My Last Duchess

My Last Duchess “My Last Duchess,” by Robert Browning, is about a duke in search for a new bride. The Duke of Ferrara is giving a tour of his estate to a servant of a Count in hopes to marry his daughter. The poem is set in what seems to be an art gallery and the duke spends most of his time in front of a portrait of his last duchess and talks about what she was like. Apparently, the Duchess was easily made happy and that was problematic according to the Duke, so much it was enough to have her killed. When concluding his story on the Duchess, he proceeds to take the servant back downstairs to finish the tour. He then reassures the servant that while the dowry he will receive is important, his new bride is the priority. The poem ends with the Duke pointing out a statue of Neptune. From how the Duke tells of the late …show more content…
The higher up in the social class one was, the higher the expectations. Considering the poem is circled around the Duke, he wants to make sure he has his household under control. Therefore, the Duke is all about power. That is evident in not only speaking about the last Duchess, but when he speaks to the servant. When speaking to the servant, he will use questions and then continue on with the command. For example, “Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet the company below, then” (43). Since he is talking to the servant that is expected. It is also expected with the Duchess because of gender roles. When the Duke says, “Somehow – I know not how – as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift” (42), he is saying that she should not treat everyone else as she treated him because he gave her his last name which also gave her title. Basically, just any other commoner did not give her the power he gave her. He also asked a question, “Who’d stoop to blame this sort of trifling?” (42). He was asking rhetorically to make a point that no one would. Again thinking in terms