My last Duchess

By Robert Browning
-Analysis-
My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue set in Renaissance Italy (early 16th century)
and conveys the opinions of a wealthy noble man as he shows a marriage broker, an emissary,
a painting of his late wife, 'my last duchess'. Over the years, since its first publication in 1842
in Dramatic Lyrics, many have questioned the character of the fictional speaker, loosely based
on a historical figure, the duke of Ferrara. My Last Duchess was written in the Victorian age,
when women were seen more as property in a marriage than real humans capable of love.
Generally speaking men were in charge in a relationship; serious notions of equality had not
yet been raised.
This poem is a dramatic monologue , and that means that is a character who is
speaking to us in the poem. And he is an Italian because it says “Ferrara”, underneath the title,
which refers to a place in Italy, a region of Italy. Notice the title says “ My last Duchess”, and
it means my last one, the previous duchess, and he is going to talk about his previous wife.
1.The literal meaning
I’ll try to translate it into a modern English because it is a long poem.
„That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands”.

So, what we have is the speaker, who of course is the Duke, hei s looking at a painting,
showing
somebody a painting and hei s saying that is a painting of my last wife on the wall. I would say
that painting is a very realistic portrait, maybe a famous artist worked hard painting it. Fra
Pandolf
is the artist who painted thi woman. He is a fictional person, but the poet decided to make it sort
of an Italian painter-sounding name. And notice that the man talking , the duke, is name-
dropping
here.
Then the poem moves on with the following lines:

„Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said 

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read 
Strangers like you that pictured countenance, 
The depth and passion of its earnest glance, 
But to myself they turned (since none puts by 
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, 
How such a glance came there so, not the first .
Are you to turn and ask thus.”
Basically the Duke invites us to sit down and look at the painting.This long section is
the Duke saying that everybody who sees this painting asks me who painted it, but he also
mentions this curtain that he himself has to pull back in order to reveal the painting. So it’s
under his control whether people see her or not. And notice too that some people don’t dare
ask him who painted. So some people are too afraid of him to ask who painted it.And why is
he a dreadful person? Because we starting to see that he at leas is controlling. He put the
painting behind a curtain and we are going to find out more about his personality as we go.
„Sir, ’twas not 
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot 
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek;”

So he says, that spot of joy on her cheek that you see in the painting, is caused not
only by my, her husband’s presence. She likes other things too.Other thinks make her cheeks
glow. For example: and then he talks about the painter who might have said some
compliments to her while the painting was being painted. And he doesn’t think that should
bring out that spot of joy in her cheek. He’s annoyed with that and he says that she thinks
maybe the painter just being courteous, but he doesn’t like it so he is criticizing that.

„Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps 

Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint 
Must never hope to reproduce the faint 
Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff 
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough 
For calling up that spot of joy”

Now he complains about her more directly:

„She had A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad, 

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er 
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. „

So, he does not approve of the fact that she’s easily impressed, she is easily made happy. He
thinks
that she should be more discerning, more discriminating. Or maybe he thinks that only his
presence should make her happy. And her looks should’t go everywhere. She should be looking
at him. She should be happy only with her presence.

„Sir, ’twas all one! (Meaning it was all the same to her) :
My favour at her breast, 
The dropping of the daylight in the West, 
The bough of cherries some officious fool 
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule 
She rode with round the terrace—all and each 
Would draw from her alike the approving speech, 
Or blush, at least.”

So he lists all these different things that make her happy: the sunset, the cherries. And he thinks
that his presence should make her happier than all this things. He says „ My favour at her breast”
meaning his favour, as in his regard for her, his attention to her. The fact that he chose her, that
sould makes her happy,not that superficial things. This lines reveals the fact that the Duke is a
strict kind of husband, and he is mostly wanting to controll his wife.

Now he admits:

„She thanked men—good! but thanked 

Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked 
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name 
With anybody’s gift.”

So he thinks his heritage, his family name is such a valuable thing, that she sould rank that the
highest joy. She instead ranks it the same as other’s people’s gifts. He does not approve that.

„Who’d stoop to blame 

This sort of trifling?”

