Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
My Last Duchess, Robert Browning
My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is a dramatic monologue written in 1842. Just considering the title the reader understands that the dramatic monologue will talk about the last (which means that no one else will come more) Duchess possessed by speaking voice, that is conveyed by the word my. The word Ferrara indicates the context in which the scene is set. The speaking voice is showing the picture of her last Duchess, for which "Fra Pandolf's hands worked busily a day", to a stranger. The picture look so realistic as if it were alive and is covered with a curtain. The Duchess of the painting is dead. In line 5 the question "Will't please you sit and look at her?" recalls speech. The duke is talking to the stranger to whom he is showing the portrait of his wife. The choice of the speech is explained because in the dramatic monologue there is someone that is talking to someone else.