Poetry Analysis: My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning

In his poem, "My Last Duchess," Robert Browning establishes the character of its speaker indirectly but distinctly through conversation alone. Without relying on additional description of his person, the reader can draw conclusions not only as to the nature of the speaker, but also of all the other characters in the piece. Through the inferences the reader makes of the characters and their interactions, Browning conveys his perspective not only on the speaker, but also on all members of the upper stratum of society, and the abuse of their inherent power.

Browning heads the piece with a name: "Ferrara." This simple and succinct introduction would have spoken volumes to readers of Browning's time, though now has to be explained in a footnote. Through it, Browning leaves no uncertainty as to the identity of the person, or rather the archetypal individual, that he lambastes. Through his execration of the Duke of Ferrara, Italy, Alfonso II, Browning not only brings to the public eye the tyranny of that particular noble, but also castigates the aristocracy in its entirety.

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:

"That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now. Fr Pandolf's hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands" (ll. 1-4).

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. However, the way in which the Duke blithely skims over the subject of the portrait, his "last duchess," betrays some aspects of his character. It implies to the reader both that he has had and lost a spouse, and that he does not seem particularly sentimental or aggrieved by said loss. He speaks in a cavalier, flippant manner that, within his first line of speech, reveals him to be vain and materialistic, and unconcerned with the loss of his previous duchess.

In describing the duchess, the Duke further reveals his scrofulous character by unwittingly contrasting it against her more admirable nature. Traits in the duchess that the duke perceives as unbecoming are, in fact, aspects of her character that humanize her and render her more sympathetic to the reader. For instance, the duke was outraged at the duchess' very outlook on life, her joie de vivre, saying, "She had a heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad" (ll. 21-22). The duchess' ability to enjoy the simplest aspects of life, such as a bough of cherries, her white mule, or the "dropping of daylight in the west," (ll. 26) angered the duke, or rather filled him with resent. He felt that he should be the only one to cause her excitement or happiness, but he failed to do so when the simplest gestures of kindness or things of beauty could. What seems most outrageous of all to the speaker is that she showed others her appreciation for their kindness in such a way that seemed to him to belittle his greatest gift: his title.

"She thanked men - good! But thanked

Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody's gift" (ll. 31-34).

This statement, perhaps, reveals more about the speaker than any of his previous statements. It becomes clear that he felt the duchess to be indebted to him for the gift of his noble title, which seems, by his description of her, to be the only gift he had to offer. The gift of a bough of cherries excites in her the same "spot of joy" (ll. 21) as his ancient surname; "'twas all one!" (ll. 25). Through the duke's criticism of the duchess' positive traits, the reader gains a further understanding of his vainglorious character and, as Browning intended, that of the greedy, undeserving aristocracy.

The most telling revelation as to the nature of the speaker manifests itself near the end of the piece, in which the duke unashamedly relates to his listener the manner in which he came to lose his last duchess. He became so incensed over the duchess' seeming ability to enjoy simple pleasures in life, and her seeming lack of due appreciation for his name the he had her killed: "This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands / As if Alive" (ll. 45-47). The duke casually informs his listener of his murder of the duchess as if he were boasting over some impressive feat at hunting, rather than the cold-hearted murder of his wife. It is all the more evident, through this revelation, that the speaker is driven entirely by greed and ambition for power, the very power he so abused to have an innocent and good woman put to death. Also, because the speaker serves as an archetype for all the corrupt aristocracy, Browning speaks to his readers about the corrupting influence of power in general.

The capstone to the corruption and immorality of the speaker's character is evident in the closing lines of the piece, in which it is revealed that he is in the process of negotiating another marriage. The hypothetical listener character is an agent of another noble, as implied by the speaker's reference to him as "the Count your master" (ll. 49). Despite the speaker's apparent disregard for the value of life, and his obvious corruption, this agent seems more than amenable to arrange for the duke's marriage to the count's daughter. Therefore, it is implied that the count, though not present in the setting of the poem, is also agreeable to the marriage of this duke to his daughter, fully conscious of the fate of the former's previous spouse; the count likely stands to gain from such an arrangement, as was the custom of the time. This, again, speaks to Browning's perception of the nobility as corrupt, dehumanized by the very power that elevates them above other men.

Thus, through the dialogue of the sole speaker in "My Last Duchess," Browning establishes for the reader the character of that speaker, that of the duchess, the agent, and the count. Through his cunning portrayal of Alfonso II, the Duke of Ferrara through a poem based upon real events, Browning castigates not only that ignominious character, but also all those corrupted by the glammer of control and power.

"Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn, - mud from a muddy spring"

~From "Sonnet: England in 1819"
Percy Bysshe Shelley