In the present text, I’m going to analyse “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning.

From the title, the intelligent reader can immediately understand that the most important words are “my” and “last”:the adjective "my" shows a possessive attitude of the Duke and it make the Duke the principal character and, the adjective "last" implies that there will be no other women after the "Duchess".

The poem is a dramatic monologue but it's not organized in stanzas and there is an unusual use of informal language suggests by the presence of direct speech.

The Duke is a weak and jealous man. The Duchess did not reserve her attention only for him and his power and the speaking voice explains how the Duke felt. The reason why he killed his wife is clear to the reader, that is, he could not possess her.

The use of language is very significant in the dramatic monologue. The presence of I accentuated by the assonance of the sound "i", shows the Duke's individualism and his possessive attitude as well as his fragility. The Duke's strength is underlined by his need of having everything and everyone under his control. The structure is circular.

To conclude the intelligent reader will understand that the dramatic monologue is not about the "last Duchess" as he could aspect from the title but the central figure is the Duke. More precisely it is about the weak nature of human beings.