The duke virtually suffered of megalomania, as he considered himself to be an almost supernatural being which had been endowed with the power to control other people's lives. The duke did not consider his wife to be more than a simple object, as he almost identified her with a painting. Furthermore, he believed his wife to be similar to something that could simply be replaced when it finished serving its purpose.
It seems that the duke does not actually want his listener to become acquainted with the fact that he had been responsible for his wife's death. Being captured in the monologue, he constantly gives clues that have the audience become more and more certain that the duke's dissatisfaction with his wife behavior had materialized in her death. Because of the stressful situation, the duke's speech is disorganized and full of anger, revealing the fact that "his" duchess had performed…...
Last Duchess
Jealousy, Rage, and Possession in rowning's "My Last Duchess"
Robert rowning's "My Last Duchess" emphasizes Victorian ideals of women and allows readers to understand how they were objectified. In this macabre poem, rowning uses the themes of jealousy, rage, and possessiveness to describe what motivated the Duke to behave as he did. In the poem, the unnamed narrator has transformed his wife into an object on numerous occasions and appears to pride himself on controlling women, and nonchalantly boasts to the emissary making arrangements for his next marriage how he controlled his previous wife and the consequences of her not obeying him. The narrator remains oblivious to his own faults throughout the poem and focuses only adding to his collection of prized possession, whether they are actual objects or wives.
In "My Last Duchess," the narrator objectifies his wife while she is alive and after she has died. While the…...
mlaBibliography
Browning, Robert. "My Last Duchess." Accessed August 21, 2013.
Last Duchess
The Objectification of omen 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…...
mlaWorks Cited
Abrams, Lynn. "Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain." History Trails: Victorian Britain.
BBC. 8 August 2001. Web. 3 April 2013.
Browning, Robert. "My Last Duchess." Web. 4 April 2013.
Last Duchess' is a poem narrated by a widowed Duke as he looks at a portrait of his first wife. Through the Duke's voice it first appears that he is an evil character and should not marry another woman, less she be treated the same. With a more careful analysis and putting the Duke's words in the context of the situation, we see that the Duke has faults that his first wife provoked through her nature. From seeing this, we can reassess the poem and say that the Duke should remarry, with the right wife that tends to his needs able to ensure a suitable marriage.
The Duke is the narrator of the poem. The poem is narrated as the Duke speaks to the father of his next wife, who is there to negotiate the marriage, though this is not revealed until the end of the poem. The Duke passes…...
mlaBibliography
Browning, R. The Poems. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.
Dupras, J.A. "Browning's 'My Last Duchess': Paragon and Parergon. Papers on Language and Literature, 32:1, pp 3-21.
In an attempt to curb his boredom, the imprisoned lawyer spends his time reading, writing, and playing music, while the banker slowly loses his money. Realizing that if the lawyer fulfills his part of the deal, the banker will lose the remainder of his fortune, he plots to murder him. Unbeknownst to the banker, the lawyer has developed a disdain for material things and has counter-plotted in favor of the banker to leave his prison five minutes before the deadline. During his imprisonment, the lawyer has learned to appreciate non-material things, whereas the banker's pride nearly led to his downfall. In this regard, the banker should be eternally grateful towards the lawyer for having spared him the guilt that would come with committing a murder, and allowing him to keep his money.
In "The Debt," a downtrodden Fanny encounters a young boy, Francois Guerland, that is of worse disposition that…...
In common households, they were mothers, daughters and wives. In high class societies, they were seen as a pricey decoration item that was supposed to possess certain qualities like haughtiness and vanity.
The duke always suspected his wife of being charmed by others. He felt that she enjoyed glances and compliments from other men and that these pleased her. That was the reason, he had her killed. This is a clear sign of how things work in male dominated socity like England where women were expected to be completely devoted to their husbands so much so that they will not even smile at other men. The duke was not the only person suspecting his wife. Normally in such a male dominated society, men would be very controlling and suspicious. The duke was even more so because he belonged to a very high ranked family and couldn't afford to have other…...
Last Duchess
An Analysis of Browning's "My Last Duchess"
Browning's "My Last Duchess" begins with an informal construction ("That's my last duchess") establishing the wistful, conversational tone with which Browning's Alfonso speaks of his late wife in the dramatic monologue style so frequently employed by the poet. This paper will analyze the poem from the standpoint of a formalist literary critic, evaluating Browning's "Duchess" according to language, structure, tone, imagery, plot, and other devices.
The plot of Browning's dramatic monologue is simple: Alfonso is strolling both literally and figuratively down memory lane -- a hall which houses a painting (by Fra Pandolf, we are told) of his late wife. The recollections stirred by the painting's viewing reveal the characters of both Alfonso and his "last duchess," and end suddenly, as though the narrator were content to muse only a moment. Ironically, the poem ends as it begins -- seemingly spontaneously (and yet…...
mlaWorks Cited
Browning, Robert. "My Last Duchess." Mason University. Web. 6 June 2011.
Last Duchess';'Punishment'; 'Capital Punishment'
Three Poems of Decentralization and Marginalization: Browning's "My Last Duchess; Heaney's "Punishment"; and Alexie's "Capital Punishment"
Within the poems "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning; Punishment by Seamus Heaney; and "Capital Punishment" by Sherman Alexie, all three authors deal, although in much different ways, with shifting, and often surprising, relationships between centrality and marginality: of speaker, subject, or both. In Browning's "My Last Duchess, for example the speaker, a duke (the sort of figure one least expects to say or do anything that might cause him to be seen as "marginal," or even unusual, recollects in detail the various jealousy-provoking and ultimately fatal behaviors of his "last duchess." These, at least in the speaker's mind, have given him justifiable cause to kill her. All that remains of her now is her portrait on the wall. In this essay, I will analyze ways that all three poems deal…...
