managed to tame the Duchess by killing her.
He describes the Duchess as someone with a kind (almost innocent) personality, one he seems to be jealous of. For example, at one point he says, “She had A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad”. He often makes statements like this, criticizing her cheerful nature.
At times he seems to be jealous of insignificant things: “My favor at her breast, The dropping of the daylight in the West . . . all and each would draw from her alike the approving speech”. In this quote the reader can see he is jealous because she finds pleasure in the sunset, an odd thing to be jealous of.
The fact that the Duke’s jealousy extends beyond people, to objects in the Duchess’s affections, is evidence of his cruelty.
Lastly, the Duke’s cruel nature can be seen in his view of the Duchess as no more than a possession. One example of this is the statement he makes about her painting: “I call that piece a wonder now”. The statement sounds distant and impersonal, not something one would expect to hear about a loved one. As if the duke has taken from her what he wants, her beauty, and thrown the rest of her life away.
Obviously, he only wishes to display the painting as a piece of art in his collection. Yet another example can be seen when he speaks of going down to meet the woman he intends to marry stating, “Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed at starting, is my object”. When he refers to the new woman as his object, he lets his true view of women show. As if the possessive egotist counts his possessions even as he moving toward the acquiring of a new one and the last duchess is seen in a final perspective. As the new duchess takes her place as one of many in the line of objects; he calls an art collection.
In his two poems "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess," Browning uses the theme of possessiveness that dominates each poem. First, both men view their lovers as though they were mere objects. In PL, Porphyria is strangled in order that her lover can create a statue-like corpse that would hold a particular look in her eyes that "laughed…without a stain" forever. In MLD, the Duke reduces his wife to a portrait, a possession where he can display her whenever and wherever he wishes, "[l]ooking as if she were alive." Second, both men murder their lovers as though the women were without a freewill. In PL, the lover kills Porphyria after he thinks that she should not have enjoyed "tonight's gay feast" from which she returned. In MLD, the Duke kills his wife, because she was kind and gave "who passed without / Much the same smile." Third, both men fail to show any remorse as though their lovers were disposable. In PL, the lover sits with the dead Porphyria and remarks that "God has not said a word" about the murder. In MLD, the Duke is able to negotiate a deal for a new Duchess, while he speaks calmly about his last wife, of whom he "gave command; / Then all smiles stopped together."
