my last duchess - robert browning

themes: - abuse of power

context

• Duke Alfonzo II, ruler of 16th-century Ferrara

  • Alfonzo II married Lucretia de Medici (16y/o), who died under suspicious reasons (possibly poisoned.)

  • Went on to have many other wives.

  • criticism of patriarchal views

• Industrial Revolution + Victorian Britain

  • Women of lower class would often be married off by brothers and fathers as they were seen as a financial burden

  • Typically after marriage, women would become the possession/property of their husband

  • Women had no legal rights, no access to divorce

• Modesty

  • Sex = taboo, especially towards women

Dramatic Monologue + Caesura + Enjambment

• Empowers the Due, making his presence/power seem overwhelming as he dominates the whole convo

• Enjambment + Caesura between lines gives the reader no time to breathe/process the information given by the Duke

• The caesura/all the breaks are in the middle of the line so you never really get a proper HHUUUUH (inhaling/break) moment

• The Duke appears to be rambling on (he’s yapping)

Iambic Pentameter + Rhyming couplets

• Strictly followed scheme that reflected the abusive/strict rules he forced the Duchess into following

“My last Duchess”

• Adjective ‘last’ has 2 meanings

  • “Last” as in the Duke’s one and only, first and last lover (what the reader is supposed to expect)

  • “Last” as in the Duke’s previous wife out of many others. (what the reader is shocked to find out)

  • OMINOUS

  • context: victorian morality + sexuality, patriarchy, how it was acceptable for men to have multiple wives  + have affairs, but women were looked down upon if they had multiple partners. Many wives had to stay with their husbands as they had no right to a divorce. 

• Possessive pronoun “my”

  • Duke views the Duchess as his property

• context: women were often married off by their fathers/brothers as they were a financial burden + a tool to elevate their class. Husbands viewed wives as their property, no legal rights, etc.

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

• Curtains as a symbol of secrecy + parentheses

  • The parentheses make the reader gloss over or make the sentence seem insignificant to the rest of the monologue (adding to the idea of secrecy, like the sentence is curtained by the brackets?? you get me?)

• Ends in ‘I’

  • Emphasizes the Duke’s paranoia and desire to control the Duchess, to the extent that he is imprisoning her in her death.

  • context: boo hoo patriarchal men own women 

“too soon made glad, / Too easily impressed”

• only part of the poem where the Duke is not completely in control.

• Catalyst for why the Duke killed his wifey, his lack of control over his wife

• Duke only wants his wife to smile at him or show affection to him!!

• context: victorian beliefs on modesty + sexuality.

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

• Entitlement

  • The Duke believes that his status (name of aristocracy) justifies his actions + grants him the ability to treat his wife in any manner he chooses.

• context: victorian patriarchal, classist society!

“Who’d stoop to blame”

“Stooping”

”I choose / Never to stoop.”

• Repetition of ‘stoop’

  • Implies he views himself over other people

  • Sees himself as omnipotent (values status a LOT), and feels entitled.

“I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.”

• Caesura + euphemisms

  • Sudden, abrupt stop creates a sense of ominous finality

  • Blunt abrupt language could suggest that the Duke lacked remorse and had no guilt towards the Duchess’ death (lack of morality)

• “commands” “stopped”

  • Connotations of oppression and confinement

  • Emphasises Duke’s power to the extent to which

• sibilance in ‘smiles stopped’

  • SINISTER, effects of society’s normality towards abuse of power (softness of sibilance could also suggest their complacency and staying silent to such regime)

  • SOFT, emphasizes the secrecy + silently kills the duchess. (also once again society normalizing this stuff)

  • context: PATRIARCHY BROWNING TRYNA SAY SMTH LIKE A CRITICISM TO THE PATRIARCHY SMTH LIKE THAT

“Notice Neptune, though / Taming a sea-horse”

• Metaphor of Neptune (god of sea)

  • Suggests that the duke sees himself as god-like, showing the excessive pride and hubris of the Duke

  • Wishes to tame/exert power over his wife

• Duke moves seamlessly from painting of old Duchess to a new statue

  • Suggests the ‘last duchess’ was disposable and insignificant

  • Creates a cyclical cycle, in which he ‘tames’ another wife (and they die again…)