The Use of Wealth and Power as Imagery in Robert Browning's My Last Duchess

A detailed Summary of The Use of Wealth and Power as Imagery in Robert Browning's My Last Duchess

In Robert Browning's poem, My Last Duchess , the imagery of wealth and power are cleverly illustrated through the use of the fictitous painter , Fra Pandolf.

The use of Fra Pandolf by Robert Browning is to clearly indicate to us the reader that it was a very expensive painting. The imagery of wealth in this poem is used to divulge cruelty or evil intent. We see the cruelty in his character , with the callous way he revealed he had murdered his wife,

Then all smiles stopped. There she stands

Extreme wealth equals extreme power, how else would he have been able to murder his wife without facing imprisonment. He shows his wealth through the use of Fra Pandolf,

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

to mention the name of an artist, is to allude to famous painters we can refer to as being very expensive, possibly even priceless. To mention the name twice,

The Count your master's known munificence

In this poem we see how the very wealthy have a different set of rules reserved just for them and they use their wealth or lineage to justify extremely bizarre actions, as seen when the duke just admits to murdering his wife and then casually makes mention of marrying again,

Is ample warrant that no just pretense

It seems that the duchess lived in museum and was an excepted to be part of the artwork, and with her refusal to be part of the duke's exhibit , she ended up being part of tour herself in death.

is to allow us the reader to begin to immediately draw conclusions about this man's character.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Fra Pandolf, Robert Browning, Fra Pandolf's, Robert Browning's, fra pandolf, mention name, reader begin, imagery wealth,

Approximate Word count = 692
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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The Use of Wealth and Power as Imagery in Robert Browning's My Last Duchess

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