Browning uses the dramatic monologue form for My Last Duchess. As it is the Duke who is 'speaking', his character is therefore created through his own words. From the very first line of the poem, the Duke unwittingly portrays himself as a selfish and rather ignorant egotist. That's my last Duchess painted on the wall He refers to the woman in the painting (who, we should remember, is dead) as if she were a possession - "my last Duchess" and this unfeeling attitude is intensified with the use of the word "last" as if the woman will be replaced by a newer model, as if replacing a car or suit. The Duke name drops the painter's name "Fra Pandolf" to see if it impresses the listener.
This scene was set up in such a way, in dramatic terms, is so the audiences could focus on Lady Anne’s brutal curses towards Richard and his well-being, even though Richard had not enter this part of the scene yet. She also utilizes imagery to emphasize and exaggerate her pleas. The language Lady Anne uses is appropriate for this scene which is set during the funeral process of King Henry VI. The end-stopped lines slows down her speech and this emphasizes how in pain and agony she is over the death of the king. The quote where Lady Anne states “If ever he have wife, let her be made.
The Use of Women as a Tool to Untie Hamlet In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare crafts a tragedy centralized around the main character, Prince Hamlet and his negative perception of the women in his life. One main point of Shakespeare’s piece is to highlight how a female’s weakness ultimately shapes the decisions of their male counterparts. He does so by skillfully using the nature of a woman as a compelling force that leads to Hamlet’s destruction. Prince Hamlet struggles with accepting the harsh reality that his mother has remarried to her late husband’s brother. This conflict within Hamlet is further expounded by the possibility that his father was murdered by his uncle, King Cladius.
They say, “Love can be dangerous in the wrong hands.” In the poem, “My Last Duchess”, that statement is a fact. All that the woman ever did was smiled at the things that made her happy, but her husband felt as if she gave him the same attention as she would a stranger. He wanted to feel special and since she could not give him that extra attention that was needed, he decided to have her killed. He also took upon himself to tell the father of his new wife, what had happened to his last wife. He basically was informing the father that if his daughter does the same as his last wife then she would be killed as well.
My chosen monologue is spoken by Juliet to her nurse and can be found at Act 3, Scene 2 lines 97 – 127. In this scene, on hearing the news that Romeo killed her cousin, Tybalt, Juliet is initially angry, but her love for him resurfaces and Romeo’s banishment overshadows Tybalt’s death. There are a lot of conflicting stresses in the first few lines; opposites with contrasting arguments to show Juliet's opposed states of mind. Juliet feels conflicted because her love for Romeo clashes with her love and sense of duty to her family. She asks why Romeo killed her cousin, calling him a villain, but realises Tybalt’s death is less significant and she grants Romeo the license to kill her cousin when she realises that her cousin would have killed Romeo had he not been killed instead.
He is overheard by a stablehand and reported to the authorities. To save her lover, Bess sacrifices herself. When the highwayman learns of this, he is consumed with revenge and killed by the King’s soldiers. The legend says that on nights like the one when they were killed, the ghosts of Bess and her lover can be seen. This ballad uses a variety of literary devices to enhance the overall effect of the author’s words.
He only obtained the throne after killing his brother and marrying his brother’s widow. King Claudius appears to the audience as a civil, diplomatic ruler and it is only until the ghost first appears to Hamlet that is revealed he killed his brother with poison. The betrayal of his mother marrying King Claudius within a month after his King Hamlet’s death leaves Prince Hamlet feeling angry, bitter and revengeful towards his mother. Also the fact that she married her brother-in-law was considered to be incestuous and sinful in that era. When Prince Hamlet hires travelling actors to perform an act to the King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, they notice the plot to be similar to the murder of King Hamlet.
Macbeth is a play about a soldier who comes under his wives influence to commit regicide so as to become king and his wife to join him as queen. Their relationship is presented as being strong. Macbeth treats his wife differently to how other men treated their wives back then. In society then, women listened to whatever their husbands said, but in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s case, Macbeth treated his wife with affection and told her everything. “This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness”.
Browning wrote ‘My Last Duchess’ about a Duke who has had his wife killed out of jealousy. It could be argued that Browning uses the poem to show how the Duke’s number one relationship is actually with himself. His first line, ‘that’s my last duchess painted on the wall’ shows his pride in presenting the painting. The use of the possessive pronoun ‘my’ suggests that he saw his late wife as no more than a possession to show off. His lack of concern or grief in the fact that she is dead suggests that it is the object of the duchess and not the actual person that he loved, and the word ‘last’ implies that she was just one of many women that the Duke had turned into nothing more than objects for him to show off to others.
As it shows, it is obvious to see that the Duke has listed many "flaws" of the Duchess, with his strong ego thinking that she hasn’t quite made the cut in terms of being his next wife. In conclusion, the Duke believes that his ex-wife was not loyal enough and did not meet the standards of a Duchess. Therefore, he had his wife murdered.