My Last Duchess

My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue written by Robert Browning in 1842 and it is considered one of the most important monologue. Just considering the title, it consists of three words, “Last” and “Duchess” are the key-words, while the word “My” is a possesive adjective and it could employ an additional meaning and it refears to the Duchess. In the first line of the monologue there is just a word: Ferrara. It represents an Italian setting and it might be the setting of the poem. It also gives the reader an important peace of information, because with the word “Ferrara” the reader can understand that the Duke is Alfonso II d’Este. As regard the lay-out, the poem hasn’t got stanzas, it is organised in a one block, in a long section. Considering language there is a new use of language because the poet uses an informal language. The Duchess is painted on the wall, so we are talking about a representation, because all art is representation. It isn’t a portrait like Dorian Grey’s portrait, it is a fresco, that was very important in Middle Ages and in the Renaissance. The Duchess is Lucrezia de Medici and her family was very important and powerfull, but they hadn’t "nine-hundred-years-old name". The Duke was possessive of her wife, indeed the poet uses a very possesive language. In addition he describes his wife like a bad wife, because he has always a beautiful smile for all people and he feels as is he was being laughted, he dosen’t feel “his” his wife. For this reason he decides to kill her. Indeed at the end of the monologue he wants to demostrate his power and he uses the expression: “Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse…” that is a metaphor, that later is transformed in a allegory of his power.