Précis: An emissary (messenger or representative) has been sent to see the Duke from the Count of Tyrol. The Count is the father of the Duke's next wife (he married three times in all). The Duke shows the emissary a picture of his late wife and remarks on her character, suggesting that she was unfaithful to him - and hinting that he might have killed her because of it.
Context: Robert Browning was a poet in the 19th century. The son of a wealthy bank clerk, he didn't fit in as much in London society, he left the country and went to Italy to marry fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett because of her overprotective father. As a result, they were both familiar with over controlling patriarchs in the family as well as Italy itself.
Browning is best known for his use of the dramatic monologue. My Last Duchess is an example of this and it also reflects Browning's love of history and European culture as the story is based on the life of an Italian Duke from the sixteenth century.
The characters mentioned in this poem are based on real life, historical figures. The narrator is Duke Alfonso II (the Duke of Ferrara) who ruled a place in northern Italy called Ferrara between 1559 and 1597. The Duchess of whom he speaks was his first wife, Lucrezia de Medici who died in 1561 aged 17, only two years after he married her. In real life, Lucrezia died in suspicious circumstances and might have been poisoned. The poem is from Ferrara's point of view.
Themes: The idea of Power and Conflict is shown in the way the speaker (the Duke of Ferrara) is showing off his power and also suggesting the control he had over the Duchess's life. There is also conflict between who he presents or wants himself to be and who he really is as a character.
Other themes
Pride is not an attractive quality: the Duke's arrogance comes across quite clearly when talking about himself and his things.
Being upper class and having good morals don't necessarily go together: people of great wealth and breeding often considered themselves to be morally superior to others - the Duke shows that isn't the case.
Money and possessions aren't everything: he might have a wonderful house, terrace, orchard, paintings and statues but his paranoia about his late wife comes across and reflects his insecurity. In real life, Duke Alfonso II married three times and didn't produce an heir to his fortune - money can't buy you everything.
Structure: The poem is an example of dramatic monologue (a speech given by one character). It uses a large number of caesura in the poem along with lines that flow into one another (enjambment) in order to try and capture the tone of the speaker talking away to the messenger and adding in tangents (small opinions and asides). The poem uses rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter this reflects the style of romantic poets at the time, despite how this poem is much more sinister and dark. It is another façade for the Duke of Ferrara's character. You will note he is the only character that speaks despite the fact he is talking to someone, he never lets them speak.
Additionally, it is divided up into rhyming couplets but to mimic unrehearsed speech there are lots of twists and turns within the lines, shown by a variety of punctuation (colons and lots of dashes as well as the usual commas and full stops). For example, "She thanked men good! But thanked/Somehow - I know not how."
The lines do not employ end-stops; rather, they use enjambment—that is, sentences and other grammatical units do not necessarily conclude at the end of lines. Consequently, the rhymes do not create a sense of closure when they come, but rather remain a subtle driving force behind the Duke's compulsive revelations.
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English GCSE AQA: Comprehensive Analysis of the Power and Conflict Poems
Kurgu OlmayanI decided to make a book on all the Power and Conflict poems for the English GCSE exams. NOTE: This book's analyses are very long and wordy due to much information from different sources. Although they are segmented, some may not find too much comfo...
