Robert Browning :: essays research papers

My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning, is an example of a prominent monologue. A dramatic monologue is a kind of narrative rime in which one character speaks to one or more listeners whose replies argon not given in the poem. The Duke is speaking to an envoy near his fisrt married woman who is apparently dead. From what he is telling him, one can conclude that he is arrogant, domineering, and very insecure about his relationship.The Duke of Ferrara was a very arrogant man. He did not seem to care about the happiness of his wife, only his own. He did not like the fact that she found happiness in early(a) places beside himself, as if he should be the only life in her life. He could not understand how she could rank his nine thousand year aged name with more simpler things such as her white mule that she rode on the terrace, an act of kindness from an "officious fool" and the "drooping of the daylight in the west." His wife, no doubt, had no idea he felt that demean or besides he could not discuss it with her, blaming it on the fact that he had no skill in speech. He let the problem persist until he no longer could stand it and finally "gave commands" that in one way or another caused her death.Another problem that he had was that he was in addition domineering. This is evident in the fact that he went to the extreme and killed his wife effective because she did not conform to his image of a consummate wife. He valued things to be his way regardless of how she felt. He now talks about his last duchess as if she were simply a thing painted in a picture to be admired. Other evidence that supports the idea of him macrocosm domineering is shown when he told his envoy that no one but him could associate the curtain that covered the picture. It is almost as if he has marked his dirt and if anyone crosses the line they would be "dealt with" accordingly. Lastly, on the way down to meet his caller-out he proudly points out his b ronze sculpture of Neptune taming a ocean horse. This is probably the embodiment of his whole mentality. He wanted to tame his wives into perfect women.Insecurity is something that we all feel at one point or another in our relationships.