My Last Duchess

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  • Created by: pinkbeer
  • Created on: 29-07-19 17:38
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  • My Last Duchess
    • First Person "That's my last duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she was alive
      • She is an object/ posession
      • He asserts his authority over her
      • He's happy about the painting- it was expensive and he collects only valuable 'art'
      • He takes pride in it, because he can invite people to admire her beauty- it belongs to him
      • The painting looks realistic- increases it's value. Also, he enjoys the fact that he controls every aspect of her now
      • Subtle sarcasm informs us of his true feelings about her
      • It's significant that 'She's alive' only in terms of her appearances, not the qualities she should be recognised her
      • First person shows his arrogante/ desire for control
      • Observing the painting reassures him of his power
    • Ambiguity "This grew: I gave commands: Then all smiles stopped together
      • His paranoia encourages him to have her killed/ pressure from peers/ society
      • He's self- satisfied- the fact that he's killed her and she can't challenge him anymore
      • Commands- could have been directed at her/ or the murderer
      • He controlled her emotions killed her joy by preventing her smiles via her death
      • Irony- her smile is his motivation for killing her
    • Metaphor "But to myself they turned (since nonne puts by the curtain I have drone for you, but I0"
      • He controls the painting- he couldn't do this in life, but achieves it by her death
      • It enables him to control who she looks at/ who looks at her- this made him paranoid
      • Emphasises his victory
      • She has escaped via death and is now immortalised
      • Murdering the Duchess/ concealing her behind the curtain was inevitable
      • The parenthesis helps to emphasise that he has great power
    • Metaphor "Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse, though a rarity
      • Neptune- represents nobility/ the Duke fighting to control her like Neptune controls the ocean
      • Seahorse-peaceful, elegant, innocent like the Duchess
      • He wants to be 'Gog-like'- to dominate her
      • Seahorses- harnesses to the chariot/ trapped as the Duchess is trapped by the Duke
      • Seahorse- expected to obey Neptune
      • The statue is in bronze- lasts forever. He's only interested in materialism
      • The listing shows that he has so many praised possessions

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