Monologue and Attitude Revealed through Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’ Essay

The sixteenth century poem My know Duchess by Robert cook is a soliloquy of a Duke showing an audience the ikon of his late married woman. Browning, in this poem, as in umteen of his poems, uses soliloquy to mull on the concepts and notions of his time. This special monologue reflects on the perception of women in the 16th century, and in particular, aristocratic women.In this particular monologue, like many of Brownings monologues, we get not only a feeling for the Dukes typesetters case, but also a feeling nearly the expectations of a particular class and a particular genderbasic onlyy, a women must be obedient to her husband, and any independence is frowned upon. Browning typically used monologue in many of his poems to use this affectbasically, he creates a grammatical case to reflect on his own feelings of bon ton, but by using the character, he is able to about mask, or hide behind, that characters observations. In this monologue, we see the Duke as a particularly jea lous man. His suspicion would be easily aroused every time his wife thanked someone, especially if it was other man, for a small favor done to her.The Duke thinks that his gift of a nine-hundred-years-old-name (line 33) was the closely valuable gift his wife received from her and thus, she should have not provided given away her smile and blush for anyone but him. He motto this spatial relation as a kind of stooping down on her part and in turn, an insult on him and his position in society. The monologue thus reveals a lot about the main character that is speaking, and in this poem, it is the DukeThe style and structure of this poem play a significant exercise in theeffect of the poem. As is typical of Brownings poems, My plumpDuchess is written as a dramatic monologue one speaker system relates theentire poem as if to another(prenominal) person present with him. This coiffure suitsthis poem particularly well because the speaker, taken to be the Duke ofFerrara, comes across as being very dogmatic, especially inconversation (My Last Duchess Analysis).When he got tired of these exchanges of smiles between his wife and other people, he gave commands/ Then all smiles stopped together (Browning, lines 45-46). This ambiguous statement gives the reader a cue as to how the Duchess became an ex-wife. It is not specific, however, so that one can only shaft as to what happenedmaybe he had her killed or sent her away where she died.From these absurd, ofttimes ridiculous, and evidently arrogant words, the reader can conclude that the Duke was a controlling husband. Lines 50 onwards tell the reader that the Duke is looking for a sunrise(prenominal) wife and the person whom he is showing the icon to, is the assistant or messenger of a Count whose daughter the Duke is eyeing as a prospective wife. The talk he would have later with the Count would be about the arrangement of his next marriage (My Last Duchess Discussion). The Duke represents the traditional mal e and his attitude towards his late wife mirrors the attitude and expectations of a patriarchal and Victorian society towards women in his monologue. The society of that time expected women to simply obey. She should only reticence her charms for her husband. She must not even try to be beautiful in her own pic. The mere act of being happy, pleasant to anyone regardless of place and stature in life, and to love the simple pleasures in life as watching the sunset or riding a mule in the case of the Duchess, were all considered acts of unfaithfulness.In short, it was a sin to be naturally beautiful and to have a happy disposition. Men liked to control their wives. Being the only one who could open the curtain to reveal the painting of his beautiful and smiling late wife is symbolic of how this man would do anything to control his wife. If he couldnt stop his wife from smiling at anyone when she was still alive, at least when she was dead and only lived through her painting the Duk e could finally decide as to whom to share his wifes smiles and charms. with the painting done by a master, she has also became the expensive trade good that she should have been while living, but a role of which she never false because she stooped to being accessible to anyone, much to the disappointment of her husband, the Duke. Noble women should weary the position that their rank in society expected them to and this meant they should be unaccessible in the eyes of commoners. They should not be easily pleased with wee-wee matters like favors from servants.Finally, the talk of arranging his new marriage with the father of his futurity bride suggests how women were not allowed to express an opinion even to the important topic of whom to buy the farm the rest of their life with. Women were commodities traded upon by men and they have price tags called dowries. By showing the Counts emissary the painting of his former wife and telling him why he didnt like her conduct sends th e heart as to how he expects his next wife to behave. Otherwise, she might become another Last Duchess, another hidden painting in the house.Therefore, this monologue, like many of Brownings monologues, reflects on his interpretations of his society. However, by using a characters reflections on a particular thought, Browning can somewhat mask his inner feelings and thoughts. The aspects of his reflections come across clearly, and in this monologue, Browning is obviously taking a deeper look at the treatment of women.Work CitedBrowning, Robert. My Last Duchess. 2009 April 21. 2011 May 4. .My Last Duchess Analysis. 2007 January 7. 2011 May 4. My Last Duchess Discussion. 2008 May 14. 2011 May 4.