n this essay we will try to point out the use of irony that Browning does by looking at how it works in his poems, particularly to “My Last Duchess”. “My Last Duchess”, by Robert Browning is written in the form of a dramatic monologue. You are being spoken to by the Duke. Browning has captured an authentic speaking voice. The syntax is manipulated by the author in order to create a conversatinal tone.This is a poem telling a story, the title of this poem reveals that the speaker, a duke, is referring to his last wife.
“My Last Duchess” is about a Duke who is looking for a new wife and is showing a count’s servant around. He shows him a painting of his “Last Duchess” and tells him about her. The form of both the poems is similar but the structure and language is different. The form of both poems is a dramatic monologue. This shows a lot about the characters as we only hear their side of a story and their feeling about what is happening in the poem.
How does Robert Browning reveal the theme of Love in ‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘Porphyria’s Lover’? The ‘love’ that is demonstrated in both ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ is very far from a stereotypical portrayal, while the moods of the poems are very different. They are similar in that they were both written by the poet Robert Browning during the 19th century in the style of a dramatic monologue, and they both show contrasting themes and interpretations of love. In ‘My Last Duchess’, the Duke’s cold reflective monologue reveals the loveless circumstances under which his wife was murdered (instead, it was caused by his jealous and controlling nature); whereas the passion that the speaker in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ feels for Porphyria is evident from the first few lines of the poem, and ironically is the cause of her death. Another obvious similarity in the way the poems are written, other than the style of a dramatic monologue, is in the subject characters; that they are both female and have been murdered (whether directly or indirectly) by their male counterparts highlights the silencing of female voices during the 19th century .
My last duchess essay The poem "My Last Duchess" is about a powerful Duke, and his beautiful, flirtatious wife who has two different personalities, one that was reality and the other was the lady in the painting. The poem begins and ends with him mourning the loss of his deceased Duchess, but from the way that the mighty Duke speaks, he knows more about her death than he leads us to believe. The Duke chooses his word very carefully, when he talks to his friend about the painting of his wife. He only drops small hints, to his friend about the death of his Duchess. Which leads the reader to believe that the Duke killed his wife, or had someone to put her to her death.
The poem has a light tone and humorous aspects throughout. In contrast MLD which is written in 19th Century has a much darker and menacing tone; it is about a controlling Duke and his previous duchess and unravels the dark story behind them. PL is a Victorian poem, the poem is gothic, crude and perverted in parrts with a man's strange insane intentions. However all these poems are linked by the idea of the male possessing and controlling a woman. H on the other hand is a woman's interpretation of a 19th century fictional character and how this character is left with feelings of violent hatred after being let down in marriage by her fiancé who has wed her to gain some of her riches.
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.
He painted a portrait of Elizabeth Siddall but actually is the character of Beatrice Portinari from a poem La Vita Nuova of Dante Alighieri; she is Dante’s longterm lover. Rossetti had suffered a similar affliction in his beloved wife’s death, so he combine Dante’s love story with himself to illustrate his love. Firstly, I will describe the general painting and the single object. After that, then using my personal understanding to interpreting the meaning and the story hiding in this painting. The artists express their soul through their artwork, by creating a work of aesthetic beauty.
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.
" My Last Duchess” topic Writing In Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess,” a dramatic monologue, the author offers us a mind frame of picturing a man of powerful and jealous qualities whose main goal in life seems to be to towards controlling others. The Duke, who is not really Browning, but a sort of persona or fictitious voice, attempts to show his worth, partially through his claim that nobody can deceive him. What is ironically is that he really actually starts to show how unworthy he really is, through the way he deceives himself. Additionally, in the beginning the Duke is discussing to a mediator on behalf of a very important person, assuming to clarify the details of an arranged marriage, whom we eventually gather is a sort of envoy from a certain Count whose daughter the Duke will marry. In other words, she will become his “next duchess.” As the poem carries on early in the poem, the audience get the vibe that the Duke questioned his relationship with the Duchess in the portrait.
“My Last Duchess” serves two functions, to verbally depict the portrayal of a painted lady and the self-disclosure of the Duke. In "My Last Duchess," a portrait of the egocentric Duke of Ferrara is painted for readers. Although the Duke's monologue appears on the surface to be about his late wife, a close reading will show that the mention of the last duchess is merely a side note of a self-important speech. Browning uses the dramatic monologue form very skillfully to show readers the controlling, jealous, and egotistic traits the duke possessed without ever mentioning them explicitly (line5-10). The main theme in this monologue is related to a painting of the deceased Duchess to whom the title refers.