In Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," the duke gives a chilling speech that reveals a soul devoid of love, tenderness, or any human feeling at all. His only concerns are related to how he feels, how he appears to others, and whether or not he is in control. The title, "My Last Duchess," implies that he has had a succession of wives, and that this is the most recent. As the poem progresses, the duke increasingly reveals his dissatisfaction with the duchess for not regarding him as the center of her universe, the only one who pleases her, and the only one worthy of her praise and adulation. Her husband's presence only, called that spot
A heart--how shall I say?--too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywherea
Somehow--I know not how--as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
The duke clearly feels that his name is enough for him to give in return to the duchess for the lifetime of single-minded devotion to him that he expects from her.
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