My last Duchess

• The poem "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning is about an Italian Duke who has supposedly killed his first wife and is now planning another wedding to another woman.
• The Duke displays a painting of his dead wife to a visitor, hidden behind a curtain, making the visitor sit down to admire it.
• The Duke praises the artist who painted the painting and points out the Duchess' blush, suggesting she was flirting and being complimented.
• The Duke laments over his wife being "too easily pleased", criticising her for appearing to favour other men.
• The Duke claims he was not eloquent enough to tell his wife to stop, leading to her being killed.
• The Duke discusses with the visitor arrangements for his next marriage, pointing out a statue as he leaves.
• Robert Browning was born in London but spent most of his life in Italy, eventually dying in Venice.
• Robert Browning disliked school and was homeschooled, but was also fluent in many languages and started writing poetry when he was a child.
• In 1845, Robert Browning married Elizabeth Barret against her father's permission, keeping the wedding secret from her domineering father.
• Robert Browning visited Italy shortly before writing the poem "My Last Duchess".
• The poem "My Last Duchess" was set in Ferrara, Italy, and contains a political message and a criticism of society.
• The poem "My Last Duchess" was written during the Industrial Revolution, when society was starting to see social mobility in terms of class as well as gender, as women started to demand equality and saw the beginning of the suffrage movement.
• Before the Industrial Revolution, views of women were very backwards and women would become property of their husbands upon marriage, losing right to all property and possessions.
• During the Victorian era, there was a very high focus on morality, manners and modesty, especially seeing as a large majority of society identified as Christians.
• Sex was taboo, especially female sexuality, and the only way for a woman to gain status/influence was through her husband.
• The poem "My Last Duchess" is set in a time and a place (the Italian resistance) when art was heavily valued within society.
• The Duchess is presented as innocent, for example description of a "spot of joy", resembling (likely) a blush, suggesting she is embarrassed by compliments and “courtesy”, but pleased by all of natures beauty, would never ask for anything, is easily pleased, and polite to everyone who passed without much the same smile.
• The Duke can control who gets to see and enjoy the Duchess as a painting.
• The Duke's control over the painting is an extension of his control over her, demonstrated through the line "none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you but I".
• A caesura is a pause between words, for example across lines, with the use of a comma or full stop.
• The Duke makes use of possessive pronouns such as “my” to show that he has ownership of the Duchess, and shows that she is a possession not an individual.
• The Duke is paranoid, reading affairs into everything even when it is completely unreasonable.
• The Duke moves seamlessly from discussing his last wife to his new wife, suggesting she wasn’t special to him and was disposable, furthered by how he moves seamlessly from wife’s painting to a new statue.
• The caesura in the poem makes it seem rambling and breaks up rhythm, making it unpleasant to listen to.
• The Duchess is portrayed as a painting, indicating her complete objectification; she is something to be admired and looked at as well as something to control.
• The Duke's power is shown when the readers get fed up of his voice and narrative, which negatively shows his power and control, and it can be seen as a sign of too much pride and self-obsession.
• The Duchess is portrayed as naïve and not materialistic but appreciative of beliefs and now no knows no other man will ever make her happy apart from him.
• Iambic Pentameter was used by Shakespeare to show nobility, and it was thought to be the most natural meter for English language.
• The opening of "My Last Duchess" raises questions about the Duchess's death and the Duke's possessive attitude towards her.
• Browning’s use of caesura shows his speech as poorly planned or formed as he keeps interrupting himself.
• The Duke's control over his visitor is established from the start, with the rhetorical question "Will’t please you sit and look at her?” implying that the Duke is in sole control of who sees the Duchess.
• The use of enjambment also presents the Duke as weak and unbalanced, as he is getting carried away and rambling.
• The meter also demonstrates the Duke’s sense of pride and superiority, as it has a tight control of rhythm and rhyme.
• The no-stanza structure of the piece gives it a sense of being like a stream of consciousness of the Duke’s unadulterated thoughts and feelings.
• The lack of control over what the Duke says and his tendency to get sidetracked is demonstrated by the use of parentheses and dashes such as in the line “– how shall I say? –”.
• The use of only one single verse to structure the poem makes it feel overwhelming and tiring, mirroring the Duke’s power and dominating the room and the poem.
• Browning’s use of enjambment allows the poem to flow and seem more like a natural conversation, reinforcing the conversational tone.
• The phrase "as if she were alive" suggests that the Duchess has died.
• Browning uses the traditional meter of Iambic Pentameter, which reflects the Duke's traditional and conservative views of women.
• The first person narration also means the content could be biased, exaggerated or untrue.