My last Duchess is a dramatic monologue written in 1842 by Robert Browning. It is composed of one single stanza.
From the title the reader understand the dramatic monologue is about a duchess, an aristocracy woman. In addition, the adjective "my" conveys an idea of possession, while the adjective last means there will not more duchess. So the reader understand it is a nostalgic atmosphere, the atmosphere of an end.
It is a dramatic monologue: the poet adopts a speaking voice, the duke (who is unnamed), who is thinking about a duchess, probably his wife.
The monologue unveils some aspects of the speaking voice's personality. Immediately, after the tile there is the position, Ferrara, where the story develops. So the reader understand the speaking voice is the duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II.
He is entertaining a messenger who has come to negotiate the Duke's marriage (he has recently been widowed) to the daughter of another powerful family. As he shows the visitor through his palace, he stops before a portrait of the late Duchess, apparently a young and lovely girl. The portrait (the Renaissance form of a psychological frame) is hidden by a curtain. The fresco is very well done and it is painting by Fra Pandolf. It seems to recreate the character of the duchess: the duke can see the depth in her eyes that seems she smiles with her eyes. Then, the duke explains her disgraceful behavior: he claims she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his "gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name." In fact, the duchess dared to smile everybody in the same way she smiled to him. As his monologue continues, the reader realizes that the Duke killed the duchess. In conclusion he returns to the business at hand: arranging for another marriage, with another young girl. As the Duke and the messenger walk leave the painting behind, the Duke points out other notable artworks in his collection.
The duke's desire for control is made evident by the structure of the poem, through his appreciation of art, and his response to the trivial incidences that led to the death of his wife. The frequent use of caesura throughout the poem emphasize the duke's control over the conversation. The duke's appreciation of art reveals the control he has over the artists that produce his works of art; the portrait of his last duchess and the statue of Neptune. Although the duke was unable to control the duchess when she was alive, after her death he is in complete control of her. The duke says "none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I," revealing that now he is able to control both the duchess's countenance and who views the portrait by a curtain covering the portrait.
The duke's loss of control is also depicted through the rhythm of the poem. The run over lines in the poem, or enjambment in the poem, reveal the duke's nervous uneasiness over his wife's murder.
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 is another valued object, which he is in complete control of.