My Last Duchess

A detailed Summary of My Last Duchess

(Comparative essay between Robert Browning "My Last Duchess" and Porphyria's Lover".

Browning's "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover" have been very popular throughout the years because their dramatic monologue styles require interaction between the reader and the character. The audience's direct involvement in uncovering the speaker's character represent an evocative feature of these two well-known monologues. A closer look at the poems reveals their striking similarities of total love, intense jealousy, social pride, and madness. These shared features are enhanced by sophisticated poetic techniques, all contributing to the similar possessive love commonly found in both poems.

The speaker in "My Last Duchess" is a haughty Duke who wants to control and possess everything, even his wife. The first indication of this desire is in the title and the first line, with the possessive pronoun "My Last Duchess." Furthermore, the Duchess is not referred to by name throughout the poem; this belittles her individuality. Thus the audience is compelled to adopt the notion that the Duke is only concerned with women that can be his possessions. This is clearly supported by the fact that he killed his

first wife ¾ "I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together" ¾ only because he had no complete power over her. Now he seeks for his new possession in the second wife.

Metaphorically, the Duke assesses the value of a living woman by referring to the Duchess as "painted on the wall... There she stands/as if alive." He attempts to identify his wife with the painting; though the Duchess is no longer there physically, the painting is good enough for him and also makes her much easier to control. She is no longer free to move around and take pleasure in flirting with other men. She can no longer "look... everywhere" and "thank men". In command of drawing the curtain on the duchess, the duke tries to limit her scope to himself and a few privileged others. He is able to show her off contrary to the way she was in life. Hence the audience is disgusted by the Duke's possessive character.

Like the Duke, the speaker also doubts his lover's faithfulness. This is because his idea of true love is for her to be totally submissive to him. He is obsessed with the need to have Porphyria all to himself, and during the day as well as at night. She should "give herself to me forever." The full stop is used to emphasize the immensity of time he wants to possess her completely. He resents her upper class status and feels that she dominated him most of the time such as she "put my arm about her waist." Paradoxically, in a male-dominating society she has to make all the moves because he is unresponsive. He also uses metaphor ¾ "And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair" ¾ to indicate that her hair covers everything , and shows her influence and control. Contrary to the speaker's beliefs, the audience notices a submissive lover because she stoops, ("stooping, made my cheek lie there") a clear sign of submission to him. The speaker is delighted to find out that "Porphyria worshipped" him. The repetition of "mine" in " she was mine, mine, fair" emphasizes his feelings of extreme possession of her. In his eyes, she has just given herself to him, and now as a possession he can do whatever he likes with her.

The same jealousy and expectations are presented in "Porphyria's Lover". However, as a c

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1476
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English