My Last Duchess

Robert Browning’s, “My Last Duchess” fascinates us with its murder and mystery. This dramatic monologue dates back to the renaissance where poetry and art shared their glamour. This art is admired by an aristocratic character in “My Last Duchess”, who is referred to as the duke, whose personality we infer through his monologue. The very first line of the monologue indicates to us that the duke is an important man and in at a high position. As the line says, “That’s my last duchess painted on the wall”, shows us that the duke has had some more duchesses before, and that happens mostly only in royal families. As we learn later, the duke has a guest over his place, whose daughter he is about to marry. This silent listener of the monologue is being shown around the duke’s castle by him, which seems to be filled with dark colors and dim lights and a cold environment, as per the duke’s personality. The duke is sharing with him his admiration of a collection of fine art which includes the portrait of the duke’s last duchess.

          The silent listener and the duke come across the Italian painting of the duke’s last duchess. We know that it’s Italian as the duke says, “Fra Pandolf’s hands worked busily a day”, where Fra Pandolf is an Italian name. Nevertheless, the duke has this painting covered with a curtain. The fact that the duke had it covered indicates to us that the duke has bad memories from his last duchess that haunt him. We learn later in the poem that the duke had given orders to kill the duchess. This understandably makes the duke feel guilty when he looks at the portrait of his last duchess. The duke had gotten her killed because of her indecent etiquettes and her behavior. The duke portrays the duchess in his monologue as a casual character, which she cannot afford to be in the position she is in, which is the wife of the duke.

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        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 ...

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