Preview

Discuss How Robert Browning Presents the Relationship Between the Duke and Duchess. Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
735 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Discuss How Robert Browning Presents the Relationship Between the Duke and Duchess. Essay Example
Discuss how Robert Browning presents the relationship between the Duke and Duchess.
In my last duchess there are many different language techniques used to present the relationship between the Duke and Duchess. An example of language is the way the Duke uses personal pronouns to highlight his self-importance and arrogance “ Since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I” this use of personal pronouns highlights that the Duke thinks very highly of himself and he has a high self-esteem. Many of the words used also relate to his love of possessions. In this poem the themes relate to the Dukes attitude which is arrogance and high self-importance but also that pride is not an attractive quality the Duke arrogance comes across quite clearly when talking about himself and his possessions also that having money and possessions aren’t everything yes the Duke might have a massive house and paintings but his paranoia about his last Duchess comes across and reflects his insecurity.
In my last Duchess punctuation is used to show it’s a speech “she had a heart – how shall I say?- too soon made glad.” This poem is a form of speech and the use of punctuation tell us that is unrehearsed and that he has to think about his words, this speech is also pretending to be a conversation. It’s divided up into rhyming couplets to mimic an unrehearsed speech there are lots of twists within the lines which is shown by the variety of punctuation. This is a one way Conversation which shows that his arrogance does not allow anyone else to speak. His arrogance is shown when he says “never to stoop” he will never lose his dignity, he won’t sink to the Duchess level which makes it seem like Duke is embarrassed to be with a woman whose immaturity levels are a lot lower than his.
Robert browning wrote “My last Duchess” in Victorian England when there were concerns surrounding the darker side of relationships and marriage. This was a time of patriarchal dominance where women were

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In this essay I will be commenting on the presentation of relationships in two poems. The first poem is ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’, in which the speaker remarks on her life before marriage, where she was adored and worshiped by men, and how it has changed after marriage. ‘My Last Duchess’ is a dramatic monologue in which the speaker comments on his late wife and her character, suggesting that she was unfaithful to him and hinting that he may have murdered her because of this.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Immediately Browning titles the story with a hint that suggests the story will describe ownership of one of many Duchess'. It also suggests through the name 'Duchess' that it is coming from a royal background rather than simply saying 'woman' or 'wife'. The story is about a Duke who decides to remove his wife from his life out of paranoia and jealousy, by murdering her. Browning is the writer and the listener, the Duke is the speaker and the story is told in a dramatic monologe. Another device I noticed is that Browning uses enjambment, this gives the poem rhythm and flow.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Victorian context shapes her perception in the evaluation of love and the role of women. In the construction of her poems, ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ structured inspiration derives from Romantic prose, whilst pertaining to the strict form. Allowing for a focus on the thematic concerns of her poems rather, Barrett Browning’s poems emphatically explore the progression of the highly idealised love of herself and Robert Browning. Rejecting the social expectations of her context through her presentation to Browning of her deeply personal poems, her poems provide insight to the female perception of courtly love. Through this alone we can see that Barrett Browning is an example herself of changing values as she rejects social conventions of her era by using the sonnet form, which was dominated by males at the time, whilst women tended to be limited to the novel form. She uses this form to present and express to Robert Browning the extent of her love.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My last duchess is a dramatic monologue where you explore the character of the Duke and his late wife. In the monologue you start to acknowledge the fact that perhaps the Duke himself has murdered his own wife because he was jealous. The title of the monologue is called ‘My…

    • 583 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    4.2 Practice 2

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages

    a. Thesis Statement: With different motivations, but similar intentions the word choices and poetic rhetorical devices of the speakers reveal their attitudes toward women. Using persuasive techniques and extensive figurative language to compare and contrast Browning’s, “My Last Duchess,” and Marvell’s, “To His Coy Mistress,” it becomes clear that the main goal of the characters in these poems is their need to be the dominant force over the opposite sex.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cited: Browning, Robert. ?My last duchess.? Primis McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992. p. 52-53 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. ?The Yellow Wallpaper.? Primis McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992. p. 153-165…

    • 817 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both of the writers have made their speakers very proud of things in their life, the duke in My Last Duchess is very proud of his 900 year old name he has given her and all his power and riches. But he is also very viscous in the poem and seems to not care about women as he treats them like objects in the time of patriarchal society “My Last Duchess” and “is my object”.…

    • 768 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This could have been one of the many possible reasons why Lady Macbeth could not live with herself, therefore, committing suicide. However, the poem, ‘my last duchess’, can arguably contain a whole range of themes. One possible theme that could be presented within my last duchess is luminosity and bliss. I think this because the Duke speaks with a very polite posture, to the lower class envoy, and to a majority of the audience, it could sound very sincere, yet deceiving.…

