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My Last Duchess

The mood and tone of My Last Duchess and the character of the narrator are immediately and concisely revealed in BrowningÆs (1842) first line, ôThatÆs my last Duchess painted on the wall, / Looking as if she were aliveö (1-2). Kennedy (1982) claims that ôBrowning may have modeled his speaker after Alonzo, Duke of Ferraraö (295). In this poem, the speaker narrates an account of his former wife, the titular Duchess of the poem, who the speaker has murdered. While the opening line demonstrates the materialistic, controlling, and murderous nature of the narrator, Browning uses a variety of poetic devices from rhythm and imagery to allusion and symbolism to fully characterize the nature of his speaker. In the end, the poem is wholly ironic in that the speaker finds himself a maligned and abused man, when in actuality he is a remorseless, controlling, and materialistic murderer.

The poem is in the form of a dramatic monologue, with the speaker describing what he found to be his dead wifeÆs lascivious behavior. He speaks of his deceased wife as a woman whose smiles were granted too generously to others than him, ôSir, ætwas not / Her husbandÆs presence only, called that spot / Of joy into the DuchessÆ cheekö (Browning 1842, 13-15). Browning uses irony through having the speaker act as if he were a wronged husband, when he is a materialistic, manipulative and controlling murderer. We see this clearly in the use of language and imagery. The speaker refers to artists to show he is cultured and refined, like that of Fra Pandolf. We see he is manipulative and controlling when he expressed that only he is in charge of who now sees his former wifeÆs countenance, ôàsince none puts by / The curtain I have drawn for youö (Browning 1842, 9-10). The Duke has put a curtain over his dead wifeÆs portrait and only he reveals it when and to whom he choose.

We see that the Duke is materialistic through BrowningÆs use of his re...

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My Last Duchess. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:42, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709742.html