My Last Duchess

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning.

Historical Context

Ferrara, Italy 1842

In 1842 three main concepts were emerging and being criticised in early Victorian society.

Women- Women were meant to be meak and were seen as inferior to men, and suppressed by the dominant gender. However this was starting to be challenged in society as the Suffragette movement began to quickly grow.

Industrial Revolution- Mass migration in many countries started due to the industrial revolution. There were less and less jobs emerging in the countryside and more in cities, so many moved from rural areas to towns and cities to gain employment.

Religion- God was being challenged due to the apperance of evolution and scientific theories regardng the creation and development of life and form.

Women were seen as inferior in the Victorian Era, and were seen as being incapable of rational thought. When a woman married their, husband, in the eyes of society, they were then seen as the male's property.

Robert Browning used this poem to explore views on discrimination against women in that era, as well as the attitutudes towars women shown by society. 

It may be a criticism of Victorian attitudes towards women and the supression of female sexuality.

Summary of 'My Last Duchess'

The speaker of the poem is an Italian Duke. He is showing someone a painting of his last wife, that was created by a famous artist in that time period. He continues to talk about how his last duchess was very easily pleased and blushed with delight at everthying. She was a polite and beautiful woman, however the Duke did not believe that she was grateful for the gift of his name. He then 'gave a command' and 'her smile was no more. This could be an inference to the Duke commiting the murder of his wife, howver the meaning behind the words is ambigious to the reader, because it also implies that they seperated and are just no longer together in a romantic relationship. We then find out, the person in which the Duke was speaking to is an envoy of a Count, who's daughter the Italian Duke wishes to betrothe.

Themes

Power- The poem shows the domestic power the Duke asserts over is wife.As well as the political power he shows in the ambigious line 'I give command'

Language

'My'- Shows his posssesive nature and self obsessed attitude, He believes his wife is his property, and constantly objectifies her to prove this.

'Sir' 'You' - He speakes these words of address to his spectator, which shows his keen sense to show his superiority. As well as his condescendin attitude.

'My gift of a nine hundred year old name' The use of this phrase shows the reader the vain idealogies in which he possesses…