My Last Duchess

• What is the poem about?

  Duke Ferrera shows a portrait of his dead wife to an emissary who is negotiating a new marriage. He describes how the duchess was always smiling at everyone and this made the duke jealous. Instead of 'stooping' (telling her to pay more attention to him) he 'gave commands' (possibly hinting that he ordered her execution). At the end, the duke shows off a statue and declares the woman he is going to marry will be his object.
• Who wrote My Last Duchess

  Robert Browning
• What context is important for the poem?

  He wrote about stories from the past (this poem is set in the Renaissance) and Duke Ferreira was a real person.

  At the time this was written (Victorian), the society was patriarchal.
• ‘Looking as if she were alive’

  Sinister tone established, as straight away, on the second line, we are told she is dead
• ‘Will’t please you sit and look at her?’

  Rhetorical Question —> creates the illusion of politeness but really has a commanding undertone - his guest has no choice
• (‘since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but i)

  Brackets make it seem casual, but the Duke is establishing his unique power, as ‘none’ has the power over his ‘last duchess’ but him.
• ‘Half-flush that dies along her throat’


  image foreshadows her death
• ‘too soon made glad’

  he is jealous of her flirtatious nature - AO3 - she was still young!
• ‘officious fool’


  Enjambment after shows how he is getting carried away with his anger
• ‘My gift of nine-hundred years old name’

  Proud of his noble past and heritage - thinks she should adore him for this
• ‘disgusts’


  verb is very powerful - shows how repulsed he is by his wife’s behaviour, he cannot stand to have a lack of control.
• ‘I choose / never to stoop’

  like many of the middle-class, he is too proud to admit his feelings. Instead, he kills her.
• ‘I gave commands / Then all smiles stopped together’

  Suggests he killed her, but not even with his own hand. No, he is too ‘noble’ for that.
• ‘Of mine for dowry be disallowed’

  the guest is here to arrange his next marriage - story is a subtle reminder of how he expects his next wife to behave
• Structure 


  Lots of encampment, paired with a lot of caestranged - he attempts to keep power/control through the caesure, but he is clearly angry at the situation and His emotions about it are overflowing.