Zusammenfassung der Ressource
My Last Duchess
- Big Idea
- This poem illustrates
Duke Alfonso ll
admiring a painting of
his late wife whom he
may of poisoned.
Through the
descriptions of the
painting the Duke
portrays himself as a
arrogant, selfish and
insensitive man.
- Themes
- Power
- Objectification
- Relationships
- Jelousy
- Obsession
- Form
- Dramatic
Monolouge
- Allows Browning to
use the Duke's words
to paint a portrait of
a jealous, arrogant
man.
- His insensitive
manner creates a
chilling tone
- Structure
- Ceasura
- Mimics
unrehearsed
speech
- Possibly used to
restrain himself from
having a complete
lack of humanity
- Draws attention to
particular ideas and
phrases
- Parenthesis and dashes
- Creates a very arrogant chaacter
- Reveals the Duke's true feelings
on subjects
- He is corrupt
- Language
- Repetition-'Joy'
- As if the expression
on her face angers
him
- Later referenced ('too soon
made glad') that she enjoyed
life and the Duke disliked
that
- It made it
hard for him
to control
her
- Her behaviour controlled his thoughts
- He couldn't divorce or
live in a loveless
marriage so her death
was the only option
- Pronouns
- e.g. 'me' (last line)
- Draws attention to his total self
obsession
- He was a self-aggrandising and
virtually omnipotent member of
nobility
- The corrupution and abuse of power criticised
- Imagery
- Metaphor
- 'Notice
Neptune,
though,
Taming a
sea-horse'
- Metaphor for his own
attitudes towards
relationships
- Suggests his
admiration for the
ability to dominate and
control as well as his
arrogance
- 'Neptune' is him
and the 'sea-horse'
the duchess
- Descirptions
- 'Bough of cherries', 'white
mule she rode around he
terrace'
- He believed she was
having an affair
because of her
interest in the world
and everybody
- He was jealous -
he didn't receive
enough of her
attention
- Tone
- Dismissive
- Chilling
- Conversational