¶ … Last Duchess The Objectification of Women in Victorian England and Browning's "My Last Duchess"

Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is a macabre poem about jealousy and rage, which simultaneously highlights Victorian ideals of women and their role in society. In "My Last Duchess," the unnamed narrator has not only objectified his last wife, nonchalantly telling the emissary sent to arrange his next marriage about his last wife and the tensions that were evident during the course of union, but also insinuates that he rid himself of her because he was unsatisfied with her behavior and attitude. Through the poem's narrative, Browning is able to demonstrate how people and society believed women should comport themselves and how deviations from this social norm could potentially disrupt relationships and social balance.

In "My Last Duchess," the narrator objectifies his wife literally and attempts to objectify her figuratively. In the poem, the narrator's last wife is literally objectified through the portrait the narrator keeps. The narrator comments, "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,/Looking as if she were still alive. I call/That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands/Worked busily a day, and there she stands" (Browning ln 1-4). Additionally, the narrator is extremely possessive of this item, much like he was of the Duchess while she was still alive. He arrogantly boasts that the only person that is allowed to draw the curtain that hides the portrait is he by saying "none puts by/The curtain I have drawn for you, but I," simultaneously insinuating that it is a privilege for others to gaze upon her countenance (ln 9-10). Furthermore, in his negotiations...

The narrator, through his actions and attitude towards money and women, makes it clear that he believes women are objects that can be collected or discarded on a whim, especially when he immediately shifts attention from his betrothal negotiations to another of his prized possessions; "Notice Neptune, though/Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,/Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!" (ln 54-56). Because the narrator shows the same level of admiration for Claus's work as he did for Fra Pandolf, who painted the portrait of his last wife, it is made clear that he considers women to be objects.
The narrator attempted to objectify his wife figuratively by attempting to control how she behaved and acted when in the presence of others. The narrator expresses his failure to curb this unacceptable behavior through his jealous rants. He claims, "She had/A heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad,/Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er/She looked on, and her looks went everywhere" (ln 21-24). The narrator continues, arguing that even though she was his and carried his "favor at her breast," she still accepted gifts from other men such as "[the] bough of cherries some officious fool/Broke in the orchard for her," and that he was sure she was unfaithful because "[she] thanked men -- good! But thanked/Somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked/My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name/With anybody's gift" (ln 25, 27-28, 31-34). During the Victorian era, women were expected…