my last duchess
Explore the ways Robert Browning uses symbolism and figurative language in “My last Duchess”
Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” was written in 1842; one of the first of his many dramatic monologues. This poem largely focuses around one narrative voice who we suspect as the Duke of Ferrara; giving the emissary of his prospective new wife a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife; he describes her flirtatious nature and the fact he didn’t like it. Through the use of figurative language and symbolism Browning forms a link with the reader by relaying what it was like in the times of his writing, setting this poem in Italy where he lived. The use of imagery that Browning portrays creates a seemingly perfect painting but underneath it are mysteries and sordid secrets.
The title “My Last Duchess” demonstrates firstly that it is going to be from one narrative viewpoint and so thereby will be considered a biased narrator. The use of the personal pronoun ‘my’ displays a sense of possessiveness and materialism so by Browning using this term, it conveys the duke's possessive and controlling nature in as much as the duchess has become an art object which only he owns and controls. Although Browning’s choice of title can also be interpreted in another way and that is that the pronoun ‘my’ is used not as negative possession but in a positive caring way, that he wants to preserve her memory. Then there is the adjective ‘Last’ used which symbolizes that there could be another duchess in the future and that the duchess that he is talking about is only one in a sequence, this makes the reader question the Duke as a character as marriage should be forever but this Duke has a long line of past duchesses and so makes us wonder what happened to them.
Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” is in rhyming iambic pentameter which means it has 10 syllables per line, this suggests that Browning
Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” was written in 1842; one of the first of his many dramatic monologues. This poem largely focuses around one narrative voice who we suspect as the Duke of Ferrara; giving the emissary of his prospective new wife a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife; he describes her flirtatious nature and the fact he didn’t like it. Through the use of figurative language and symbolism Browning forms a link with the reader by relaying what it was like in the times of his writing, setting this poem in Italy where he lived. The use of imagery that Browning portrays creates a seemingly perfect painting but underneath it are mysteries and sordid secrets.
The title “My Last Duchess” demonstrates firstly that it is going to be from one narrative viewpoint and so thereby will be considered a biased narrator. The use of the personal pronoun ‘my’ displays a sense of possessiveness and materialism so by Browning using this term, it conveys the duke's possessive and controlling nature in as much as the duchess has become an art object which only he owns and controls. Although Browning’s choice of title can also be interpreted in another way and that is that the pronoun ‘my’ is used not as negative possession but in a positive caring way, that he wants to preserve her memory. Then there is the adjective ‘Last’ used which symbolizes that there could be another duchess in the future and that the duchess that he is talking about is only one in a sequence, this makes the reader question the Duke as a character as marriage should be forever but this Duke has a long line of past duchesses and so makes us wonder what happened to them.
Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” is in rhyming iambic pentameter which means it has 10 syllables per line, this suggests that Browning