My Last Duchess

A dramatic monologue is a narrative-style poem in which a fictional speaker unwittingly reveals their true character while describing some series of events. “My Last Duchess” is a poem in which a...

The duke in the poem "My Last Duchess" has many of the classic traits of a narcissistic personality, including an inflated sense of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, problems with...

Power can be positional, personal, coercive, or persuasive. The power presented by the duke in "My Last Duchess" is positional and coercive. Positional power comes from the outside authority a...

The Duke describes the last Duchess as if she were wanton with her attention, inadequately class conscious and overly friendly. As rowens says, his primary complaint is that she does not treat him...

Browning wanted to indicate that this room contained a number of works of art. It seems to be the Duke's private study or library. He has brought the visitor up here for a confidential discussion...

Through the use of symbols, the Duke reveals himself to be a man who desires total and complete power and submission from those around him. This desire for power and control is symbolized in the...

The tone of the poem is that of an ignorant, vulgar, insensitive, selfish, arrogant, and brutal man who is trying his best to sound like a courtly aristocrat. One of the ways in which this tone is...

This is a very astute observation you have made. Let us remember that the dramatic monologue reveals the way in which the Duke tried to gain mastery over his last wife. His perceived inability to...

In spite of the Duke's rather untrustworthy opinion of the Duchess, we can infer a number of physical and other attributes from what he says about her. It is pertinent that she was beautiful and...

This is such a complicated but wonderful poem. The Duke of Ferrara is a very selfish man who considers everything within his grasp "his". He owns many things...the bronze statue, for...

The line in question simply means that the Duke ordered his wife killed. Now he is looking for another wife, and the person he is speaking to in this dramatic monologue is a representative of the...

"My Last Duchess" deals with the age-old theme of appearance versus reality. The Duke thought that his late wife had everything he could possibly want in a woman. Young, pretty, attractive, and...

It occurs to me that there were several things the Duke could have done with his young wife if he decided he didn't want her. He was powerful enough to have gotten a divorce, even from the Catholic...

Fra Pandolf painted the deceased Duchess's portrait. He and the Duchess apparently got along well, as he was able to bring the color—a "blush"—to her cheeks. To most people, the ability of a...

The Duke is showing off his art collection to his visitor. Like many art collectors, the Duke is more proud of the value of his collection than of the artistic merit. A large part of the value of...

The former, now deceased, wife of the speaker in "My Last Duchess" was, in life, polite, respectful, friendly, and beautiful. She was, unfortunately for her, not a snob, which is what her husband...

Arguably, the greatest moment of dramatic irony in this poem occurs at the end, when the reader realizes that the person to whom the Duke is speaking has been sent to approve a marriage contract...

Do not confuse dramatic monologue here with dramatic irony. This poem is considered a dramatic monologue because the voice is but one speaker who is also a character, the Duke of Ferrara, who is...

In this poem, the duke addresses the servant of a man, a "Count," who has come to discuss the terms of a wedding to take place between the duke and the Count's daughter. The duke refers to the...

You have managed to select the heart of this poem, and some of the most disturbing lines ever written in literature, in my opinion. These lines tell us the fate of the poor last Duchess, and how...

There are several relationships in Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess."The relationship between the Duke and the Duchess, like that between the Duke and his art objects, is often described as that...

The true significance of the title is only discovered at the end of the poem, when the dramatic monologue is placed into context and the reader realises who the duke is speaking to about his former...

According to the article on "Historical Context" in the eNotes Study Guide: The incident the poem dramatizes comes from the life of Alfonso II, a nobleman of Spanish origin who was Duke of Ferrara...

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...

In Robert Browning's dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess," the speaker, Duke Ferrara, is shown to be an extremely jealous man whose jealousy has led him to commit murder. Yet he does not believe...

This poem is a compelling character portrayal reflecting the objectification of women in this historical context. In the poem, the speaker spends a great deal of time showing a guest a portrait of...

In the opening lines of “My Last Duchess,” the Duke of Ferrara is showing an emissary from another court a painting of his late wife, the eponymous duchess. The emissary has been sent to the Duke...

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,...

Browning's "My Last Duchess" is partly an important poem because of its unusual point of view. The poem is told using first person, which means that the readers should be able to closely access the...

Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" does not rely heavily on metaphors. It is rather a monologue delivered by the speaker describing a painting of his wife and his wife as a person when she was...

Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “My Last Duchess” depicts a duke telling someone about his former wife. Presumably, the listener is a representative of a count, who is there to arrange a...

The title of the poem is derived from the first sentence uttered by the Duke who is showing the painting to an important visitor. His way of describing his late wife characterizes him as...

The Duke is incredibly proud and totally callous. He hoards the painting of his last wife, and he allows "none [to] put by / The curtain" covering her portrait but himself because he wants to...

To his guest the duke, says, The Count your master's known munificence Is ample warrant that no just pretenseOf mine for dowry will be disallowed;Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowedAt...

Here is another example of a metaphor in some lines from "My Last Duchess": Who'd stoop to blameThis sort of trifling? Even had you skillIn speech--(which I have not)--to make your willQuite clear...

In these lines from "My Last Duchess," the Duke is speculating on why the Duchess blushed ("spot of joy") while the portrait was being painted. The Duke notes that the Duchess was too flirtatious...

“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning comes from an actual historical incident. In the sixteenth century Italy, Duke Ferrara married fourteen year-old Lucrezia, who died within two years. The Duke...

The speaker in the poem "My Last Duchess" is presumably the Duke, her husband. Throughout the poem, he expresses his displeasure at the young lady's joy. She finds joy in things like a sunset...

The revelation contained by these lines is that the duke’s “last duchess” is no longer alive and that he is responsible, in a very direct way, for her death. He claims that he “gave commands” and...

In terms of a first person, second person, third person point of view, "My Last Duchess" is told from the first person perspective. This means that the speaker or narrator is also a character. This...

The Duke, the speaker of the poem, is pretty materialistic. He is clearly quite fond of owning things, controlling who gets to see them, and so on. He name-drops two different supposed artists in...

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...

It is clear from the extract that the Duchess had no prejudice and that she treated everyone equally. She would compliment anyone and everyone she felt deserved praise for doing her a kindness. Her...

Robert Browning's dramatic poem "His Last Duchess" leaves little doubt that its narrator, a duke of palpably tyrannical and possessive temperament, murdered his young wife himself or had her slain...

"My Last Duchess" is about both conflict and power. The Duke and his young former wife conflict over what constitutes appropriate behavior for her to exhibit toward other people, especially other...

One of the many symbols in this poem is the "spot / Of joy [in] the Duchess’s cheek." This "spot of joy" symbolizes, at least from the Duke's perspective, the Duchess's sexuality. Indeed, in the...

In a superior display of rhetoric, the Duke Ferrera enumerates that which he will and will not permit in a wife as he displays the portrait of his "last duchess" to the agent of the father of a...

Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” was based on an actual event. A Duke married a member of the Medici family, Lucrezia at the age of fourteen. In 1561, Lucrezia died of suspicious...

The Duke of Ferrara who narrates "My Last Duchess" is what Browning would consider a prototypical Renaissance Italian character. He may be based on Alfonso II d'Este (22 November 1533 – 27 October...

1. Your thesis statement would depend on your critical analysis: what do you consider the most important theme or point of the poem? Is it that the Duke was jealous of his wife for not liking him...