Robert Browning – My Last Duchess

My Last Duchess is a poem written by Robert Browning. He is one of the most famous English Victorian poets. The setting of the poem is pointed out under the title: it is Ferrara, an Italian city. The title of the composition gives the reader some hints to understand the theme and the stylistic choices of the poem:

-          My, the speaking voice will probably be a first persona 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;

-          Duchess gives the reader information regarding both the woman quoted in the title and the speaking voice: he is a Duke.

The poem is about a Duke, as we have understand from the title, who shows a portrait to a silent interlocutor. He describes the portrait and then he refers to the woman painted underlining her physical and psychological features (she was a beautiful woman that gave too importance to the appearance and that used to smile to everyone). The narrator/husband prohibited her to have contacts with other men. The poem ends with a return to the present: the interlocutor stops looking at the portrait and the speaking voice concludes the discussion maybe interrupted to show it to him; they were speaking about the future marriage between the speaking voice and the daughter of a Count for who the silent interlocutor works.

The poem is a dramatique monologue: the narrator speaks to a silent interlocutor, as before said. In this way, the reader has a single point of view and all the information he understands are filtered by the narrator. The speaking voice’s filter, however, changes the content of the poem: it is not an objective description of the portrait/woman but a personal one. The personal point of view allow the reader understand something about the speaking voice, some information that the narrator says without wanting.

The first line of the poem contains the same expression of its title. After reading the entire composition, the intelligent reader can now give to the possessive my another interpretation. Using a possessive the narrator communicates his feeling towards the woman: he loves or loved her. The subject of the narrator interests, however, is a portrait: it is a personification; the portrait of the Duchess stands for the Duchess herself. The personification continues in the second line, thanks to the expression as if she were alive, which underlines also its beauty. This vitality is then denied by the stillness of the framework (she stands). The vitality is probably then only a desire of the narrator: the woman represented is supposedly dead and the speaking voice may want her being still alive; for this reason he sees life in her image. The speaking voice’s love for the woman is also underlined by his request to the reader: he wants the reader see the portrait so the woman portrayed is important for him.

The eyes of the woman are deep and passionate. After understanding she was beautiful, the reader has a first information about the woman’s psychological characterization: she was deep and passionate. It is the first thing that an observer notices about her form the point of view of the narrator. It might be the first thing that the narrator noticed when he met the woman for the first time. Her deepness and her passion might be the features that the speaking voice loved more. He showed the portrait also to other people, since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but I: he loves the picture so much to keep it hidden to the world and showing it to others only personally. His presence whenever the picture is shown could also be a symptom of his sense of possession towards what the painting portraits. His love could be deep but also possessive.

The eyes of the woman, their expression is not caused by the words of the Duke/narrator, but them are caused probably by the words of the painter. This is the opinion of the speaking voice that, thank to the dramatique monologue technique, can report what the man said (Frà Pandolf chanced to say) and the reaction of the Duchess (Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough For calling up that spot of joy) referring again to her being passionate.

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;

-          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 felt superior to others and did not stand she compared him with the other men.

After this description of the woman, the speaking voice expresses some considerations about her way of acting. 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 because of her way of acting. 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.

Another statement of the speaking voice reinforces the hypothesis: Then all smiles stopped together, she hadn’t smiled again. Smiles are the symbol of her way of living, so after the action of the Duke she had not lived, she died. Death is recalled by the following sentence, which recalls also the first lines of the dramatique monologue: there she stands As if alive; she is motionless, she seems alive but she is dead.

The last part of the monologue is the conclusion of the poem: the speaking voice make the silent interlocutor stop looking at the portrait (Will't please you rise?) imposing again his possession on the woman. The conversation between the two characters moves to another marriage: that between the Duke and the daughter of the Count. She is interested in her not because of her richness but because of her psychology. She might be similar to the dead woman and he might will impose his control again.

The poem, in conclusion, contains the description of a woman loved and controlled by the speaking voice. The technique of the dramatique monologue allows the reader understands some narrator’s characteristics that he does not want to underline: his obsession for the woman, his anger towards her and his will to do the same with the next marriage.