My Last Duchess Gender Roles

For this post, I want to talk about gender roles and dominance. I think both poems’ protagonists exemplify these two ideas quite well.

First, speaking about gender roles, I wish to point out that, in both poems, the women are like toys: they exist to appease their male counterpart. For example, in “My Last Duchess” the narrator “...gives commands…” (Browning 45) to his duchess in order stop her from stop smiling, and being easily appeased. Again, this man treats his duchess like a toy: he does not like that she is easily appeased by others-- as if he ought to be treated specially-- and so he gets angry at his “toy.” She is a toy, an object, that can be replaced at any time. Similarly, in “Porphyria’s Lover,” Porphyria is also seen as an object. …show more content…
In “My Last Duchess,” for example, the narrator speaks about the gift of his “...nine-hundred-years-old-name…” (Browning 33) to the Duchess. However, his Duchess sees this as any other gift: his name is worth all other gifts. This upsets him greatly. And, as we can see in this part of the story, the narrator wants to assert his dominance. He wanted his Duchess to love his name, and himself, more than anything: he wants ownership, and reverence in her. In “Porphyria’s Lover,” after the narrator realized Porphyria loved him greatly, he “...In one long yellow string I wound/Three times her little throat around…” (Browning 39-40). After her death, he cuddles with her. I think this shows a great deal of dominance because she can no longer act: she is a puppet at this point. Perhaps the narrator did not want her to act, he wanted the dominant role (in the beginning Porphyria initiated the cuddling). Perhaps, though, these the dominance in these two narrators point to the fear of the potential of women. If you think about it, both women were powerful in their own way: one kind to everyone, and one initiating sensual contact. Perhaps this is why both narrators responded with the killing of these