My Last Duchess - Robert Browning

Context

• Set in Renaissance Italy, a time of huge artistic growth, extreme wealth for noble families, strict social hierarchy, intense patriarchy, obsession with reputation, status, and control.

• Duke may be doing this because he likes quality and the finer things in life.

• Or there’s an element of snobbery to prove superiority.

• Overall, the poem shows that patriarchy causes women to suffer immensely. He is an extreme representation what men would be like if they were given even more power.

Form

• Dramatic monologue - biased as it’s only from his POV.

Structure

• 1 continuous stanza represents the Duchess’ endless control over the Duke despite him trying to constantly prove his superiority which may be out of insecurity about his power and status.

“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,”

• Theme: Possession and Control

• “last” → indicates she’s dead and that there’s been a succession of Duchesses.

• painted → evidence that it’s a fresco painting.

• We catch up mid-conversation.

• “my” → he sees all wives as possessions.

“……………………(since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)“

• Theme: Power and Control

• Juxtaposition - he thinks he’s in control over his wife through controlling a curtain, but really, she’s in control of him as she’s constantly on his mind and he always tries to find a way to assert his control to seem more powerful.

• Enjambment - emphasises juxtaposition suggests her power is continuously over him, her never ending control, no pause.

“Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ’twas all one!……………” ~ Lines 23-25

• Theme: Patriarchy and Gender

• Hyperbole - he wasn’t special to her, she treated all men like one. He’s jealous.

• List - emphasises what kind of woman she is.

• Against behaviour of patriarchal man → he seems insecure about himself, not manly.

“My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”

• Theme: Patriarchy and Gender

• He’s obsessed with status - doesn’t admire the painting in any way other than as a possession, in fact he closes it with curtains and doesn’t take time to even enjoy it himself.

• Names of artists so important to the Duke, which convey their fame and in turn his great self-worth to anyone.

“Then all smiles stopped together.”

• Theme: Violence and Control

• Sibilance - sinister tone. Deception / manipulation

• Caesura - irregular pause emphasises how her life came to an unplanned pause

“…….Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, …….”

• Theme: Power and Control

• Neptune is the Roman God of the sea.
- A sea-horse is a harmless, delicate creature
- Taming is controlling and dominating.

• The Duke sees himself as Neptune, thinking he’s entitled - he identifies with a literal God of power..

• The Duchess is the sea-horse - small, beautiful, something to be controlled.

• Alliteration shows the Duke’s obsession with control - even in art, he wants dominance.
- Not a partner, a possession.

• Metaphor for patriarchy.

• Browning ends the poem with this to show how power crushes innocence (Church crushes innocent children’s futures - London).

• It leaves the reader with a chilling reminder of how normalised this behaviour was.