My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

This poem is about the Duke of Ferrara who lived in 16^th century. The duke is the speaker of the poem. He is showing a visitor his palace and stops before a portrait of the Late Duchess, who was a young and lovely girl. The duke keeps this portrait behind a curtain that only he is allowed to draw. The Duke describes the circumstances in which the painting was made and the fate of his unfortunate former wife. The duchess was pleased easily and she smiled at everything and everybody and seemed just as happy when someone brought her a branch of cherries as she did when the Duke decided to marry her. The Duke tells the visitor that painting of the duchess is impressively accurate and the painter Fra Pandolf worked hard to achieve a realistic effect. The Duke mentioned Pandolf’s name by purpose because strangers never examine the Duchess portrait without looking like they want to ask the Duke how the painter put so much “depth and passion” into the expression on the Duchess face. Duke says that only he will answer because no one is allowed to drawback the curtain that hangs over the portrait. Only the Duke is allowed to look at it or show it to anyone else. Further he starts describing the painting as having a “spot of joy” in it, perhaps a slight blush of pleasure. The Duke thought that only her husband’s presence would make her blush but he was wrong. Everything made her blush and the Duke didn’t like this. The reason for her blushing in the portrait may be when Pandolf was painting, he would have set that her ‘mantle’ covered her wrist too much and so she should take it up a little or maybe he have complimented her on the becoming way that she flushes, telling her that “paint must never hope to reproduce”. The Duke describes (22,23) the Duchess as “too soon made glad” as it was her main problem that everything made her happy this means that she is not serious and she likes everything she sees. If someone gives a favor that she can wear jewelry, she thanks them for it in the same way that she approves of a pretty sunset, a branch of cherries. Sometimes she doesn’t say anything and just blushes in that special way. The problem is not her blushing but she blushes at that officious fool who brings them to her. Duke says that it’s good that she thanks people for their favors but she did just as she thanked the Duke himself. Duke had given her 900 years old name and power and prestige. Duke thinks himself superior and thinks that Duchess ought to value the social alleviation of her marriage over the simple pleasures of life. The Duke says that he didn’t have the skill in speech to explain what he wanted form her. He suggests that she might have resisted being ‘lessoned’ i.e. taught a lesson by him, if she had ‘made excuse’ for her behavior instead. The Duke admits that when he passed off by her, she smiled but that was not special as every passerby got the some smile. Then the Duke was frustrated by Duchess’s indiscriminate kindness and appreciation of everything and gave commands. “All smiles stopped together”- from this live we can guess maybe how she is not a Duchess anymore rather she is “last duchess”. The Duke ends his story and points towards the full body portrait again in which she stands “as if alive”. Then asks his listener to get up and go back demon stairs. In line 48-53, we come to know why the Duke is talking to this guy. The listeners are a servant of a count and the Duke is wooing the count’s daughter. He tells the servant that he knows about the count’s wealth and expects to get any reasonable dowry but “main object” is the daughter herself. The listeners tries to get away from him but Duke stops him and insists on meeting everyone together demon stairs. Before learning, he points out a Bronze statue of Neptune, the god of the sun, taming the sea-horse. He mentions the name of the artist who cast this statue, Claus of Innsbruck, who made or specifically for him. From this poem we come to know that the Duke is a very jealous man. Duke was so much jealous that he observed this chaste painter with his wife in order to be sure. The Duke’s pride and selfishness are also revealed as he says that he had given the last Duchess a 900 years old name. We can see that Duke is dominant also. “I said/ Fra Pandolf by design”. These lines reveal how the Duke tells this thing. Moreover, now the Duke controls this portrait too as only he can remove the curtain the line “Notice Neptune, though/ Taming a sea horse, though a rarity/ which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!” reveals that Neptune, god of the sea, Taming a small, beautiful sea creature in what would obviously be no contest. In other words the Duke sees himself as a god who has tamed/ will tamed his Duchess. Like Neptune, Duke rules his kingdom and when he grows tired of his last Duchess he gave commands and all the smiles stopped again.