Victorian Literature: “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Theme and Mood of the Poem
Title of the Poem
Genre of the Poem
The Structure of the Poem
Tone of the Poem
Language of the Poem
Style of the Poem
Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction

Literature is the reflection of life, an exquisite mirror displaying the very facts of personal, individual, collective and social life. Poetry is one of the most beautiful and sublime forms of literature; it is therefore the genre is often called the dance of words. Poetry is the record of imaginary events, but it is more: the events must be elaborated in a lively and persuasive style. (Daiches 1991, 53) There are many kinds of poetry including sonnet, lyric, poem, haiku, tanka, limericks, blank verse, dramatic monologue and others. Robert Browning is one of the distinguished poets of nineteenth century. It is he who introduced dramatic monologue in the poetry as an innovative and unique form of expression.

The great achievement of Robert Browning (1812-1889) was to break away from the post Keatsian handling of sensory images and bring back to a colloquial vigor to English poetry. (Daiches 1997, 1002) In dramatic monologue, there is generally one speaker, and one or more listeners. The reader can judge and assess the expressions and gestures of the listeners through the words delivered by the speaker. A dramatic monologue usually describes a critical moment of the speaker’s life, and offers an indirect revelation of his or her temperament and personality. (Peck & Coyle 1999, 26) The bitter theme in the dramatic monologue is usually concealed behind the flowery words full of satire and irony, which can easily be examined by studying a poem in an analytical way. My Last Duchess is also a true example of Browning’s dramatic monologue. Browning had developed an independence of style, with an assumption of unusual rhythms, grotesque rhythms and abrupt broken phrasing. (Evans 1990, 101)

Theme and Mood of the Poem

The poem under study entitled My Last Duchess has been written in the form of single stanza, where satire and irony determine the theme and mood of the poem. Satire is an imperative form of literary genres which point out the social injustices, hypocrisy and meanness being adopted by the individuals. Satire aims to correct the malpractices by inspiring both indignation and laughter with a combination of criticism and wit. (Dictionary of Literary Terms) The people always try to point out faults in others forgetting their own blunders and shortcomings regarding both their character and personality. The same is the case with the poem My Last Duchess. Created in 1842, the poem My Last Duchess is a satire on the hypocritical attitude of the so called civilized society and its established norms during 16^th century. The poem maintains a critical viewpoint at the prevailing norms, values and practices in the aristocratic culture by sketching the sixteenth century historical event regarding the Duke of Ferrara named Alfonso, revealing the inside views and thoughts of nobles and dukes of that time.

Since there is one speaker in Browning’s dramatic monologue, the Duke himself is the speaker in this poem who is communicating with an emissary in respect of his future marriage prospects to a well known family of the elite class. The poem reveals the very fact that the last wife of the Duke has recently died out of severe mental or physical tortures inflicted upon her by the Duke. Like some of Browning’s fellow Victorians, the Duke sees sin lurking in every corner. The reason the speaker here gives for killing the Duchess ostensibly differs from that given by the speaker of “Porphyria’s Lover” for murder Porphyria; however, both women are nevertheless victims of a male desire to inscribe and fix female sexuality. (Sparknotes.com) There is a sense of possession running with the flow of poem. The Duke’s mood reflects the very idea that he has complete, unconditional and unabated rights over heart, mind, physical charms and beauty of his duchess, and she should have no right to even have a look on others without prior permission of the Duke.

