My Last Duchess By Robert Browning

An exemplary dramatic monologue set in “Ferrara”, the capital of a province in Italy that was famous for its high culture during the Renaissance.

Two main characters (speaker and listener) involved in the poem are – the main character, speaker, Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara, and the other person listening to him is the envoy (marriage agent) sent by the Count of another place called Tyrol.

The duke is talking about a painting on the wall while preparing to meet Tyrol, the father of the new proposed girl (he had murdered his previous wife, the duchess, the reasons of which are exposed in this poem)

The poem is an exposition of oppression, pride, jealousy, corruption, possessiveness, murder, and avarice for dowry!

The poem uncovers the wide gap between the high culture and the obnoxious low personal behavior of the upper ruling class of Renaissance Italy.

Robert Browning exhibits the true character of the duke and satirizes/mocks the culture through him.

 

The poem is fabricated as a monologue, revealing the true character of the duke who is having small talk with a visitor, and the readers get to explore the real story behind all his boasting and bragging!

The duke starts by talking about the painting of his previous wife, the duchess, claiming it to be a painting done by the famous Italian painter brother Pandolf (a fictional entity). He depicts an intimacy with the painter(name-dropping) by using the word ‘fra’/’brother’, being snobbish, while giving readers an impression that he is a connoisseur of art, an aesthete-

“the depth and passion in the earnest glance… reproduce the faint half-flush that fades along the throat…”

Subsequently, he serves his egotism by claiming that he is a powerful man and that no one has dared to ask him about the red spot on the cheek of the duchess. It clearly shows his power and control!

He is controlling, diabolical, evil-minded, jealous, and cynical, assuming if his wife looks at or smiles at visitors or any other male, it is out of her sensual excitement (how gross and mean!)

“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”

He wants his wife to be more discriminating and discerning and wants only his presence to make her happy!

He goes on crowing about his “nine hundred years old name” while complaining that the duchess did not give special regard to the heritage, he offered her! He presumes his heritage to be the most invaluable gift to her.

The duke is a shameless tyrant who cannot think of anything positive about his wife. Though, we readers never find any hint that the duchess was morally guilty of all the accusations made against her!

He is an emblematic of tyranny and the diabolical male chauvinism not only in Renaissance Italy but in all societies of all times and places!☹

Finally, at the climax, the duke reveals that he had killed his previous wife, the duchess painted on the wall.

He says that he did not want to bend low before her, asking her not to smile at other people, not get impressed by ordinary people and things, should not blush and should behave in the proper ways to “demonstrate” the great name of her husband’s heritage!

Then he claims, that he “gave orders” to stop all her smiles together, giving orders to kill her.

The duke represents a plethora of all ghoulish qualities, the misuse of power, and extreme oppression. There are also some dramatic actions in the poem, in the beginning, the duke tells the other man to sit down and look at the picture. Towards the end of the poem, he tells him to stand up: “Will it please you rise?”

As the duke is saying all the nasty things about his own wife, the other man seems to try to leave the place! But the duke tells him to wait: ‘Nay, we’ll go down together, sir”. He is making the man wait just to give us another piece of boasting! He points to a statue and tells his guest that it is his own statue in the form of God Neptune training the sea horse, symbolizing his demand for a wife like a ‘trained’ horse. The poem ends with the duke still talking about himself as a great man and a lover of art.

 

Why the duke had to reveal the past when he is going onto meeting a new duchess? It is just a threat, a warning, that if the new duchess doesn’t turn out to be tamed, then she will have to bear the same consequences as the previous duchess did!

I shower 3-stars on this poem of possessiveness and tyranny! I liked Browning’s painting of the psychological feat over the technical feat, so rendered 3 stars!