Chekhov employed an attitude similar to most nineteenth century short story writers, as he attempted to captivate the reader's attention through putting across concepts that would make it especially difficult for him or her to keep his or her state of mind. The lawyer and the banker both go through intense emotional and physical occurrences as they struggle to find their personal identity. The fact that the banker eventually comes to feel sorrow for his thinking is essential because the story provides readers with a turn of events as characters experience significant change as a result of observing that their previous perspective concerning the world was not necessarily accurate.
The moment when the reader becomes acquainted with the fact that the lawyer has won when considering his state of mind as he left confinement is essential for the short story. This concept and the fact that the banker starts to…...
That he was not the reason that her cheeks were glowing might have been something for him to investigate and improve their marriage; however, she was just a woman and why would he bother himself with such trifles.
In short, the duke can commit murder if he feels that his wife does live up to his expectations. Obviously, there are no ramifications for his behavior as he brags about the event and is very pleased to display the new and improved version of his wife that is under his complete control. e can see how women are also treated as objects in this poem. hen the Duke could have her the way he wanted her, decided to make her into something that would entertain him. e cannot say that the Duke did not love his wife. He is like Othello in that he loved her too well but she had…...
mlaWorks Cited
Browning, Robert. "My Last Duchess." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. II. Abrams, M. H, ed. New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1986.
Charles Fort's We do not Fear the Father and Louise Edrich's the Lady in the Pink Mustang, what are the metaphors, similes and allegories in these two poems? How do they enhance the meaning of the poem?
A pink car signifies that she wants to be a girly-girly with a simple life, but the car, proud, and different. The car is a mustang, which is a wild, fast, and promiscuous creature. "The sun goes down for hours, taking more of her along than the night leaves with her," reflects the kind of empty work that she does during the night, and that she only belongs to herself in the day time when she is not performing. "It is what she must face every time she is touched, the body disposable as cups." Could the girl in the pink mustang be a stripper, a showgirl, or a prostitute? Regardless, she feels…...
“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning versus Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94:
Ironic Menace versus Sincerity
“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning takes the form of a dramatic monologue, in which a duke describes his first wife to an emissary arranging for the Duke’s second marriage. The Duke displays a portrait of his last wife proudly, noting how beautiful she is, but also jealously states that she was too liberal with her smiles and that he resents how freely she acted towards other people, as if she valued her husband’s noble name on the same level as a commoner. Gradually, the reader becomes aware of the fact that the Duke is a murderer, and is speaking of his wife as a kind of warning to the representative of the family of his future, next bride. The cool and civilized language of the Duke is an ironic contrast with his actual actions. The poem is…...
In the face of this awareness of human decline and despair the protagonist pledges love to his partner. This love is described as "true," which implies a love that is faithful and enduring and which can transcend the loss of faith in the world.
This vision or poetic image of loss of faith in human nature can be seen, albeit in a different light, in the work of Browning. An example would be the poem "Fra Lippon Lippi." In this poem the poet questions the nature of art and whether it should be true-to -- life or idealistic. The question is related to the way that art can best serve religious purposes and also refers to the gap between ordinary life and religious faith. The argument that runs throughout the poem is that the religious authorities are more concerned with appearances than expressing deep religious convictions.
Many of Browning's poems were…...
mlaWorks Cited
Arnold M. Dover Beach. 12 August, 2010.
Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell Without knowing that a ball turret is small place in a B-17, we would not understand the central metaphor analogizing the mother's womb to the ball turret, which is essential to understanding that the poem is about the contrast between the warmth of a mother's love and the cold dehumanizing treatment of the "State" where he is just another soldier.
Common Ground by Judith Cofer Before reading the poem, the title seemed quite self-explanatory, I figured the poem would be about finding common ground between people, and in a sense it is, but the message, after reading the poem, is much starker. It is more about the inescapability of aging, the common links that tie generations as the young get old and realize the commonalities they share with their parents.
Hazel Tells LaVerne by Katharyn Machan Knowing the fairy tale helps because in…...
This skilled use of ironic prose is also observable in "A Jury of her Peers" by Susan Glaspell, as when the woman who has just committed murder tells the investigators: "after a minute...'I sleep sound.'" the tale depicts how a group of women gradually deduce, through small and simple clues, how Mrs. right killed her husband, and why. The women's observations are more astute than the male investigator's analysis, according to police protocols. The point of the story is not murder, but the fact that the murder's quiet wifely desperation has gone ignored for so long, and that only fellow female sufferers can see this sorrow after the fact. Likewise, the point of O'Connor's story, more than the lurid aspects, are the ways that families and human beings fail to connect and communicate with one another, before it is too late.
A naysayer might sniff and ask why use murder…...
mlaWorks Cited
Glaspell, Susan. "A Jury of her Peers." 6 May 2007. http://www.learner.org/exhibits/literature/story/fulltext.html
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." 6 May 2007. http://www.ariyam.com/docs/lit/wf_rose.html
O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." 6 May 2007. http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html
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