Ferrara: most likely, Browning intended Alfonso II (1533-1598), fifth duke of Ferrara, in northern Italy, from 1559 to 1597, and the last member of the Este family. He married his first wife, 14-year-old Lucrezia, a daughter of the Cosimo I de’ Medici, in 1558 and three days later left her for a two-year period. She died, 17 years old, in what some thought suspicious circumstances. (Retrieved in rpo.library) Using abundant detail, Browning leads the reader to conclude that the Duke finds fault with his former wife because she did not reserve her attentions for him, his rank, and his power. The present communication between the two is taking place beside the picture of the departed duchess. Hazard Adams points out that sympathy does not seem to be the right word for our relationship to the Duke (151-52), and Philip Drew protests that suspending our moral judgment should not require “an anaesthetizing of the moral sense for the duration of the poem” (28). (Quoted in Victorianweb.org)

Title of the Poem

Title of the poem under study does not portray the complete theme of the verses, though the reader can get the clue that it may be relevant to some aristocratic family. In the same way, there remains ambiguity in assessing whether it is a poem created out of sheer love for the person entitled or serves as an allegory written as an elegy after the death of a fascinating beloved. The emphasis in the title in the poem is on last, as the ending of the poem makes clear; the Duke is now negotiating for his next Duchess. Fra Pandolf (line 3) and Claus of Innsbruck (line 54) are artists of Browning’s own invention. (Quoted in rpo.library)

Genre of the Poem

Poems are either subjective or objective in diction and style. The Augustan and Puritan classes of poets lay stress on objectivity, and they are always eager to convey a specific message and moral lesson to the readers, while the poets belonging to the Romantic Age are subjective in nature and the poets of that age believe in art for art’s sake and there is no moral message to communicate at all before the poets of Romantic school of thought.

While analyzing the poem under study, it is obvious that My Last Duchess contains objectivity in its diction, theme and structure. There are no personal feelings included in the poem which belong to the poet; rather, the poem has a hidden message behind it which proves it the part of Puritan’s campaign of preaching morality through their creative works.

The Structure of the Poem

Plot structure refers to the administration of the developments and incidents in a poem, play, prose or drama. Aristotle has described in his Poetics that an excellent piece of literature presents the plot that contains a beginning, a middle and an end skillfully interlinked with one another. The construction of plot is knitted in such a way that if one incident is omitted from the play, it must jeopardize the very unity and coherence of the whole play at large. The poem My Last Duchess has been produced in the form of twenty-eight rhythmic couplets containing pentameter in its lines that make a symphonic and melodious tone in style and diction. The poem reflects in an ironical way how could a Dutch perceive about his dead wife.

He has least care of the respectable aristocratic origin and supreme stratum she belonged to, and precious dowry she brought along with her at the eve of marriage. Rather, he displays his own pride by giving her ‘so called nine hundred years old family name’ on which she should have been grateful to the Duke. Thus, the poem reveals the psychology of the nobility and the clergy enjoying an over whelming percentage of wealth, resources and opportunities. The class consciousness prevailed for centuries among the British as well as other European nations, and both men and women considered their family superior in social eloquence and position. Eighteenth and nineteenth century writers and poets have especially indicated towards this reality. Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gablers (1890) also portrays the same where the central figure Hedda considers her in-laws as inferior to her in rank, and socio-economic position. My Last Duchess illustrates the characteristics of the mode applied in the poem.

Tone of the Poem

The most immediately noticeable of the speaker’s traits is the tone with which he speaks to the hypothetical listener character. It becomes readily apparent that the speaker is someone of considerable wealth and means as he describes to his companion a piece of artwork, and how it came into his possession (Retrieved in Helium.com) The poem begins with the Duke’s revealing the painting of his deceased wife, and informs the emissary that the portrait belongs to his last duchess; “last Duchess…looking as if she were alive” (lines1-2). Alfonso holds on praising the exceptional charms his last duchess carries The satire regarding the dead duchess’s character can also be found in the poem, where she had relations with so many suitors around her, as the poem reveals. She had A heart – how shall I say? – too soon made glad, Too easily impressed: she liked whate’er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. (Lines 21-24) Hence, the Duke never wanted to let her eyes go astray in search of lovers other than him. The description that she had the habit of seeking pleasures of life, manifestly indicates towards the looseness of her character, which seriously told upon the nerves of the Duke. After that, the Duke quite cleverly discloses before the emissary how he ordered the servants to have “all smiles stopped together” (line 46).