So he admits that maybe some people call this a trifling, unimportant matter, something that
souldn’t bother him .He would like to tell her how she sould behave. So he says:

„Even had you skill 

In speech—which I have not—to make your will 
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this 
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, 
Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let 
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set 
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse— 
E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose 
Never to stoop. „

This is a little bit complicated. He’s saying, even if I could tell her what she ought to do, I
wouldn’t
stoop to do that. She should now how to behave.He says that even if she would let herself be
taught, be lessoned, be given lessons, he still wouldn’t like it. He wants her to know how to
behave
and to value him more than anything else.

Then he says:

„Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, 

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without 
Much the same smile?”

He wishes that her smile for him to be special and she souldn’t smile at just everybody. She
seems
a happy , cheerful woman, she smiles at people , she thanks people and he doesn’t like it. He is
extremely jealous and maybe he is a little insecure.

He says:

„This grew- (meaning this behaviour) - I gave commands; 

Then all smiles stopped together.”
So this sinister lines reveals that he has had her killed. He gave commands, and her smiles
stopped
all together.

„There she stands 

As if alive
Will’t please you rise? „
The duke invites us to stand up now.

„We’ll meet 
The company below, then.”
-means that they have been upstairs. Now they are going to go downstairs, probably to the main
floor. We are going to meet the company, meaning he has company, he has guests. And now we
are going to find out why this man was even shown the painting.

He says:
„The Count your master’s known munificence 
Is ample warrant that no just pretense 
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;  „

So he says the Count is your master. So, now we understand that he has been talking to this
representative of the Count. So this man works for the Count, and the Count is going to offer his
daughter in marriage to this Duke. So the Duke wants to marry the Count’s daughter and he says
that the dowry better be good. The dowry is a sum of money or valuable things that are given
with
the bride in marriage. Because the bride, of course, is unable to support herself in this period,
will
cost him money for a house, and clothes. So, the father will give this extra wealth for taking care
of the woman.

Now he goes on:

„Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed 

At starting, is my object.”

He also affirm that all he wants is the Duchess, not the money.:

„Nay, we’ll go 

Together down, sir. „

So, apparently this listener has started down the stairs, and the duke says wait, stop, we’ll go
together.So now the duke is controlling the listener.He seems to just want to micromanage
everybody.

And in the last couple lines he says:

„Notice Neptune, though, 

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, 
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!”

So this means that he is pointing out a piece of art, a bronze sculpture that, this artist Claus of
Innsbruck, again a fictional name , created. And notice what the art is. It’s the King of the sea,
Neptune, is taming a seahorse.Taming is exactly what this Duke keeps trying to do to his
duchesses, to other people.He want to control them, guide them, train them to behave the way he
likes. He is also pointing how he likes to possess things. So he has the painting, he has the
 sculpture, now he wants this new duchess. He seems possessive here, not just a man who likes
art,
but a man who wants to control it
We also understand this character, this Duke, to be making a threat because he says if the new
duchess doesn’t behave right she is going to end up like the last duchess who is on the wall as if
she’s alive, but we know what happened to her. So the poet has manage to hide this information
and yet reveal it at the same time, making the duke a sinister character who is going to get what
we wants one way or another. So the psychoogy is the interesting thing in this poem. He manage
to paint the picture of this wierd, murderous, controlling husband.

2.Tehnical aspects:

Every single line has ten syllables and there is a rhyme pattern as well:
 There are total of fifty-six lines, and almost all are written in iambic pentameter, such
as, “Are  you  to  turn and ask thus. Sir, ‘twas not
/  Her  husband’s presence only, called that  spot.” 
 Unlike the typical heroic couplets in which the lines are end-stopped, the rhyme
scheme of this poem is organized into couplets, which is AABBCC.

3.Figures of speech:
The literary techniques and figures of speech included in Robert Browning’s poem “My Last
Duchess” include the following:

 A simile is used in the first two lines, „That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive”.
 Metaphor-Line 27-„ The dropping of the daylight in the West”-said by the Duke as his
is remembering the bauty of the duchess.
 Hyperbole-Line 24, „She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”
 Personification-Line 8-„The depth and passion of its earnest glance”.
 Assonance:

- The depth and passion of its earnest glance, [assonance: repetition of the same vowel
sounds]

-Line 41: „Her wits to your, forsooth, and made excuses”

-Line 51 „Of mine for dowry will be disallowed”

 Alliteration:

-Line 46 „Then all the smiles stopped together There she stands”.

-Line 26”The dropping of the daylight in the West”.

- Looking as if she were alive. I call