The Rape Of The Lock And My Last Duchess Analysis

Women have had expectations and oppression brought on them for centuries. However, the present does not compare to the discrimination of the distant past and the poems, The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning demonstrate in satirical, but actual works the prejudice on women in society. The poems capture the preconception on women in the past and how men have either belittled or thought of women as subservient beings whose only job is to stay lovely and pure for men. Pope uses his personal letter with hidden insults towards a woman, the supernatural, and satire to exemplify the lack of respect for females while Browning through the Duke of Ferrara exposes the little disregard and care men had for women’s …show more content…
Belinda is a lady of class, who is admired for her beauty but has a distrustful and envious entourage. She represents the aristocracy and ludicrous importance of appearance in society and reputations during the era. Belinda’s one major goal when she wakes up is grooming and shows the sexism and expectations of women. The gender role of women was expected to be dressing, grooming, and preparing everything for a suitor or men in general. However, being too friendly or willing with men was a “stain [on] her Honour” meaning it was shameful and harmful to her reputation. (Pope, 12) The Baron is another key character in the portrayal of the 18th-century society. His mindset is one of possessiveness and entitled arrogance much like the Duke in My Last Duchess. The Baron in this poem is Belinda’s suitor and wants her as his prize and feels entitled to possess and have her. The Baron, Lord Pete, in the poem was determined to take Belinda’s lock of hair since he believed he was entitled to it. “He saw, He wish’d, and to the Prize aspired: Resolv’d to win, he meditates the way, By Force to ravish, or by Fraud betray.”(Pope, 9) Lord Pete did not care for Belinda’s approval or consideration since she was a woman who must submit and set aside her anger and emotions for men. Lord Pete is a reflection of Pope’s disregard of Arabella’s issue, labeling it as comical and melodramatic. …show more content…
In the poem, the Duke of Ferrara brags to his future wife’s servant and reveals his controlling and paranoid nature through the tale of his former bride. He uses the portrait of his dead, past wife that is directly painted on his wall as a gateway to describe his perspective on her. The Duke describes his former wife as “too easily impressed” and that “she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” (Browning) There are many interpretations. However, it seems the Duke was paranoid and might have caused his former bride’s untimely death due to jealousy and pride. Since he gives the image of him “[giving] commands; Then all smiles stopped altogether” as if he gave orders for her death.(Browning) The Duke is an “egotistical tyrant of such power and vanity that he could openly admit to having ordered the execution of his wife for the ‘crime’ of being too pleasant to others.”(Hecht, 108) Minus the murderous and dark aura, the Duke and Lord Pete hold the similarity of objectifying women and seeing them as submissive prizes to conquer fair or with deceits. The imagery of the Duke bragging his tale and arrogantly telling his future bride’s servant that his last wife did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name” reveals his prideful entitled persona. He recounts the tale on how “some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her” and she blushed and