Paper Topic:

`My Last Duchess` by Robert Browning

Name

Course

Teacher

Date

Society 's Attitude towards Women as Revealed through Browning 's `My Last Duchess

The 16th century poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is a monologue of a Duke showing an audience the painting of his late wife . While the poem reveals the attitude of the Duke towards his ex-wife and his relationship with her , it also reveals to the reader the larger picture of how men of the time , especially members of the conservative and traditional nobility , treat and look at women . Any praise

directed at the woman is because of her obedience and subservience to him while any negative perception implies an act in resistance to his will and probably because she did something that women are not supposed to commit - but most often , men are allowed to . In the time when the poem was written , women were objects , admired from a distance , valued as trophies , but whose opinions are not meant to be heard

The poem begins with the Duke drawing a curtain aside where a portrait of her late wife is hidden behind . According to him , puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you , but I (lines 9 and 10 ' This implies to the reader that the Duke prefers that the painting is hidden and only he decides when and to whom to show it . He invites his visitor to glance at the painting and look at it as a masterpiece by its painter , Fra Pandolf . However , while he praises the beauty of the painting he proceeds to taint his wife 's memory with a sarcastic turn of phrase when he describes her as one who 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 . The sarcasm betrays a feeling of jealousy , knowing that during the sitting he wasn 't there and yet his wife is able to produce a happy expression and a glowing beauty that the painter reproduced in the painting . This same jealousy is evident in the succeeding lines , when the Duke complains about how his late wife seemed to equate his own expensive gifts to her with the simple gifts she received from other people , even if they were only The bough of cherries some officious fool / Broke in the orchard for her (lines 27-28 . More than jealousy , also , was the Victorian trait of seeing something wrong with almost anything where additional meaning could be gotten by the perceiver . His suspicion would be easily aroused every time his wife thanked someone , especially if it was another man , for a small favor done to her . The Duke thinks that his gift of a nine-hundred-years-old-name (line 33 ' was the most valuable gift his wife received from her and thus , she should have not just given away her smile and blush for anyone but him . He saw this attitude as a kind of stooping down on her part...

4 pages

29.5 KB

Free sing-up