My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, Essay Example

The poem is a classic example of a dramatic monologue in which the speaker is clearly distinct from the poet and where an audience is suggested but never appears in the poem. The revelation of the Duke is the main aim of the poem. The Duke is the speaker of the poem and this is told as the story unravels to tell of the negotiation of his marriage after being recently widowed to the daughter of another aristocratic family. The reader soon learns that the Duke has caused the Duchess’ early demise when he said, “All smiles stopped together.” He continues his walk and points out vicariously some of his pieces of artwork. The setting is quite symbolic as it sets the scene for the upcoming marriage. The mood of the poem is dismal in some areas but full of chivalry in others. The title is significant because it is clear the Duke has done away with the first Duchess. He communicates the theme through alliteration and rhyming. My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is composed of lines of rhyming composed of pentameter lines which create a source of a driving force behind the Duke’s compulsive revelations. They do not complete a sentence or closure for the poem. The theme of the poem is one of manipulation and conspiracy coupled with feelings of hate and tyranny. The theme is full of power, control, marriage, aristocracy, and egotism. Love does not seem to play heavily on the minds of the Duke. The literal setting of the poem is depicted from the Dukes words that he has done away with the first Duchess and how he implies he is looking for another to take her place. This brings fear to the scene that he will repeat the same with his next wife.

The Duke tries to win the Duchess hand in marriage by showing off his worldly possessions of art. One of the portraits he shows is of his former Duchess. He calls this unfortunate and the fate of his former wife. He has not come to grips with the true tragedy that was bestowed. He is cunning and a coward. Apparently “all smiles stopped together” meant he had taken her somewhere and murdered her.

The setting is Italian Renaissance and religious moral. This temporal setting allowed Brown to explore the combination of sex, violence and aesthetics all entangled with the complication of confusing each other together. The Duchess was naturally punished for her display of natural born sexuality. It is suggested that most of the Duke’s ravings simply took place only in his heinous mind, though. He saw sin lurking in every corner and at every doorstep. Unfortunately the Duchess lost her life for his false beliefs. There was a natural impulse for the Duke to control and he controlled very well. This poem was written during the Renaissance time of which morally dissolute men exercise absolute and complete power and control. The elements that contribute to the mood of the poem are the way he speaks of his artwork as a fancy of his life and tries to use that artwork to lure in another Duchess.

The poem is filled with poetic beauty and we are forced to look at that beauty of the era yet forced to see the destruction caused by the ranting Duke by the killing of the Duchess. We must ask ourselves does art have a moral component by which we must live our lives? Is this merely an aesthetic exercise that one must go through as part of life?

It appears from the language of the poem the Duke is looking for another Duchess victim wife to bring home but he is mad. If she does not behave as he would hope she would her destiny is already mapped out just as the first Duchess’ destiny was mapped out to murder.

The Duke considered his first bride, the Duchess the bride beneath him socially yet he held her as a trophe wife beyond a curtain which only he could unveil when he wanted to see her. He does not love women but he does love the gains and joys that come from the intimidating of the messenger by talking of how he killed her. According to the poem, the death of her does come prior to the novel, but this is only an expression of the Duke’s control. This is a terrible tragedy where a man wants total control over a woman until death do us part and there is no existence of love in the marriage. He would rather kill her than let someone else have her and that is exactly what he did, murder her.

References

Browning, R. My Last Duchess Retrieved July 23, 2010, http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~jdavis6/poem.html

Robert Browning’s Poetry My Last Duchess Retrieved July 23, 2010, http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section3.rhtml

My Last Duchess Analysis Retrieved July 23, 2010 from, http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~joliver/mylastduchess1.htm