The duke was unhappy because of her friendliness to everyone, and that she had no class, no ego, and the most of all, treated everyone else the same way she treated the duke. As seen in the duke’s monologue, “Sir, ‘t was not Her husband’s presence only, called that spot Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek:”. In this line, we learn that she smiled at everyone, not only the duke. In another instance in the monologue, we see the friendliness of the duchess, “Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”. Here, we get to know that she was impressed by anything, and didn’t act like she was special. Through the monologue, we also come across the duke saying that the duchess rode a white mule in the terrace, and that she would smile, blush and thank everyone she met. Through all this, we know that the duchess didn’t keep her pride as the duchess, didn’t behave in an orderly fashion, and by no means had the aura of a member of the royal family. However, there came a point when the duke had tolerated enough from her and gave orders to get her killed.
Apart from how the duchess offended the duke’s pride, we also get to know the personality of the duke. We already know that the duke is an important person and in high position. The duke is also marked by authority, power and pride. We get to know this through the language that the duke has made use of in his monologue and his tone of voice, as conveyed to us. The duke says, “Will’t please you sit and look at her?” to his guest. This shows the silent listener has no choice. We can see the authority in the duke’s voice, which comes through the power he holds. We again see the same authority in the duke’s voice when he states that only he draws the curtain, and no one else. The duke also quotes, “And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst (dared),” which shows how the duke thinks of himself. The duke thinks of himself as superior to other people. He expects everyone to show him respect, and thinks he has class. It is also obvious of the duke’s character from the reasons he stated to kill his last duchess. He did not like her behaving in the same manner to everyone else as she did to him. This shows the duke’s opinion of himself and what he wants to show others. It is obvious now that the duke thinks of himself as superior and of a higher class than the ordinary. He also wants to show his dominance over things. He wants everyone to behave the way he wants, and wants to control them. That is the reason he got the duchess killed, because of the dominance he wanted to show. The duke also states, “My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name,”, and again, we come across the superiority of the duke. The duke thinks of his family name and himself as royal, and expects all of its members to behave in a royal fashion. We also see the duke’s ego in the monologue. The duke’s ego is shown by the fact that he wanted his duchess to be friendly and loyal only to him, and not to anyone else. The duke has also stated, “and I choose never to stoop.” This shows how lucid the duke’s ego is in the monologue. The duke is also seen as a hypocrite in his monologue, where he says that he had no skill in speech, whereas he has so skillfully and powerfully recited this monologue to his silent listener. We should also take into account how the duke just “gave commands” to kill his duchess. This makes the duke’s authority transparent enough. Hence, in the duke’s monologue, the duke portrays himself as an aristocrat who is a collector of art, and an egoistic, powerful and authoritive person.
We do wonder why the duke is telling his next wife’s parent all this about himself. There are many different perceptions to this. However, one of them is very transparent and strong. The duke is probably giving the next duchess’ father a warning, and in a way suggesting to him what he expects out of his next duchess. This silent listener too shows some emotion to the duke’s monologue. Right in the beginning of the monologue, when the duke tells him to sit down, we can connect that the listener probably went too close to the portrait, and was surprised by the artistic manner in which “Fra Pandolf” had created that masterpiece, or he could have been able to find some similarities among the duke’s last duchess and his own daughter which made him cautious. Another instance we see is towards the end of the monologue, where the duke asks the listener to walk out together. We could see here that the next duchess’ father was horrified by the duke’s image of himself, and thus had the urge to walk out and get away. These emotions of the listener have all been mostly because of how the duke has portrayed himself. Although the duke has portrayed himself as a very cold character, we still could have some sympathy for the character. The duke is a member of the royal family, where the atmosphere and the entire mood are totally different. It is possible that the duke had been brought up in such a way that carved him into this cold, egoistic character. The duke could have been brought up in a place where the wives would just blindly obey their husbands, and thus he did what he thought right to his last duchess. This is how we can still have sympathy for the duke. This dramatic monologue is a skillful piece of Browning’s work, where he has beautifully portrayed character, suspense, and speech.