‘My Last Duchess’, by Robert Browning, is a dramatic monologue in which the Duke
of Ferrara, a city in Italy, shows a painting of his former wife, the Duchess, to a guest.
The Duke points out the look on his wife’s face: a kind of blush or a look of happiness.
He explains how his wife disappointed the Duke by looking not only at him, her husband,
in this way—and looking at everyone else in the same way.
Everything impressed her and made her happy: the sunset, some cherries given to her by
an admirer, or riding a horse. The Duke was disappointed by this and gave ‘commands’
(perhaps to have her killed). Near the end of the poem, we learn that the
Duke is telling this to the servant of a Count. The Duke now wants to marry the Count’s
daughter. Although the Duke thinks he is all powerful, there is evidence in the poem that
he perhaps is not quite as powerful and in control as he thinks.
Let me just point out, this video is a quick recap of the poem – to learn more, watch
my full analysis which I’ll link at the end.
In terms of form, ‘My Last Duchess’ is a dramatic monologue, which means that the
poem focuses on a single person giving a speech to a silent listener. But the speaker is not
the poet. So this isn't Robert Browning talking: he is writing from the perspective of the
Duke of Ferrara. Browning’s use of the dramatic monologue
form presents the Duke as powerful: the Duke is the only one we hear from. The listener
remains silent throughout, whilst the Duke dominates proceedings and controls the situation.
Similarly, Browning’s use of structure presents the Duke as powerful and in control. This
poem is written entirely in iambic pentameter, which is lines of ten syllables per line with
every other syllable being stressed. And the rhyme scheme is also tightly controlled with
the whole poem being written in rhyming couplets. You can see ‘wall’, ‘call’, ‘hands,
‘stands’, ‘said’, ‘read’, etc. I’m just showing you the beginning of the
poem on-screen, but it’s the same throughout. This tight control of rhyme scheme and iambic
pentameter throughout, reflects the tight control of the Duke.
And let’s look at some examples of language usage which present the duke as powerful and
controlling. Look at the personal pronoun ‘my’ which
is repeated throughout the poem, here referring to ‘my last duchess’. This suggests the
Duke is self-obsessed, and also that he believes his wife belongs to him. So he's not only
possessive, but he sees the duchess herself as one of his objects that he owns.
The manner in which the Duke speaks to the envoy through the terms ‘sir’ and ‘you’
also presents the Duke as powerful. These are formal terms of address. They actually
might seem quite polite to a modern reader, but they are not. They clarify the Duke’s
superiority over the envoy. The more personal terms of ‘thou’ and ‘thee’ might have
been used if they were on friendly or equal terms. So, the Duke is keen to point out that
he is socially superior and again powerful, in this moment.
And look at the questions the Duke asks of the envoy: ‘Will ‘t please you sit? And
‘Will ‘t please you rise?’: These are not really questions at all. They are demands.
The Duke frames his demands as questions, but, make no mistake, this is a social superior
demanding something from an inferior. Now, the poem doesn't contain much figurative
language, such as similes or metaphors. But there are a couple of examples. And one of
those is with the piece of artwork which is talked about at the end of the poem, the Claus
of Innsbruck statue of Neptune taming a seahorse. Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, best
known as this big, strong, barrel-chested, masculine, domineering god. And here he is
in the sea taming a wild creature. We can read this as a metaphor for the Duke himself
and what he feels his role is over women - to domineer and control. This leads into some
points on context. Although ‘My Last Duchess’ is set in the
Italian Renaissance between the 14th and 16th century, it was written and published during
the Victorian era in 1842. In terms of context it’s useful to look at Victorian attitudes
to women. At the time the poem was written, when a woman
married she became the legal property of her husband. A wife’s role was seen as the angel
of the house who existed to serve and entertain her husband.
In this light, it is possible to read this poem as a criticism of Victorian attitudes
to women. It can be argued that the Duke’s obsession with fixing the behaviour of his
wife links to Victorian society's obsession with the reputation of women being perfect.
When the Duke’s wife didn’t act as he wanted her to, this undermined his status
as powerful and controlling. However, it is also possible to see a lack
of power in the poem. Although there is a tight structural control
in the poem, with the use of iambic pentameter and the rhyming couplets, there are other
structural features which suggest a lack of control and power. The first of these is enjambment,
where sentences run over the lines. You can see here, in this same example on-screen:
this one sentence runs over three lines. The enjambment reflects, actually, that the Duke
doesn't have complete control. He is quite uncontrolled and wild in his anger. So, although
he does everything he can to control others, which is reflected in the tightly controlled
use of rhyming couplets and the iambic pentameter, the fact is he can't control himself. Seen
through the enjambment, he can't stop this blurting out of emotion.
Added to that, the poem is structured as one long stanza, Why is that? One reason is that
the speech never breaks or pauses significantly, which reflects how the Duke doesn't stop.
The fact that the Duke’s dialogue is this sprawling, uncontrolled speech suggests a
lack of power and control. So which poems compare well with ‘My Last
Duchess’? Well, in terms of misguided notions of power: Ozymandias, Extract from the Prelude,
Kamikaze and Tissue are the most obvious picks. But which other poems would you compare it
with, and why? Put your comments in the comments section.
For more on this poem, pick up a copy of Mr Bruff’s Guide to Power and Conflict poetry,
available exclusively in eBook form and linked in the description. If you like this shorter
style of analysis video do give it a thumbs up and I will make some more, but remember:
this video isn’t intended to tell you everything you need to know about the poem – it’s
a recap for revision purposes. For the full lesson, check out the video linked here on-screen.