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My Last Duchess
The term “narcissism” means being extremely self-centered and concerned with one’s own reputation or appearance. It is derived from the ancient Greek mythological figure Narcissus, a youth whose...
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My Last Duchess
The speaker of "My Last Duchess" is an Italian duke, the Duke of Ferrara. He's showing a picture of his late wife, the last duchess, to an emissary of a Count, whose daughter the Duke wishes to...
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My Last Duchess
Browning's poem is narrated by a Duke and addressed to an envoy. In the poem, the Duke complains that his last Duchess did not respect him as much as he thinks she should have. He implies to the...
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My Last Duchess
The narrator of Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is a wealthy duke who is seeking to arrange a marriage with another woman, following the death of his previous wife. The person he is speaking to...
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My Last Duchess
There is some truth in each of the four statements. The assertion in the first statement that the eponymous Duchess's "loyalty was questionable" is true in as much as it was questionable from the...
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My Last Duchess
The duke is an extremely proud man, and he wanted his wife—his last duchess—to love him the best, to pay him the most attention, and to think of his gifts to her as the most important and wonderful...
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My Last Duchess
We know that the duke is showing the envoy around his palace because the dukes stops to pull back the curtain covering the portrait of his dead wife, the last duchess of the poem's title. The duke...
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My Last Duchess
"My Last Duchess" suggests much about the limited social roles women had during the Renaissance period (and to a degree, the contemporary period in which the poem was written, the Victorian era)....
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My Last Duchess
In this poem, the duke explains what happened to his last duchess, his former wife, saying that she was "too soon made glad," and so he "gave commands" which stopped all of her smiles. We know that...
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My Last Duchess
The way Browning used the dramatic monologue was very often hugely ironic, simply in the way it was deployed. The form gives you a - usually, at least - uninterrupted monologue in a character's...
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My Last Duchess
Part of the mastery of Browning's art in this poem is that we are only told who the audience of the Duke's dramatic monologue is at the end of the poem, after he has seemingly quite cheerfully...
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My Last Duchess
The poem, "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning is a dramatic monologue in which the narrator alludes to the Roman god Neptune, "Notice Neptune, though,/taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity." This...
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My Last Duchess
Well, if he does then it would seem rather strange, given that he had her killed. If we read the poem carefully we'll find that there doesn't appear to be much evidence of any residual warmth...
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My Last Duchess
Browning's "My Last Duchess" and Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" are similar in both presenting unmarried, middle-aged men suffering from insecurity as they...
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My Last Duchess
In one sense, the Duke is a very reliable narrator. His admission that he murdered his wife or "gave commands" to have her murdered is plain enough, and when one considers that he is imparting this...
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My Last Duchess
Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue set ion much the same imaginary construction of Renaissance Italy as that of Jacobean revenge tragedy. Within this setting, marriage was...
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My Last Duchess
"My Last Duchess" a subtly patterned poem in pentameter that steps into the next line is the dramatic monologue of the Duke Ferrara as he negotiates a new marriage with the emissary for another...
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My Last Duchess
The duke wants to justify killing the young duchess, but he instead manages to show her as a sweet and loving person whom we might enjoy meeting if she were still alive. Behaviors the duke...
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My Last Duchess
That would certainly appear to be the case. The count is going to marry his daughter off to the duke and has sent an emissary to negotiate the impending nuptials. The duke shows the emissary a...
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My Last Duchess
Robert Browning’s main point in “My Last Duchess” is that the Duke values art but cannot appreciate beauty in reality. The truth is that reality contains infinitely more beauty than art, and no...
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My Last Duchess
We can use the language of this poem to work out the contemporary social position of women. Remember, however, that this poem deals with aristocratic women and, therefore, gives us a glimpse into...
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My Last Duchess
As the duke speaks with his visitor about the portrait, he frequently refers back to the phrases he used. For example, in lines 5–6, referring to his previous mention of the painter’s name, he...
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My Last Duchess
Browning's poem is an excellent example of a dramatic monologue. It is a monologue because the entire poem consists of the words spoken by a single voice, Duke Ferrara's. It is dramatic because it...
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My Last Duchess
The speaker of the poem is an Italian Duke who's showing an emissary from another court the portrait of his late wife. The emissary has been sent by his master, the Count, to the arrange the...
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My Last Duchess
The Duke's none too kind about the last duchess, whose portrait he shows to the Court emissary. But then, he did have her killed, so that's hardly surprising. By way of justification for his deadly...
