My Last Duchess

By ROBERT BROWNING 

FERRARA

The object of the present text is to provide my personal analysis of Robert Browning My Last Duchess, a victorian dramatic monologue written in 1842.

It is not meant to give a definite and unquestionable analysis but I am going to make some possibile conjectures about it, considering the title, the structure, the content, the connotation and the use of language, supported by textual references.

To start with, Robert Browning is considered one of the most important dramatic monologue’s writer. The dramatic monologue is a particular from of poetry in which there is a first person speaker, different from the poet, who tells to a silent public his history. 

Considering the title of the monologue My Last Duchess, the intelligent reader’s attention is immediately attracted by the words “my” and “last”: “my” is a possessive adjective indeed  it develops the idea that women are like objects possessed by men and who have to stay under men’s total control. Trough the concept Browning reveals and criticizes one of the most common victorian problem: women have to be chaste, devoted to their husbands, faithful, they have to respect the rules imposed by husbands, who submitted them. “Last” is an adjective which underlines the Duchess was the last one for the Duke, the speaker, indeed after he did not get married an other time. Therefore the reader may assume in the monologue the Duke speaks about his wife. 

An other important information is provided by the subtitle “Ferrara”, an Italian city, which may be the story’s setting. In addition the reader may assume that the Duke and the Duchess could be really existed in Ferrara in the past.

Moving now with the poem’s analysis, it is important to consider the structure: it is a poem but it is not divided into stanzas. It is formed by rhyming couplets which not create a musical effects because rhymes do not always coincide with the end of the sentences. 

For what concern the content, the Duke of Ferrara is speaking and showing to an other noble man a portrait, on the wall, which depicts his dead wife, which is always hidden behind a curtain. 

The Duke invites his visitor to sit down and to admire the portrait, which was painted by Fra Pandolf, a detail which allows the reader to understand that the Duke has a materialistic mentality. The Duke continues to provide details about the painting, he tries to describe his wife passionate expression and he states that he was the only one that make her blush. It is important because it underlines the Duke’s jealousy of his wife and his possessive attitude towards her. 

He also informs his visitor that his wife loved everything and she believed was a pleasure to admire everything. 

During the dialogue the speaking voice often compares himself with the other men and it is a typical men’s attitude in order to state them superiority and to reduce their insecurities. 

Finally the Duke invites the noble man to go down and the reader understand that the visitor is a Count’s servant and they are talking about the Count’s daughter, who is the Duke’s object. It allows the reader to understand his attitude to consider himself superior to women and able to obtain all he wants.

Moving now to the narrative strategies and techniques used by the narrator, it is used a first person narrator, different from the poet who tells his history, his memories, his thoughts and his refections. He speaks to a silent listener, who does not intervene in the “narration”. What it is said in the monologue reflects what comes to the protagonist’s mind.

The narrator does not intervene explicitly in the narration but he assumes his personal point of view and the intelligent reader may understand it reading the monologue carefully and between the lines. There is a prevalence of telling but there is also the direct speech such as at lines 5, 16.

There is used the rhyming couplets but rhymes do not always coincide with the end of the sentences. It is frequently used also the enjambement and it is written in iambic pentameter.

For what concern the semantic level, since the start the poet chooses accurately the words: in the first lines the words “piece”, “worked” and “busily” are linked to people’s materialistic mentality, also “favour” and “gifts” are connected to the materialistic mentality. In addition, near the end, the repetition of the word “smile” (his wife smile) underline the Duke’s obsession of his wife. Last but not least in the wholesome there is a frequent use of the personal pronoun “I”: it underlines Duke’s attitude to consider himself superior to everybody else and to be selfish. 

For what concern the syntactic level there are used sentences different for their length and this contributes to create the realistic way in which thoughts come to the speaker’s mind. In addition it is used a complex syntax maybe to underline an important concept. There are used interrogative questions to focus the attention on an important point and exclamative sentence to reinforce an idea. 

Moving now to the rhetorical level there is a simile in the second line “looking as if she were alive” because the Duchess is dead, it is used the irony in the title, maybe because the dead Duchess was not the last wife of the Duke. There also some symbols: “the bought of cherries” underlines the interior peace and it is the symbol of a reborn, “the white mule” alludes to the Duchess’ purity and chastity and “Neptune, taming a sea-horse”: Neptune was the sea’s God indeed he may represents the Dukes who tames the sea-horse which the lady. 

Last but not least there is a frequent use of alliteration, assonance and consonance which create a sort of melancholy and dramatic music.

The overall effect created by the poem is a dramatic and grotesque scene; the reader intervenes in the narration and feels compassion for the dead wife. The poem is difficult to understand therefore it is important to red it more times in order to discover every hidden meanings. In addition is important to understand also the symbolism in order have a clear idea.

All things considered Browning creates a poem in which the Duke reveals his personality through a speech with a visitors. 

In addition it shows one of the most common problem at the time: men domination over women.