My Last Duchess (Robert Browning)

My Last Duchess (Robert Browning)

My Last Duchess is a great dramatic monologue. The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara, a 16th century nobleman of Italy. He is represented as speaking his mind aloud to a silent listener. The dramatic monologue is. appropriate for psychological analysis. The character’s words reveal his personality, mind and nature.
As in most of Browning’s dramatic monologues, My Last Duchess opens at a critical juncture of a character’s life, though the critical situation is made explicit to us only towards the end of the poem. The Duke is speaking to the envoy of a Count whose daughter he intends to marry. He shows the envoy his picture-gallery and stops before the picture of his last Duchess. It is not by mere accident that he talks of his dead wife-he does so “by design”. He wants to impress on the envoy, and his master the Count, as to the sort of behaviour he expected from the woman he was going to marry. He intimates that he would tolerate no rivals for his next wife’s smiles.
The very first line, “That’s my last Duchess, painted on the wall”, is dramatic in tone. From that moment onwards, the poem presents a remarkable character-study of the Duke and an analysis of the intricate psychological motivations of human nature. We are not only given a vivid picture of the Duke’s temperament, but through his words, we realise the true nature of his last Duchess as well. The irony is that, while the Duke’s words give his personal opinion of the Duchess, we form quite a different opinion from those very words. The Duke’s own narrow-mindedness, stupendous arrogance, supercilious dignity, cruelty, greed and unscrupulousness are revealed in his attempt to present his dead wife in a derogatory light.
The arrogance and pride of a nine-hundred-years old name has bred inhumanity and callousness in the Duke. Too jealous of this name, he interprets every act of his wife’s innocence, simplicity and amiability as a calculated insult to himself. Holding her as a part of his property, he cannot tolerate her smiling at or thanking anyone except himself; that implied an infringement of the rights of property which this dealer in human souls could not stand.
The Duke’s patronizing attitude is evident in practically every line he utters. The apparent politeness of, “Will ye please to sit”, and “Will it please you rise”, does not sufficiently hide the supercilious tone. These lines are imperious commands couched in polite words. His tyrannient attitude is evident when he says that he alone can draw aside the curtain before the picture. Two lines are enough to indicate the effective way in which he dealt with a situation unpleasing to himself:
I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together.
Chilling brutality and tyranny is compressed in just eight words. The callousness of the Duke could not be more effectively revealed than in the calm and cool dismissal of the memory of his Last Duchess with the line :
There she stands;
As if alive.
Grasping, mercenary instincts fill this arrogant Duke. He does not think it to be stooping low to make sure of a large dowry. The cunning tact of the Duke is, however, clear in his assurance that it is the Count’s daughter’s beauty which is of primary concern, and not the dowry. The casual reference to the bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse, once again seems to imply the Duke’s own dominating temperament which will tolerate no opposition. The reference to Claus of Innsbruck brings out the Duke’s pride of possession-he is proud of having in his gallery, a statue which is thought “a rarity”. True, the Duke possesses artistic taste. He seems to appreciate the skill of Fra Pandolf who has drawn such a life-like picture. He has,apparently, a rare and beautiful collection of art-pieces. But the exquisite artistic taste is not really to be admired, because it is a “soul-less” inhuman taste. The Duke can appreciate “life” in a picture but not in reality. His cold and stiff dignity cannot understand the pure innocence of the Duchess who enjoys the little joys of life.
Through the depiction of a character, Browning epitomises a whole age. The Duke of Ferrara’s words reveal not only himself but the very essence of Renaissance Italy. The age, marked by intrigue, avarice, shrewd mercenary instincts, hypocrisy and an exquisite taste for the arts, comes out distinctly through the characterization of the Duke. In the brief space of fifty-six lines, the spirit of an age is captured, through the words of a single speaker.
The first thing to note in the poem is its brevity. Just fifty-six lines are used to give a concentrated picture of a whole life-time. The poem, as Phelps says, could easily be expanded into a three volume novel. It shows Browning’s genius for condensation. But the epigrammatic and intense style does not hamper our understanding of the poem, for Browning’s usual stylistic lapses E are absent in My Last Duchess. There is no omission of words. There are parentheses and brackets, but they do not lead to obscurity. Perhaps, only an uninitiated reader might find the construction of sentences somewhat difficult. The allusions of Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck may be termed misleading, because they are imaginary names. No artists of these names existed in history.
The poem is written in heroic couplets. But the rhyme can easily pass off unnoticed in My Last Duchess, because the sense is continuous and runs on from one line to another. Thus, many a reader would easily think that the poem has been written in blank verse.
Conclusion: My Last Duchess is perhaps Browning’s most famous dramatic monologue. W. L. Phelps observes: “It is astounding that such a profound life-drama should have been conceived and faultlessly expressed by so young, a poet… Indeed it expresses Browning’s genius for condensation”. It is a remarkable picture of a Duke who, as Ralph Ronald points out, “did not see the goodness of the Duchess, did not perceive her beauty of soul, being dead spiritually himself”. B. R. Jerman aptly remarks: “The excellence of the poem lies in the dramatic irony of the Duke’s witlessness”. Ioan Williams states: “Browning’s purpose in creating the Duke is to make a statement about the comparative values of sophistication and naturalness”. David Dutchess’ notes Browning’s psychological insight when he declares: “The whole poem is but the visible part of the iceberg but the submerged invisible part is not a matter of vague suggestiveness; it is both psychologically and historically defined”.

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