Zusammenfassung der Ressource
My Last Duchess
- Key info:
- Written by Robert Browning
- Poet reveals a complex character
- Amoral Duke who is
willingly telling an envoy
about how he murdered
his previous wife
- creates an unnerving feeling within
the reader as you realise the duke is
not as he originally appeared to be
and is living without consequences
as he is so powerful
- Structure reflects the content
- dramatic monologue
- ten syllables per line
- heroic couplets
- iambic pentameter
- enjambment = read aloud as free verse
- contrasts against controlled structure
- all features reflect
Duke, first impression of
him is charming and
harmless but you realise
he's a megalomaniac
- "That's my last Duchess
painted on the wall,
looking as if she were
alive"
- "last" tells the reader that there
were more before her and assumes
that there will be more after her
- creates an unloving tone, realise
what he's not saying / not what he
is saying
- expect Duke to show some grief over the death of his wife
- "As if she were alive"
immediately tells the
reader that she is dead
- "Fra Pandolf's hand's
worked busily a day
and there she stands"
- The Duke mentions
Fra Pandolfs name
several times / he's
more interested in
boasting about who
painted the portrait
than who it is of
- Creates believable persona
- "-How shall I
say?-
- "-I know
not how-"
- "Even had you the skill in
speech (which I have not)"
- She thanked men -
good!"
- creates verisimilitude by mimicking natural speech
- False modesty - the Duke wants to appear humble
- repeats words - creates the feeling of a real person speaking
- adds to the
horror of
poem as you
feel as though
you are
listening into a
conversation
you shouldn't
be
- use of anacoluthon reflects rhythm of speech
- " 'Twas not her husbands presence
only that called that spot of joy
- At first I thought this
could be construed as
jealousy but the Duke
is too conceited for
that
- "Spot of joy" =
blushing
- Ducke says that Fra Pandolf might have complimented her
or told her to show her wrist more
- Shows how modest the Duchess was and not vain
- "such stuff was courtesy, she thought"
- "Stuff" is pejorative shows the Duke
thought that any act of kindness was
sycophancy
- "she thought" conveys through a dismissive tone
that he doesn't care about what she thinks at all
- "Sir 'twas all one!"
- compares sunset to a brooch
- assume brooch
was expensive or
an heirloom
- The Duchess didn't have a
hierarchy and didn't let her
title corrupt her
- Duke
inadvertently
describes him, she
acts as a foil
- Duke breaks
away from 1st
impression
- Duke only interested in
things that money can
buy, materialistic and vain
- "As if she ranked my gift
of a nine-hundred year
old name with anybody's
gift"
- superior
- He considers his name as a privilege
- irrational way in
which he
believes that his
wives should be
in debt to him
- shows he wants his wives to act a certain way
- materialistic, proud, self-important
- "Since none puts by the
curtain I have drawn for
you, but I
- undesirable traits
- possessive / no one
gets to view her apart
from him or the people
he choses
- drape shows length of possessiveness
- Duke has complete authority over Duchess / beauty but voiceless
- "If they durst"
- people finds him intimidating, he
likes it and sees no fault in
character
- "Object"
- ambiguous
- counts daughter is only objective despite the money
- only cares about the daughter
- property
- "Me!"
- Poem ends with
how it began
- self-obsessed
- shows a lack of
remorse for
anything other
than himself
- "absolute
power corrupts
absolutely"
- "Notice Neptune though"
- "Neptune
taming a
seahorse"
- symbolises wealth and power
- harsh / evil character
- seahorse - past and future Duchess's
- delicate and defenceless
- vainglorious / aesthete
- "Nay, we'll go down together Sir
- ambiguous
- interpreted two ways:
- envoy tries to run off
and warn the Count
- much more sinister
and much more
limey, envoy has
signalled for Duke to
go first but out of
politeness the Duke
declines
- Duke goes back to first impression
- "This grew, I gave
commands
- Duke was unyeilding
- euphemism - he
ordered someone to
kill her
- no conscience, evil person
- "I choose never to stoop
- haughtiness exposed, arrogant
- pride causes him to
think he is above
everyone else
- He isn't going to compromise