Murder... mystery... intrigue... All describe Robert Browning’s poem‚ "My Last Duchess." From the speakers’s indirect allusions to the death of his wife the reader might easily think that the speaker committed a vengeful crime out of jealousy. His flowery speech confuses and disguises any possible motives‚ however‚ and the mystery is left unsolved. Based on the poem’s style‚ structure‚ and historical references‚ it becomes evident that even if the speaker did not directly kill his
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The School of Psychoanalytic Criticism “The Cask of Amontillado” and its author Edgar Allan Poe are excellent references for applying psychoanalytic interpretations to an author and his work. Psychoanalytic criticism uses a Freudian theory of a three level psyche‚ the ego‚ the super-ego‚ and the id to gain a better understanding of the deeper or hidden meaning within literature and an understanding of the psychological identity of the author‚ the characters or the reader. Freud theorized that
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Alexandra Lopez British Literature Annotated Bibliography April 16‚ 2015 My Last Duchess Thesis: 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
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book entitled Dramatic Lyrics‚ which was a famous work that contained a collection of dramatic monologues. Two of the poems found in this book were “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”. In “Porphyria’s Lover”‚ Browning introduces a powerful insight into the demented mind of an extremely possessive man‚ while “My Last Duchess” tells a story about the Duke of Ferrara revealing to a guest the murder of his wife and the motives behind it. The two speakers share similar qualities‚ both being extremely
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’Men are presented as monsters in Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess.’ Discuss. A monster is defined as something which inspires horror and disgust and is shockingly hideous or frightful. The characters of both males in ’Porphyria’s Lover’ and ’My Last Duchess’ definitely give the impression of fitting this description‚ as they both commit‚ or at least command the committing of murders. They are also controlling of the women in their lives and crave power over them – in both cases‚ the woman
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Compare Last and Lover The story of “My Last Duchess” is a sad story about a man who is about to meet his new wife. He is talking to the man who represents the family he is taking this wife from and he decides to tell the representative about his last duchess which died. The story does not tell how she dies only that she is dead‚ and that her husband believed she smiled too much. The story of “Porphyria’s Lover” is about a woman(Porphyria) who walks in on her lover. She adds wood to the fire‚ puts
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Robert Browning is known as the Master of Psychological dramatic monologue. In "My last Duchess" the reader only hears the Duke’s story whose perverse point of view throws false accusations towards his recently deceased wife. What the reader knows about the characters is limited‚ so he must piece together the story on his own. The story the duke thinks he tells‚ of an unfaithful wife who offended his dignity‚ and the story he really tells‚ of jealousy and possessive love that leads to murder‚ engages
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Introduction to Poetry Appreciation. TAQ 2: My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is based upon Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara’s marriage to Lucrezia de’ Medici and her death at his hands. Although it has never been proven that the Duke orchestrated her death‚ she did die suspiciously at the young age of seventeen after only a year of being married to the Duke. At first glance the reader only sees this story but upon reading the poem in more depth and looking at what the form and language devices tell
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In this essay‚ I would like to discuss one of Robert Browning’s better known poems‚ "My Last Duchess." While some readers may be put off by Browning’s language which now seems archaic‚ his poem is every bit as relevant today as when he wrote it almost two hundred years ago. It is as relevant in the twenty first century as it was in the sixteenth century which serves as the setting for the poet’s history lesson. The poem focuses on a sixteenth century Italian duke who is regaling his guest with tales
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Poems ‘The laboratory‚ the content of the play‚ from my point of view is about a woman whose partner has left her for another woman. The poet has planned to kill the other woman as she is jealous of her and wants revenge from her ex. We can tell she is jealous of this other woman as she says she’s not little‚ no minion like me!’ this shows she is jealous of the woman as she thinks she is of higher status‚ the words ‘she’s not little’ shows this. She thinks the other woman is better than she is.
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