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My Last Duchess Analysis

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My Last Duchess Analysis
‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘Things’ are both poems differing incredibly in length and structure, however they share and underlying sinister tone, conveyed by the eerie imagery both poets choose to write about.
 In Robert Browning’s poem, ‘My Last Duchess’, the first major source of imagery we encounter is the detail about the portrait of the Duchess on the wall, and the fictional author, Fra Pandolf. Boasting about the painting on the wall, the Duke adopts a cold and dispassionate tone when talking about his wife. Mentioning ambiguously that the Duchess is ‘[his] last’, it is implied that she is no longer alive.
 … I call That piece a wonder; now; Fra Pandolf’s hands…
The word ‘now’ is foregrounded by a caesura, offering the unnerving realisation that the …show more content…
The Duke once again speaks egocentrically, stating that the statue was cast specifically for him. He names the artist again, presumably this sculptor is famous and accomplished. From the fact that Neptune is taming a sea-horse, we can infer that this is connected to the controlling or ‘taming’ of the Duchess, an eerie way to end the dramatic monologue …show more content…
‘My Last Duchess’ is a dramatic monologue, while ‘Things’ is a soliloquy, in which the writer speaks her thoughts aloud. 
The topics of both poems mirror each other, both poems are dispassionate, and the writer believes their partner to be unfaithful. This is expressed in a heavily controlled way in ‘My Last Duchess’, but in ‘Things’, feelings and emotions appear to be out of control. There are emotions of jealousy, suspicion and betrayal, creating the forbidding atmosphere of both poems. Both poems also contain ambiguity in their titles, leaving the interpretation up to the
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