    • 1968 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Witty Comparison

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To start comparing, the two the narrators of each story are different. In “My Last Duchess,” the narrator is a man of royalty. In “My Ex-Husband” however, it is a women. In, “My Last Duchess,” the narrator talks about his wife and of how he saw her to be treating everyone as equally as she treated him. The poem even starts out as thus, “Thats my last Duchess.” (Browning 1). However,because he saw this as a threat to him, the narrator becomes enraged and decides to do away with her, permanently. Now he is looking for someone new. In “My Ex-Husband,” the woman is talking with her boyfriend and tells him about how much she had loved her ex-husband. She too starts off the poem in the same way with, “Thats my Ex-Husband” (Spera 1). She told him about how great he was and at the very end hints to the fact that he had cheated on her so they got divorced. That changed the perspective of what happened in the beginning of the poem to show she was being sarcastic of her ex’s “greatness” The Duke, in his story, brought up the hints of what he did slowly through the poem, whereas the woman waited till the end for her story’s climax. Both ways, in my opinion, are very effective. I see in both poems that the narrators bring up what they liked about their partner to another person, the Duke to the Count’s representative, and the women to her new boyfriend.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Browning’s “ My last Duchess,” is not a romantic love story about the sudden death of a Duke’s wife. Instead it’s about an insecure and psychotic Duke who feels entitled to everything including his wife and kills her. Browning explores the mind of a lunatic and presenting his audience how men with power can basically get away with almost anything. he analyses issues of feminism, domestic violence, and a disorderly structure of Victorian society through his work in “My Last Duchess.”…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “My Last Duchess” is told in first person with the narrator being a participant in the story. A painting of an ex-wife influences the narrator to tell the narratee of his ex-wife. As the narrator discusses the painting of his wife, he paints a picture of the woman for the reader. This gives the reader insight into the narrator’s emotions. What we know about the narrator is that he is a wealthy duke about to get remarried. By the duke’s tone of voice and choice of words when he rants on about the painting of his last duchess, the reader also can assume that duke’s jealously has driven him to murder his last wife. For example, the duke states “Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive.”(Browning 418). This point of view and how the story is told is interesting and shapes the story. As the duke ponders and speaks of the painting it is as if his emotions of love, jealously, and anger are provoked just as if she was still there. Also, this point of view allows the narrator too slowly, and maybe accidently, revile his madness to the reader and the narratee. What motivates the narrator to tell the story is unknown. We know that the narratee is associated with the narrator’s soon to be wife, so we have to wonder why the duke is…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In My Last Duchess, the Duke is portrayed as a jealous and insecure man who hides behind his power. While jealousy is an emotion which can sometimes be seen as a good thing in the context of a relationship, the Duke is an example of how too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. The Duke feels troubled on how his wife was, apparently, “too soon made glad” and while it is evident that the Duchess was simply a kind natured woman; the Duke’s alleges her actions as wrong or even promiscuous because the Duke feels only he can discriminate what is good or not. His lack of morality is shown when he begins to criticize the Duchess’ lack of discrimination and even deems the “dropping of the daylight in the West” – a gift from God- as less important than his gift. The intensity of his jealousy is also disturbing because of the disastrous results it leads to and how casual the Duke is and his attempted kindness towards the messenger. It is after the Duchess’ death that he then appreciates her but only once she is the subject of a piece of art and his celebratory approach to her death is, to the reader, alarming. When he talks about a piece of art he owns, “Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse”, he implies that taming a woman is like taming a sea-horse, while implying that a woman is one that has to be controlled which shows his immoral misogynistic nature. However, at the time period that this poem was set, art was much appreciated, women were relatively powerless, and violence and murder was not uncommon and the Duke’s act of murdering his wife in order to gain a new one may be seen as expected though not in present times. His rule of “money first, woman later” when he speaks of the Count’s “known munificence” reveals more of the Duke’s indecency and his lack of change at the end of the poem.…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tone Of My Last Duchess

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Browning's particular word choice in this dramatic monologue steers the reader to believe that over time the Duchess' flirtatious nature becomes more difficult for the Duke to handle. As he says to the emissary, "Sir, 'twas not / Her husband's presence only, call that spot / Of joy into the Duchess' cheek," (12-14) the Duke begins to explain how she is charmed by anyone, and "too easily impressed" (24). In addition to being overly impressed by gifts from "officious fools," (27) the Duke is especially upset as he says, "she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody's gift." By marrying the Duchess the Duke gave her the gift of nobility, and she now holds a higher social rank. He feels that that gift alone should maintain her happiness, and commitment to him. The Duke's anger, and jealously have now escalated, and the reader begins to question what his madness will carry him to do. Another meticulous selection of words Browning uses is, " Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, / Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without / Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together." (43-46) The poem has now turned very mysterious, how was the Duchess executed, and who other than the Duke is…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Browning presents the relationship between men and women in the two poems in a number of ways. Such as mans power over women, women as possessions/belongings/treated like children, women in their traditional role, the death of the women, men as inhuman/ uncaring and how the male character feels about the death of his wife/lover. All of these points are shown and used by Robert Browning in the two poems, Porphirias Lover and My Last Duchess.…

    • 1345 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the story, “My Last Duchess” by Margaret Atwood, there exists vast dissimilarities between stereotypical women and women opposing stereotypes, and society. These dissimilarities are shown evidently through the characters. Margaret Atwood uses her characters to supply detailed examples of individuals who embody these stereotypes, those who do not, and the conflicting tones she uses in regards to these characters display her feminist ideals. A few of the characters representing stereotypical women in the text are embodied by the Duchess within the poem titled “My Last Duchess,” and the female individuals who surround the protagonist. Although the most notable male character in the story, Bill, is oblivious to any problem with the Duchess’…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays