“That’s my last duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive.” The poem, My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, is composed of 10 syllable, rhymed, iambic pentameter couplets.
The Duke is a crazy mad man, who is rich, self-centered, and needs and craves respect. The power that he has as a Duke is his main obstacle in life because it causes him to be very arrogant. He doesn’t want to lose his dominance by confronting people about what upsets him. His last wife, the duchess, was an outgoing and an optimistic character that smiled at anyone. She’d give her attention to anyone that wanted it, and when people gave her compliments she’d innocently blush. The Duke didn’t like this about his wife because he didn’t feel superior to others in his wife’s eyes.
In the poem, the Duke is speaking towards the Duke's fiancé’s father's workers. These people aren't necessarily servants but are people of the court who do official business like run information to others. The Court’s courts are there to set up the wedding of their Court's daughter. The Duke before getting to the task at hand, shows them around his palace, and tells them the story of his last wife who he killed. You have to be able to look at the why to his story as to whether or not he told it as a warning or for reassurance to the Count’s court. He could either be telling them this story to make sure he never gets another duchess like he had before, or to comfort them by hinting that killing someone won’t happen again. Either way, he still expects the dowry.
The Duke's love for art can be questioned by the different pieces he shows to some of the Count's court. Is it that he loves the art itself or the history behind the art that he's actually attached to? The painting of the lady, his previous wife, was a story that he doesn't seem to be afraid to tell. His arrogance wouldn’t allow him to worry about telling his future family that he killed his last wife. Another important piece of art is the statue of Neptune, the God of the sea, who controls the sea and who symbolically connects to the Duke. With the idea of conquering the sea, Neptune, like the Duke, wants to conquer and control people's passions or lives. The Duke interferes with his wife’s life by killing her because of his lack of control over her.
The dramatic irony of this poem is that Browning considers the Duke to be crazy mad. He's not expected to kill his wife for such a silly reason like her being nice and smiling at others. Instead of talking to her, or just accepting the fact that he had actually married a sweet girl, he just gets rid of her. The fact that the Duke tells the Count's court that he had killed his last wife is the big situational irony in the poem because you wouldn't think that someone would reveal something like that to people that could tell his soon to be wife or her father.
The Duke doesn’t have much concern for other people or how they feel so he doesn’t take things like that into perspective. The syntax of the poem proves just that that he thinks highly of himself and is able to say what he pleases. If anything, hopefully the Count’s court would take what he said back to their people as a warning - he's crazy.
The Duke is a crazy mad man, who is rich, self-centered, and needs and craves respect. The power that he has as a Duke is his main obstacle in life because it causes him to be very arrogant. He doesn’t want to lose his dominance by confronting people about what upsets him. His last wife, the duchess, was an outgoing and an optimistic character that smiled at anyone. She’d give her attention to anyone that wanted it, and when people gave her compliments she’d innocently blush. The Duke didn’t like this about his wife because he didn’t feel superior to others in his wife’s eyes.
In the poem, the Duke is speaking towards the Duke's fiancé’s father's workers. These people aren't necessarily servants but are people of the court who do official business like run information to others. The Court’s courts are there to set up the wedding of their Court's daughter. The Duke before getting to the task at hand, shows them around his palace, and tells them the story of his last wife who he killed. You have to be able to look at the why to his story as to whether or not he told it as a warning or for reassurance to the Count’s court. He could either be telling them this story to make sure he never gets another duchess like he had before, or to comfort them by hinting that killing someone won’t happen again. Either way, he still expects the dowry.
The Duke's love for art can be questioned by the different pieces he shows to some of the Count's court. Is it that he loves the art itself or the history behind the art that he's actually attached to? The painting of the lady, his previous wife, was a story that he doesn't seem to be afraid to tell. His arrogance wouldn’t allow him to worry about telling his future family that he killed his last wife. Another important piece of art is the statue of Neptune, the God of the sea, who controls the sea and who symbolically connects to the Duke. With the idea of conquering the sea, Neptune, like the Duke, wants to conquer and control people's passions or lives. The Duke interferes with his wife’s life by killing her because of his lack of control over her.
The dramatic irony of this poem is that Browning considers the Duke to be crazy mad. He's not expected to kill his wife for such a silly reason like her being nice and smiling at others. Instead of talking to her, or just accepting the fact that he had actually married a sweet girl, he just gets rid of her. The fact that the Duke tells the Count's court that he had killed his last wife is the big situational irony in the poem because you wouldn't think that someone would reveal something like that to people that could tell his soon to be wife or her father.
The Duke doesn’t have much concern for other people or how they feel so he doesn’t take things like that into perspective. The syntax of the poem proves just that that he thinks highly of himself and is able to say what he pleases. If anything, hopefully the Count’s court would take what he said back to their people as a warning - he's crazy.
No comments:
Post a Comment