My Last Duchess 

My Last Duchess was written in 1842 by Robert Browning. It is the most representative example of dramatic monologue.

Right from the title the reader immediately focuses his attention on the adjective "last": the word is different from "latest". On one hand "last" means something that cannot come out another time, on the other "latest" means the most recent. Further more the adjective "my" underlines a possessive attitude towards the woman.

The writer introduces the scene through a deictic (time or space reference) and sets it in "Ferrara", in the Renaissance, where the House of the Este Family was set.

The extract is a dramatic monologue and the dramatis personae is a duke. He provides a monologue to a silent listener: he is only asked to listen to the character's words.

The Duke shows the wall painting of his "last Duchess" to his listener: he is the first that looks at the picture. The dramatis personae gives some pieces of information about the picture: "Fra Pandolph" had done it and he had "worked busily a day". The duke is very proud of the wall picture and wants to let the listener know that he is privileged. In addition he invites his listener to sit and look at his duchess: he does not answer.

The duke describes his duchess: she had got a deep, honest and passionate glance and she looked and liked all the things at the same way, thus her husband was completely jealous of her attention towards somebody else. It is the reason why he covers the wall painting with a curtain: he wants to keep her glance only for himself. Further more the Duke refers to the listener with the appellative "Sir", thus the reader can understand that he belongs to aristocracy.

The Duchess blushes in front of anybody and she was the centre of people's attention: she did not answer to the rules of behaviour typical of women during the Victorian Age. But she justified her "half-flush" saying that it was a form of "courtesy". The Duke didn't stand her behaviour. He wanted at all costs to posses her, as if she were an object and, especially, to possess her feelings and emotions. During his monologue he is describing his point of view according to the Duchess behaviour. He gives negative judgements like "too soon made glad".

The characterization of the Duke that emerges right from the first lines is the one of a very authoritarian and possessive figure, with a patronizing attitude.

The dramatis personae is criticizing the Duchess behaviour: she was the object of attention of anybody, she got presents, she approved anybody who speaks to her, she smiled and appreciate. All those things provoked in the Duke an inferiority complex towards his beloved. They had not got a good communicative relationship because he did not told her that her behaviour was not adequate to a woman who belongs to aristocracy and that it "disgusts" him: he decided "never too stoop". This is the most important point of the extract: he ordered to somebody to kill her, thus she stopped to smile and blush forever. Later he ordered Fra Pandolph to make a wall picture of her "last Duchess", while she were smiling, so that in the future he will be the only one, who can see her smile, her glance and her blush.

At the end of the extract the reader can understand why the Duke is showing his secret picture: he is getting married another time, he wants to make the things clear and transparent and he is negotiating his next marriage, with a messenger of the father of his future wife. He declares that he is not interested in the dowry of the woman but in her complete devotion. In addition even if he is going to marry somebody else, the previous wife would remain his "last Duchess", a rarity (metaphor of the "sea-horse"): the new wife will be only an object.

The Duke reveals his hidden personality by describing her Duchess: he is very authoritarian but he was not able to dominate her feelings and emotions, thus he felt inferior.

The portrait symbolizes the duke's possessive and controlling nature as the Duchess has become an art object which he owns and controls.