“My last Duchess’
The Duke hints at the possessiveness he feels towards women and his arrogance through the use of ‘my’, connoting some sense of foreshadowing at what his controlling nature will cause. The addition of ‘last’ causes the reader to question how many wives the Duke has had, and makes him seem like a gruesome collector of wives as if they were actually possessions in his opinion. ‘Last’ has multiple interpretations also; either the previous wife that he was married to, or the final one that he is going to have. It is made clear at the end of the poem that the Duke has plans to marry the daughter of the man he is entertaining during the poem, suggesting that the Duke merely means previous.
“Half flush that dies along her throat”
The reader further understands the extent to the Duke’s possessive nature as he becomes angry that his wife is blushing - with the context of being in the presence of the portrait painter at the time. Furthermore, the Duke hints at the consequences she will face for expressing kindness to another man through the verb ‘dies’, possible alluding to her later death.
“My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”
The Duke’s emphasis on the age of his family name shows the pride that he takes in it, and his belief that he is raising the Duchess’s status in marrying her, ignoring the dowry that he received for her hand in marriage in preference of his ‘gift’. His arrogance is further presented as the Duchess has no opinion or voice throughout the whole poem - the Duke controls her completely and doesn’t care whether she liked or wanted his ‘gift of a nine hundred years old name’, emphasising his self-importance as he uses ‘my’ to separate what he adds to their relationship.
“I gave commands;/then all smiles stopped together”
The poem is most disturbing with what the Duke doesn’t reveal - he glosses over the nature of his ‘commands’, which the reader is inclined to believe that this was the Duke’s order for his wife’s death. Since the Duchess’ ‘smiles stopped together’, he had her killed in his displeasure. Browning purposefully left the statement open-ended to shock the reader, and allow their imagination to run free. His ‘commands’ connote force and aggression, especially when viewed in conjunction with the line below, despite the reader not knowing how the Duchess died. The caesura between the two lines clearly emphasise the sudden ending of her life that the Duchess experienced, and is especially threatening as he abruptly killed his wife amid her joy, providing a sharp contrast between life and death. We can link the Duchess’ situation to contemporary married life for women, who had to obey her husband as he had power over her every move, including her freedom.
“Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse”
The Duke abruptly changes the topic of conversation into something much more light-hearted, creating a spooky atmosphere which hints at the Duke’s madness and lack of care about who he has killed. However, the new subject that he chooses still has an undercurrent of domination, as Neptune is ‘taming’ a creature. These images can be compared to each other as the Duchess and the ‘sea horse’ are both beautiful yet powerless and are tormented by their masters - thus we can infer that the Duke is complimenting himself discreetly. Neptune in the statue is reflective of the Duke’s own character; it is a physical projection of himself as a dominating figure who has the power to take control of nature. The Duke’s arrogance is obvious in this, as he sees himself as a god-like man with unlimited power, assisted by the lack of a struggle from any of his past wives. Throughout the entire poem, readers can see that the Duke is deranged, and either doesn’t care about what people think about him, or he has lost all judgement.
Browning’s purpose
Through the Duke’s threats to the emissary who has come to discuss a potential marriage of his daughter to the Duke, Browning could be warning future wives of expectations in society of the behaviour of wives, and also warning young people against becoming like the Duke, thus helping to make society a better place.
Context
Internal (within the poem): the Duke is speaking to an emissary, come to discuss a marriage between the Duke and his daughter, which would boost his new wife’s family’s status - it is unclear whether the emissary doesn’t recognise the threat to his daughter’s life once she gets married, or if he doesn’t care and is prepared to sacrifice her life to boost their status within society.
External context:
Themes
Abuse of power
Power of art and memory
Transience of power
Powerlessness
Comparison
Ozymandias: both poets explore the abuse of power by individuals, and their failed attempts to keep hold of this power
similarity: both poets explore the failed attempts that individuals use to keep their abused power
Difference: in Ozymandias, the king builds a huge statue which eventually crumbles over time, whereas in My Last Duchess, the Duke keeps hold of his power, reflected in his control over a portrait of his previous wife