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My Last Duchess
It is reductive to see this dramatic monologue as “Mysoginist” merely. True, the Duke seems to treat his spouses as objects, but the central point is that he treats everything as a...
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My Last Duchess
"My Last Duchess" is about the power that the speaker, a Duke, had and still has over his dead wife, the eponymous Duchess. The Duke keeps a painting of the Duchess behind a curtain which "none...
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My Last Duchess
When one thinks about appealing to readers' senses, one probably first thinks of imagery, since imagery, by definition, appeals to the senses. In Browning's "My Last Duchess," the speaker uses...
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My Last Duchess
The interview between the Duke and the gentleman representing the Count to discuss money matters is terminated quite abruptly near the end of "My Last Duchess" when the representative apparently...
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My Last Duchess
The Duke is trying to convey to the listener, who has come to broker a new marriage for the Duke, that his deceased wife was disloyal to him. He blames her for not bestowing her love, affection,...
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My Last Duchess
The monologue by the Duke clearly shows him as a cold, selfish, arrrogant, and extremely proud man. His attitude towards women is that they are chattels, property. This, of course, is especially...
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My Last Duchess
This is an interesting question. It seems highly unusual for a painter to work directly on the surface of a wall. It seems very impractical--unless the artist were doing a fresco. It also seems...
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My Last Duchess
A metaphor is a strong comparison between two things, saying not that one thing is "like" the other (a simile), but instead that the one thing "is" the other. Check the link...
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My Last Duchess
"My Last Duchess" is a narrative poem by Robert Browning that is structured as a dramatic monolog. The speaker is the cold and arrogant Duke Ferrara who escorts a visitor through his castle,...
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My Last Duchess
To interpret the poem, "My Last Duchess," read the poem numerous times, silently and aloud, especially aloud. Then read as much commentary about the poem as you can, including all of the materials...
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My Last Duchess
"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning has only slight design. The lines follow each other without formal grouping; the only breaks are dictated by units of meaning, much in the manner of paragraphs...
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My Last Duchess
Actually, the line you quote here isn't from "My Last Duchess," but is instead from MacFlecknoe. Both, of course, are by John Dryden. My guess is that you were looking at a list of Dryden's poems...
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My Last Duchess
With Robert Browning's use of dramatic monologue, the Duke of Ferrara paradoxically creates a portrait of himself while he describes Fra Pandolf's portrayal of his first duchess. For one thing,...
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My Last Duchess
Robert Browning's first-person poem "My Last Duchess" is masterfully loaded with arrogance. The concept of the poem alone reeks of arrogance, as the narrator is bragging proudly about the painting...
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My Last Duchess
A key – if not THE key – to understanding Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess lies with the word that precedes the text: Ferrara. Ferrara was a Renaissance-era Italian city within the boundaries of...
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My Last Duchess
As the poem "My Last Duchess" opens, the Duke shows a visitor a painted portrait of his former wife. Line 7 groups the hearer in with "strangers," so we can assume the visitor has never been there...
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My Last Duchess
My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue. There's not as much symoblism in the poem as there is reading between the lines or inferences. As the Duke is speaking (he doesn't really repeat any...
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My Last Duchess
"My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue written by Robert Browning. That means that one person is speaking for the entire poem. In this case, the speaker is Duke Ferrara. Although there was a...
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My Last Duchess
This is an excellent question, for the identity of speaker is central to understanding not only the relationship between the speaker and his wife, but also in better understanding his "last...
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My Last Duchess
I think the two terms have become conflated, which is to say they may be used interchangeably. To delineate a difference is to split hairs, I think. And it is akin to snobbery. I make no...
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My Last Duchess
You're right; it is pretty clear the Duke murdered his former wife, the Duchess. He might be trying to justify it and he's certainly not ashamed to admit the deed, so he's possibly boasting about...
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My Last Duchess
The Duke is used to being catered to and almost worshipped for who he is and for his very old and respected family name. He speaks to the Count's representative in an authoratative, almost...
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My Last Duchess
There are many examples of caesurae in Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess." The first appears in the third line: That piece a wonder, now. Fra Pandolf's hands The next glaring one is: Are you to...
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My Last Duchess
In a sense, the entire poem is about physical or sensual gratification. The Duke himself is very much of a sensualist. His descriptions of his dead wife focus on her external, physical self and he...
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My Last Duchess
The Duke who narrates Browning`s `My Last Duchess`is portrayed in the poem as giving a tour of his art collection. The Duchess is introduced as the subject of a painting, and thus as an objct...
