My Ex Duchess Poem Analysis

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An Analysis of Two Poems “My Last Duchess” and “My Ex-Husband” are two poems that are very similar even though they come from two very different time periods. “My Last Duchess,” written by Robert Browning, is a poem of dramatic monologue by the speaker Duke Ferrera. “My Ex-Husband,” by Gabriel Spera, was written to be a modern-day copy of the poem “My Last Duchess.” It includes dramatic monologue like the original “My Last Duchess.” However, Spera modernizes the poem, making the speaker a divorced woman. The two poems show similarities and differences in characters, diction, and cultural differences. In “My Last Duchess” the characters are the speaker Duke Ferrara, and his spouse the late Duchess. The characters in “My Ex-Husband” are the…show more content…
This is because “My Ex-Husband” was written to mimic “My Last Duchess.” Some lines are almost identical, such as the first line in “My Last Duchess” when Duke Ferrara says, “That’s my Duchess painted on the wall” (Browning, 1). “My Ex-Husband” starts off almost exactly in the same manner, except for a little cultural difference, “That’s my ex-husband pictured on the shelf” (Spera, 1). Again, as in “My Last Duchess” when the Duke says, “Then all smiles stopped together,” in “My Ex-Husband” the ex-wife says, “All kisses stopped together” (Browning, 46; Spera, 45). The two lines are almost identical. In “My Last Duchess” the Duke says, “Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me” and in “My Ex-Husband” the ex-wife says, “Which Claus got in the settlement for me” (Browning, 56; Spera, 54). This is quite humorous because Spera uses the exact name “Claus.” Though some of the diction is different because of the time periods, one can see how Spera tried to stay close to the original…show more content…
Firstly, one must remember these poems were both written at very different times. “My Last Duchess” was written during the nineteenth century, yet it was staged to be during the sixteenth century. “My Ex-Husband” was written in the late twentieth century. “My Last Duchess” is narrated by a man, the Duke; “My-Ex Husband” is narrated by a woman, the ex-wife. Both are complaining about their previous spouse. The ex-wife probably would not be able to do this in the time of “My Last Duchess”. Women did not have a voice then. Another large cultural difference is when the Duke orders the death of his Duchess, which would be considered criminal in the time of “My Ex-Husband.” This would also be true with “My Ex-Husband” when the ex-wife divorces her husband, this would be considered criminal at the time of the other poem. Other cultural differences are easy to point out, the painting in “My Last Duchess” compared to the photograph taken with a Leica in “My Ex-Husband.” The cultural differences do a great deal to make the poems differ, but they still remain inevitably
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