Write about the ways Browning tells the story in ‘My Last Duchess.’ 21 marks

Write about the ways Browning tells the story in ‘My Last Duchess.’ 21 marks

My Last Duchess involves the Duke of Ferrara recounting memories of his last wife and her perceived flaws. He is showing her covered portrait to a servant who is there to arrange his next marriage.

The Duke is characterised through his obsession with power and beauty. His obsession with beauty is depicted through the art work that he is surrounded by and the many references to the physical appearance of the Duchess such as the ‘half-flush that dies along her throat. However this could also be interpreted as a confession to killing her, although this isn’t confirmed in the poem the Duke says several other confusing lines; ‘looking as if she were alive,’ ‘I gave commands,’ and case builds. The obsession with power comes across when he believes she is being disrespectful to him and calls on his ‘nine-hundred-years-old name’ and when he is angry he doesn’t talk to her about it because he would see that as her ‘stooping’ instead he ‘gives commands’ to stop her smiling at others. The Duchess however is characterised in her portrait, the idea that she is ‘looking as if she were alive’ could be a reference to her beauty but could also related to the way the Duke describes that ‘she liked whate’er she looked on’ which is why he has to keep her behind ‘the curtain’ and hide the picture. This connects back to the Duke’s obsession with controlling her by painting her ‘on the wall’ but he can’t stop her ‘looking’ and so has to cover it up.

Browning’s use of voice, typical of a dramatic monologue, focuses on the Duke and could be reflective of his power and status. While the Duke suggests that he has no ‘skill in speech’ he is the only voice and the language, aimed to mimic natural speech, points to a relaxed and confident character. The Duke is made more powerful through his voice as he is dominant over the implied auditor, in this case a lower class servant who does not speak. The punctuation and use of enjambment quickens the pace of the voice to imply a growing anger towards his wife and to allow the Duke to case build which is another technique used in dramatic monologues.

The subtitle of the dramatic monologue; ‘Ferrara’ shows that the poem is set in Italy. This is significant to Browning as the Victorians were obsessed with foreign places. There is however representations of Victorian collectivist behaviours in the Duke who has surrounded himself with artwork from famous artists. The idea that the Duchess is ‘painted on the wall’ was one of the ways that the Duke tried to control her and the statue of ‘Neptune… Taming a sea-horse’ also connects to the obsession of power and control.