My Last Duchess

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  • My Last Duchess
    • Robert Browning
      • born in England but lived in Italy for many years
        • he was fascinated by the Italian Renaissance
          • a period where art flourished
      • He was restricted within the Victorian era so he wrote in other characters so he could write about taboo subjects
    • Structure & Form
      • Rhyming couplets
        • he wants to part of a respectable couple
      • iambic pentameter
        • reinforces the impression that the Duke and the visitor are in conversation
        • reflects his controlling personality
      • enjambment
        • suggests he's getting carried away with his anger
      • narrative poem
        • he's telling a story as he wants to be perceived in a certain way
    • sibilance
      • "I gave commands... then all smiles stopped"
        • has a sinister tone
          • the lack of explanation suggests he doesnt feel he has to account for his actions
        • a euphemism for his wife's murder
    • control
      • parenthesis
        • "none puts by the curtain i have drawn for you, but i..."
          • he controls who looks at the painting but couldn't control who looked at his wife when she was alive
            • the idea of a wife being a husband's possession
            • he's obsessed with power
            • he enjoys the control he has now
      • "not the first are you to turn and ask thus"
        • creates the impression of a question from the visitor
          • we hear it through the dukes voice
      • possesive pronoun and simile
        • "my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive"
          • shows he viewed her as an object
          • when he re tells the story he brings her back to life
            • the idea that the husband should be in charge
          • sets a sinister tone
      • “No just pretence of mine for dowry will be disallowed”
        • hes arranging his next marriage
          • He saw her as another one of his possession to be collected and admired just like his artwork
    • pride
      • repetition
        • "stoop"
          • he felt his wife was beneath him
          • rather than stoop he had her killed
      • “She ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift”
        • this hurt his pride
          • he thinks she should appreciate it more than she did
            • jealous because he couldn’t stand the way the Duchess treated him the same as everyone else

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