My last Duchess - Robert Browning

My last Duchess  - Robert Browning

 

My last Duchess is a dramatic monologue and it conveys the opinion of a wealthy man as he shows a marriage broker a painting of his late wife, the name given to the portrait is “My last Duchess”

Lines 1-4

The speaker is a man of means, a Duke no less of Ferrara a town in Italy. He is about to show off an unusual painting to an anonymous guest. But later it becomes clear that the listener is an envoy (marriage broker representing another Aristocrat. He shows a portrait. The artist name is Fra Pandolf, the Fra meaning the brother which links the artist to monk hook and there were no connections between the Artist and the Duchess.

Line 5-21

The duke asks the emissary to sit and study the portrait. The Duke wants to ask how did the artist get so much dept and passion in a simple glance. The emissary too wants to ask the same Question. The Duke seems to think that it should have been only him who could made the Duchess blush but what if the artist had wanted her to show a little more flesh. (Her mantle, or clock covers too much of her wrist) or hinted that such a blush could never be adequately reproduce in paint. Thus, the duke is fabricating a story to brain wash the emissary that the artist’s flattery and compliments caused the Duchess to blush. In real life the Duke could never was able to inspire such blushes from his wife?

Line 22-34

The duke is unable to stop himself, telling of his wife’s happy disposition and positive outlook on wife. The duke despised her for being “Too easily impressed”, she is superficial, unable to discern between the important and the trivial. The duke was her partner. At first, she romantically inclined but he realized that she treated everyone and everything the same. she was too light hearted happy to ride a white mule, happy to accept a fruit from a fool. The Duke took a dislike to her innocent and equal treatment for all approach to life. The duke’s complaints are building up he had to do something to stop it.

Lines 35-46

Now the Duke asks the emissary who would bother debating or denouncing such behavior. Stoop mean -to lower. He is really bringing the Duchess down in this section. He says he never stooped the low but in real life he probably did. The emissary would report his own boss about the suitability of the duke for hand in marriage of a second aristocratic female. So, the Duke addresses the man as sir and subtly plying

Him with fake news about his same smile she gave everyone. He wasn’t that special to her, that was his perception may be. She smiled too often. The duke’s jealous grew. The poem shudders and shocks. The duke’s smiles stopped can it be a murder? Or did he send her off to a convent?

  Lines 47-56

There she stands / As if alive. ----It is a chilling statement to end the snobbish complaint from the duke. He asks the emissary to get up to move down the stairs. But the Duke first mentions that the count is a well-known person for his wealth, so he expects a decent dowry. It is the counts daughter who is in his mind. As they descend the duke paints out another work of art, of Neptune taming the sea horse. The theme is dominance, the Rome God of controls the picture by being the only one allowed to move the curtains. The duke is showing that he is really in it for the money and prestige. His ego and vanity cannot be suppressed. The poem ends with the words for me – how apt.

 The reader has to decide whether he is done with the Duchess who still behind the curtain with the same passionate glance, showing her true nature or did she dies in sorrow informing the artist to paint that spot of joy in defiance of her pretentious jealous husband?

Techniques

Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. Line such as the sound of “o” in “her wits to your for sooth.

Symbolism: The paint portrays/symbolizes how he objectifies woman as property or possessions white mule: symbolize Duke taming his wife.

Enjambment: Means continuation of a sentence.

                      The count your masters’s known munificence

Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. “Together down sir, Notice Neptune though.

Irony: The title is ironic because the dead mistress is not his last lady as he is going to marry again.

Simile: “looking as if she were alive”

Hyperbole: In line 24- she looked on and her looks went everywhere.

Alliteration:     /d/ in dropping

                      /s/ in smiles stopped together. There she stands

Euphemism: Polite expression used in the place of Harsh

                     Ex: Much the same smile………. 

                    Then all smiles stopped together…….

Rhyme:       Wall/call hands/stands meet/repeat.