"My last duchess" is a dramatic monologue written by Robert Brownig .
The title gives to the reader some information about the text: MY means that the speaking voice will probably be a first person intrusive narrator, it is a possessive so the poem might be monologue and might speak about the speaking voice's life, the Duchess might be his wife;LAST could be a temporary indication: the narrator underlines that the person quoted in the title is the last of a series, and the term DUCHESS gives the reader information regarding both the woman quoted in the title and the speaking voice who is a Duke.
From this information the reader also understands that the time when the monologue is setting is the Renaissance.
Under the title is pointed out the setting of the poem : Ferrara ( Italian's city).
The title makes that in the reader's mind arise different questions: why is she the Duke’s last Duchess? Why does the writer use the possessive adjective my?, which will be solved in the monologue.
The poem is about a duke who shows a portrait to a silent interlocutor. The interlocutor is a messenger who wants to discuss about a marriage between his daughter and the duke him self.
He describes the portrait and then he refers to the woman painted underlining her physical and psychological features. The description of the portrait, although, is not an objective but personal one. During the Renaissance the portrait was a physiological analysis but here it si the personification of the Duchess.( v 2 " as if she were alive").
During the monologue the reader has different information about the duchess through the duke's words. For example the reader knows that her eyes were deep and passionate and this was a symbol of her personality.
The messenger was the first person who sees the portrait, this shows the personality of the duke who loves so much the fresco to kipp it hidden to the world and showing it to nobody. This can be a symptom of his sense of possession . Her also come out other apart of the duke's personality : patronizing and self centered.( this characteristic are showed in all the poem).
During the description of the portrait the speaking voice inserts a reported speech of what Fra Pandolf had said. In this reported speech there is a reference to the Duchess's murder (va 18-20 "paint..her throat").
After the reported speech the the poem continues with the psychological description of the woman: she had A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad. The statement, however, contains one feature of the narrator: he did not like her being passionate towards other men. His sense of possession towards the woman is here underlined again: her looks went everywhere and he did not like it.
Follows the detailed description of the portrait. The obsession and jealousy of the speaking voice towards the woman compares during the description in two different expressions:
"The bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her: he didn’t want her to have contacts with other man" and "But thanked Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift." He feels superior to others and did not stand she compared him with the other men.
Another this description of the woman, the speaking voice expresses some considerations about her behavior. Here he confirms what the reader supposed before: Who'd stoop to blame This sort of trifling? / Just this Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, Or there exceed the mark / Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile?. The speaking voice admits his obsession and his anger towards the woman. One of the sentences used, however, contains an implied that leads the reader to guess on the death of the woman. And I choose Never to stoop: if he hadn’t told her to stop acting that way, what have he done? He might have stopped her in another way; he might have killed her.
This is also confirm by the line " then all smiles stopped together" she hadn't smile again. Smiles are the symbol of her way of living, so after the action of the duke she had not lived, she died.
The authoritarian personality of the duke is also present in the last part when speaking with the messenger he say " will' please your rise". This characteristic of the personality is also showed by the personal pronoun me in the last lines which indicates again the ego-pathology of the duke who dominates mint only the woman but also the whole poem.
The monologue ends with te return to the present : the interlocutor stops looking at the portrait and the speaking voice concludes the discussion maybe interrupted to show it to the stranger; they were speaking about the future marriage between the speaking voice and the daughter of a Count for who the silent interlocutor works.