Language of the Poem

The language of the dramatic monologue My Last Duchess is fluent, verbose and elegant, which reflect that the poet loves to imitate the classical school of thought by applying pompous, pageant and gorgeous words in one’s creativity. The use of imagery is prominent in the poem, especially the many images that suggest movement and freedom as images suggesting restraint and confinement. The language employed by the speaker implies someone speaking with pride over a possession, in this case a piece of artwork, custom-made. He takes care to emphasize the fact that it was painted by Fr Pandolf, presumably a revered and talented artist, based on the speaker’s eagerness to drop his name. (Quoted in Helium.com)

Style of the Poem

The poem has been written in an elegant satirical manner particularly attributed to the diction of Robert Browning. Browning deals with the subjects that are rough and ugly; by this he perhaps aims to state that truth lies hidden in evil and the good. (Mullik, 2001 127) browning emphasizes on the name and title of Frà Pandolf, which the Duke has applied in the poem while relating the story of his deceased wife’s paintings. Though by this the Duke tried to impress the emissary, yet Browning indirectly mocks at him declaring the name of the so called painter as infamous, invalid and quite unknown. “Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance… (Lines 6-7) Hence, the poem satires at the snobbish attitude of the nobility on the one hand, and ridicule hollowness of its life-style on the other. Browning invented the name of the artist, and thus the Duke’s efforts to impress are foiled, since the name is unfamiliar. The tone of the poem is fluent and arrogant.

Duke exercised absolute power, and as such it is a fascinating study for the Victorians: works like this imply that, surely, a time that produced magnificent art like the Duchess’s portrait couldn’t have been entirely evil in its allocation of societal control–even though it put men like the Duke in power. (Sparknotes.com) Dramatic monologue, a refined and effective genre of poetry, discusses the feelings of the Duke in a refined and comprehensive way. It is aptly stated that dance is the poetry of body and poetry is the dance of words. The fluctuation and rhythm of the sound and style of words in the given poem is far more enjoyable in reading than in other genres including drama and prose. In addition, in the given dramatic monologue, a long story has precisely been narrated in few lines, that are not possible in prose. Moreover, the style of the poem is too melodious and spontaneous to resist its charm that is why it has obtained dominant place and has caught unyielding attention of the lovers of art far more than the other forms of art. Our cognition of “My Last Duchess” is parergonal (i.e., framed and framing), like the Duke of Ferrara’s intention to finish his wife as a person and as an object d ‘art. But also like him, we find art turns on–pivoting, resisting, and starting–interpretive possession, which is what we own that enthralls or inhabits us. (Find articles.com)

Conclusion

To conclude, the poem is a refined piece of Victorian literature created in an eloquent and sublime way. It is a direct satire on sixteenth century class stratification and living style of the inherited nobility and clergy, which enjoy an overwhelming part of the wealth and resources of the country leaving the poor classes in a sorry state of disappointment and despair. sThe Dukes considered everything as their personal belongings, and even did not let their wives move here and there without their will. Lines 17 to 21 of the poem under study also reveal the same, which is a significant satire on the nature, customs and traditions of the nobility. “Paint Must never hope to reproduce the faint Half-flush that dies along her throat”: such stuff Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough For calling up that spot of joy. (Lines 17-21)

Bibliography

David Daiches. Critical Approaches to Literature. Longman Group UK Limited Longman House Burnt Mill Harlow England 1991.

David Daiches. A Critical History of English Literature Volume I-IV 1995.

Ifor Evans. A Short History of English Literature Fourth edition Penguin Books England 1990.

John Peck & Martin Coyle. Literary Terms and Criticism. Macmillan Education Limited Hong Kong 1999.

Good-Luck Dictionary of Literary Terms New Kitab Mahal Urdu Bazaar Lahore Pakistan 2001.

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