Poetry Analysis: Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”

Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a dramatic monologue based on the 16^th century Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso who married Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici . She was not well-educated or as high in heritage as the Duke’s family. She did bring with her a huge dowry, but died under mysterious circumstances three years later. The poem was first published in 1842 in Browning’s Dramatic Lyrics. .It employs iambic pentameter and the technique of enjambment. Just as lines run on from one to another without full stops, the Duke transgresses the limits of egotism. The situation is of the Duke negotiating his marriage with an emissary who has come to arrange the same. In keeping with the characteristics of the Dramatic monologue therefore, the speech is born out of a critical moment.

Also the monologue delineates the character of the Duke of Ferrara in the tradition of the dramatic monologue, and the envoy serves as the interlocutor who is silent throughout. They come upon a portrait of the Duchess and the duke divulges details of her character. The Duke comes across as extremely possessive of his wife as echoed by the prefixing of ‘my’ in the title. He also mentions that nobody reveals the portrait but him. The fascination for the portrait and painting springs from the Renaissance love of art. He refers to her as an object as he claims “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall.” More than her memory, he revels at the beauty of the work itself; aesthetic deliberation dominates over moral considerations here.

He perceives that the ambassador studies the expression on the Duchess’ face, and claims that the passionate look was not unholy as the portrait was painted by a monk. He also allowed him only a day to paint the portrait lest association would lead to intimacy. Moreover, he never left her an opportunity to go astray. He takes care to assert that it was not only her husband’s presence that produced the blush. She was enthralled at the slightest of things. She was flattered as the artist stated that the mantle covered her wrist too much or if he exclaimed that paint could not capture “the faint Half-flush that dies along her throat”. She equated such acts with courtesy that was foolish according the Duke.

She had a heart that was vulnerable to the meanest of things whether it was as a branch laden with cherries, a fascinating sunset or a mule gifted to her by someone. She equated these plain things with expensive pieces of embellishments gifted by the Duke. And to top it all, she preferred these over his ‘a nine hundred years-old-name.’ The egotism of the Duke is evident here as he views her as an object and lends her no individuality. The absence of a proper noun in the title points to the same. The Duke visualizes her in terms of the label he attributes to her. The Duke comes across as inconsiderate and insensitive as compared with the Duchess who is altruistic and amiable.

He considered it beneath his dignity to even correct her gesture. He sets the standards for her as echoed by the phrase “exceed the mark.” She is just one among his Duchesses as he terms her his last one. Yet again she is defined in terms of Him, and not Her. In a gruesome stance, he states:

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together.

He now appears to be content by arresting her in a painting where she is revealed only at his will. He marvels at the idea of possessing her even if in the form of a picture. The anticipation of dowry and the present proposal does not bring in the realization that he is setting his own price, and not of the girl in question. The image of Neptune taming a sea-hose at the end connotes more than it denotes. It symbolizes the domestication of the exquisite Duchess by the callous Duke.

Rukhaya M.K

A Literary Companion