My Last Duchess

Analysis of "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning

In this poem the character, duke of Ferrara tries to paint a picture of himself to be that of an abused, loving husband who had no choice but to murder his prideful, disrespecting wife. His true controlling, manipulative, and jealous nature is exposed.

The duke's desire for control is shown through his appreciation of art and his response to the incidences that led to the death of his wife, the duchess. The duke was unable to control his wife when she was alive, but only after her death was he very much in control of her. The duke says, "none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I" (10). He reveals that he is able to control the duchess's expression as well as the people who view the portrait. The duke wants to appear as a hurt, abused husband whose disrespectful wife left him no alternative but to kill her. However his appreciation of art shows that he values things that he can control and is compared with the images of nature that surround the duchess. The natural objects that are associated with the duchess' happiness can be seen in the lines stating, "The dropping of the daylight in the West...the bough of cherries", and "the white mule" (26-28). These images of nature are a sharp contrast to the artificial objects the duke values. His unhappiness over the duchess' association with nature is revealed in the line "I know not how--as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old-name with anybody's gift" (34). It is clear that the duke believes that his name, something artificial, is of greater value than the natural objects that cause the duchess joy.

In the end it is the duke's loss of control that causes him to kill her. His inability to control the live duchess herself resulted in her death. And now all that remains

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