Poetry Response #3

Merrell Pressley

Mrs. Jernigan

English Lit AP

8 February 2011

Poetry Response #3

            The Victorian poet Robert Browning is one of the most famous poets in the genre of the dramatic monologue. His poem, “My Last Duchess,” is the embodiment of a perfect dramatic monologue. The speaker is an older man, looking back over his relationship with his late wife.

            The word “FERRARA” at the beginning of the poem gives the poem context; it was meant to be set during the Renaissance, in Italy. Most critics seem to believe that Browning intended the speaker to be Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara.

            The speaker is talking to an unknown person, probably someone near him the art gallery, where the picture of his “Last Duchess” is hanging. In the poem, the speaker tells about his lover, who has died. She is the subject of the painting that sparks his interest. In the beginning of the poem, he tells of his memories of her, mostly positive and nostalgic ones. However, his attitude towards her shifts as he says, “She had / A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad, / Too easily impressed.” Apparently, his duchess was easily impressionable, which probably led to the end of the poem, where it can be inferred that he was not her only lover. This is confirmed when Browning writes, “‘twas not / Her husband’s presence only.” She could not keep herself confined to just her husband, and this is the one despicable quality about his “Last Duchess.”

            Further along in the poem, Browning writes, “Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, / Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without / Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.” In other words, he began to notice her flirtations with other men and that caused him to begin to control her life. This caused her to be very unhappy, so her “smiles stopped.” It is odd for the speaker to look at her painting, because she looks as beautiful and alive as ever, despite her disloyalty and death. Therefore, he keeps her hidden, away from public eye. This poem reveals the power than men held over women in the time of the Renaissance; however, because of her unfaithfulness, it is apparent that women are beginning to have more significance and freedom in their own lives. Women are stepping outside of society’s constraints from before the Renaissance.