Robert Browning’s poetry - “My last duchess” Introduction His poem is based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who lived in the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem, and tells us he is entertaining an emissary who has come to negotiate the Duke’s marriage to the daughter of another powerful family. As he shows the visitor through his palace, he stops before a portrait of the late Duchess. The Duke begins reminiscing about the portrait sessions, then about the Duchess herself .He begins to act disgraceful: he claims she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name.” As his monologue continues, the reader realizes with ever-more certainty that the Duke in fact caused the Duchess’s early demise: when her behavior escalated. Having made this disclosure, the Duke returns to the business at hand: arranging for another marriage, with another young girl.
In the second plot, Malvolio works for Olivia and mistreats the other workers. However, he believes that he is in love with Olivia. The second plot complements the first one because of the shared interests in Olivia. In both plots, the characters are interested in Lady Olivia and attempt to win her heart. Orsino’s marriage expectations are already known across the region.
Davaris Brown Professor Johnson English 1102 18 April 2012 Explication of “My Last Duchess” This narrative poem is about a Duke who is looking at a picture of his dead Duchess. He talks about the portrait on the wall of her, which he admires. The Duke thinks about how the Duchess compares everything to him. The death of the Duchess shows another side of the Duke which started to show while he’s talking and is unrevealed at the end. The Duke thinks he is bigger than God and also a jealous and possessive man.
The affair continues, but ends abruptly when Anna is summoned back home by her husband. Gurov returns to his home and family in Moscow and embraces his old life, hoping and assuming that he will forget all about Anna. But this is not the case. Consumed with thoughts of her, confused by his feelings, and suspecting love, he travels to Anna's house and seeks her out one night at an opera while her husband is outside smoking. Anna is horrified by his arrival and terrified that someone will see, but she admits that she hasn't been able to stop thinking about him since she left Yalta.
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.
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. As he guides the visitor through his palace, the Duke shows the Count of Tyrol a portrait of his late wife, who died in 1564 he says to him “Will’t please you sit and look at her? (5). While discussing the portrait with his visitor, the duke also discusses his relationship with his deceased wife reminiscing about her disgraceful, unappreciative, and flirty behavior. The Duke explained to his guest “she like whate’er / she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
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
My Last Duchess is written by Robert Browning in 1842. A dramatic monologue of the Duke of Ferrara presents his best side to the agent of the count of Tyrol when he tries to talk about his previous wife. Set in iambic pentameter, AABB rhyme scheme along with other techniques such as enjambment and caesura, the poem reveals qualities about the speaker and his situation. The reader might be drawn to the conclusion that the speaker has something to do with his wife’s death as revealed in his confusing speech and actions throughout the poem. The dramatic monologue exposes the speaker’s true personality and his situation more than he aims to say both to the agent and the reader The Duke of Ferrara seems to be controlling in nature; he tries to control everyone he is comes to term with, like he controls the actions of the agent : “Will’t please you sit and look at her”, “Will’t please you rise?” and “Nay, we’ll go/ Together down, sir” .
Robert Browning uses the actions of the Duke of Ferrara, descriptions of the Duke’s late duchess, and style of courtship of the Duke in “My Last Duchess” to show that patriarchal society is an outdated and unfitting way to live. In “My Last Duchess”, the Duke of Ferrara begins by telling his guest, the servant of his newest prospective wife’s father, to look upon a painting of his late duchess. He has this portrait hidden behind a curtain and states, “none puts the curtain I have drawn for you but I” (Browning 9-10), meaning that only he, and those who he allows, can look upon this painting. The action of hiding his painting away for himself is representative of the view that men in a patriarchal society have towards women. They feel that women should be at home and should stay in their role in society.
Iago tells to Othello “every man who is married has an unfaithful wife. Every woman who is married is an unfaithful wife.” It may be true for some men and women but there could be some exceptions such as Desdemona. Iago tells Othello that it is better to know the truth, which Iago knows that it is not the truth. Iago speaks to Cassio, not about Desdemona, but about Bianca, because Othello couldn’t hear what Iago and Cassio said, but could only see Cassio’s face. He is convinced that Iago was speaking the truth.