My last duchess – Browning
Female reference to status. Atmosphere of an end, something is sleeping. Latest: there will be more – last: there will be no more. Idea of possesivness, last is interesting for the comprehension: there will be no more duchess, why she is the last one? Dramatic monologue, the speaking voice is a duke. Soliloquy, fiding out the personality of this speaking voice. Crucial moment, important. Psychology of this man. Duchess = his wife, dead. Published in 1922, dramatic monologue with one character. The poet has drown the idea of this dramatis personae in history (Alfonso duke of Este). Good example of a nobile man, but we are not sure he is. There is a messanger who goes to his castle and the duke invites him to see his gallery. While he is showing the gallery to messenger he stops in front of a wall covered by a curtain. Behind the curtain there is a fresco, hidden because no one can see it. Fresco: a portrait of his last duchess.
1) Reason why nobody is allowed to see the portrait
2) the speaking voice is someone who lives in Reinassance, the duke has decided to have a historical figure, not a mythical figure.
Portrait: Reinassance format for a psychological framework. Attractive portrait, she has a smile of joy, she's young. Duke figure, he has got power but he is so weak. […]

Evolution of dramatic monologue
Dramatic monologue remains to Shakespeare's soliloquy and monologue, the audience listen to something private, in characters mind. It anticipate the technique of Modernist novels (omniscient narrator gets into the mind and reveals to the reader). Realize that there was not only the head, but also the heart → contraddiction. Poets try to reconcile aspects of human nature in Victorian Age.