Critical Essay My Last Duchess – Ferrara Robert Browning has created a perfect blend of form and content in his poem, ‘My Last Duchess’. The poetic techniques used allowed me, as the reader, to become involved in this poem and also contribute to an engaging read. Through using key techniques Browning brought to me a deeper appreciation of this poem, and in this essay I will study these further. The poem concerns the character, the Duke of Ferrara who is giving a tour of his manner to an envoy, who has been sent to negotiate a dowry for the marriage of his master’s, the count’s, daughter to the Duke. He stops at a painting of his late wife, his ‘last Duchess’ and begins a speech of which he is recanting his thoughts of her.
Browning’s use of this Dramatic Monologue involves the reader in the process of assimilating and deconstructing the story of the Duke of Ferrara’s relationship with his ‘last duchess’ through his diction, style, structure and rhythmic pattern. The Duke is portrayed as arrogant, possessive and well educated with a sense of control issues. We are able to identify these characteristics through Browning's diction and tone of voice. The Dukes arrogance is vividly
The Duke thinks he is bigger than God and also a jealous and possessive man. The poem starts off as the poet looking at a portrait of his last Duchess. He looks at the beauty of her as if she is still alive. The Duke says, “I call. That piece a wonder, now” (Mitchell 74).
Having made this disclosure, the Duke returns to the business at hand: arranging for another marriage, with another young girl. As the Duke and the emissary walk leave the painting behind, the Duke points out other notable artworks in his collection. Form “My Last Duchess” comprises rhyming pentameter lines. Consequently, the rhymes do not create a sense of closure when they come, but rather remain a subtle driving force behind the Duke’s compulsive revelations. The Duke is quite a performer: he mimics others’ voices, creates hypothetical situations, and uses the force of his personality to make horrifying information seem merely colorful.
The duke’s rapacious nature can be seen many times throughout the poem, one of these moments can be seen from line 1 to 10 in the poem where he talks about who painted the painting and their reputation in the artistic world more than the subject of the painting. These references show how much the duke values wealth. After the duke has finished admiring the artwork of artist he goes on to talk about the innocent face of the duchess. Many strangers observe the painting and admire the honest, depth and passion of the duchesses face however in the quote “But to myself they turned” shows that the duke had completely different thoughts about the painting. The messenger wasn’t the first person to talk about the duchesses face and whenever people ask about the face he replies in a very intimidating manner.
This piece of work of Browning has added a dimension to the world of literature., David Daiches says, “The Whole poem is but the visible part of the iceberg but the submerged invisible part is not a matter of vague suggestiveness; it is both psychologically and historically defined.” The poem is a beautiful study of soul-dissection in its short dramatic form. From our reading of this poem, the Duke of Ferrara emerges as unscrupulous, selfish, tyrannical and arrogant, emerges as an individual as well as a typical nobleman of the Italian Renaissance. We form the idea of the Duchess from the words of Duke himself. She is frank,
To go along with this, the tone of his speech conveys his pride and haughtiness towards the woman in the picture. This is clearly shown when he says, “Will’t please you sit and look at her?” I said “Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read “Strangers like you that pictured countenance, The depth and passion of its earnest glance,” When the Duke says this, it proves his arrogant and possessive attitude towards her, though she is dead. When he is listing her beautiful qualities and attributes, he is inadvertently taking credit for her them, as if to say that without him, she would not be as beautiful or wouldn’t be
Brittney Lynch “The Painting of the Duchess” “My Last Duchess” is a dramatic monologue written by Robert Browning in the year 1842, and was published in his collection Dramatic Lyrics the same year. In this poem, the Duke of Ferrara discusses his first wife while negotiating terms for a second marriage with a representative serving the Count of Tyrol. Browning uses characterization, setting, conflict, and symbolism to reveal the theme of the arrogant, authoritarian, proud mindset of the Duke. The speaker in the monologue “My Last Duchess” is the Duke of Ferrara. In this poem, the Duke states that he is entertaining an emissary who has come to negotiate his marriage to the daughter of another powerful family.
It shows this in certain quotes that describe and show off a character’s personality. It shows conflict that will unfold later on in the play and things that characters say display their personality and relationships with other people. In this scene Othello defends his love for Desdemona and why she has fallen in love with him, as her father believes he has used charms and spells to seduce her. Othello reveals to Brabantio that Desdemona fell in love with his stories of war and his differences to anyone she has ever met. This shows Othello and Desdemona’s devotion and commitment to each other and gives the audience an insight into the character of Othello and his origins and life of war.
Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue uttered by the Duke of Ferrari which highlights the jealous and sadistic nature of his character and the mysteriousness which surrounds his late wife’s demise. The poem starts with him drawing the attention of the person whom he is talking to, who is, as one later finds out, a messenger from the Count’s family whose daughter’s hand the duke seeks in marriage; to the portrait of his late wife on the wall. The duke praises the work of the painter, Fra Pandolf, who had spent a whole day slaving over the painting to make it look so lifelike. He instructs the messenger to sit down, and goes on to describe how anyone who has ever seen that picturesque expression on his lady’s painted face, has never failed to ask him, as he has always been present for no one dares to draw the curtain from the painting except him, the reason behind the lively expression. He then thinks about his late wife, remembering that it wasn’t just his company which made her blush.