The last duchess

Sharon was a girl with lots of dreams, enormous amounts of energy, and commonsense. She was never known to be book smart like the others girls in the neighborhood. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and lots of wealth had been passed down from her ancestors. She had all the potential to be a successful candidate in the arena of life, maybe more than anyone her age.

Life plays it's own music for each individual. The same exact thing happened in Sharon's life too. She had an arranged marriage to a well known guy called Prince, comparatively much older than herself. She brought much wealth to the groom's house, but never had any flaws to bring along with her as she never possessed any.

She ran the new house and played the new spouse role so well, the Prince did not appreciate everything she did. He weighed her based on materialistic things and on an evil scale for sure. He took advantage of her all positiveness and enjoyed her for some time. Sharon became an extra burden in his life very soon. He was book smart and real brainy. The evil within his genes added to his strong selfish character. Sharon disappeared from his life and from the face of this earth itself. It was hard to say he murdered her wisely or something similar. It stayed as a mystery to be solved.

A rose was crushed even before the world saw it's magnificent beauty. He never was just enough to her, but some one did justice to her soul through his art work, maybe his master piece. I am trying to justify her soul this writing. So many tried in the past and still it is haunting us. This haunting may persist as far as mankind may exist. There are similar stories happening in the world, maybe secretly, just like her soul's destiny. I hope her soul should prevail and protect every young girl who may be similar victims now and in the future. Rest in piece dear Sharon, my last duchess.

“My Last Duchess”

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Complete Text

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, 
Looking as if she were alive. I call 
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands 
Worked busily a day, and there she stands. 
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said 
“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read 
Strangers like you that pictured countenance, 
The depth and passion of its earnest glance, 
But to myself they turned (since none puts by 
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, 
How such a glance came there; so, not the first 
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not 
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot 
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps 
Fra Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps 
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “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. 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. 
Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast, 
The dropping of the daylight in the West, 
The bough of cherries some officious fool 
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule 
She rode with round the terrace"all and each 
Would draw from her alike the approving speech, 
Or blush, at least. 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. Who’d stoop to blame 
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill 
In speech"(which I have not)"to make your will 
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this 
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, 
Or there exceed the mark”"and if she let 
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set 
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, 
"E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose 
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, 
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without 
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; 
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands 
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet 
The company below, then. I repeat, 
The Count your master’s known munificence 
Is ample warrant that no just pretence 
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; 
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed 
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go 
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, 
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, 
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

Summary

This poem is loosely based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, who lived in the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem, and tells us he is entertaining an emissary who has come to negotiate the Duke’s marriage (he has recently been widowed) to the daughter of another powerful family. As he shows the visitor through his palace, he stops before a portrait of the late Duchess, apparently a young and lovely girl. The Duke begins reminiscing about the portrait sessions, then about the Duchess herself. His musings give way to a diatribe on her disgraceful behavior: he claims she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name.” As his monologue continues, the reader realizes with ever-more chilling certainty that the Duke in fact caused the Duchess’s early demise: when her behavior escalated, “[he] gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.” Having made this disclosure, the Duke returns to the business at hand: arranging for another marriage, with another young girl. As the Duke and the emissary walk leave the painting behind, the Duke points out other notable artworks in his collection.

Form

“My Last Duchess” comprises rhyming pentameter lines. The lines do not employ end-stops; rather, they use enjambment"gthat is, sentences and other grammatical units do not necessarily conclude at the end of lines. Consequently, the rhymes do not create a sense of closure when they come, but rather remain a subtle driving force behind the Duke’s compulsive revelations. The Duke is quite a performer: he mimics others’ voices, creates hypothetical situations, and uses the force of his personality to make horrifying information seem merely colorful. Indeed, the poem provides a classic example of a dramatic monologue: the speaker is clearly distinct from the poet; an audience is suggested but never appears in the poem; and the revelation of the Duke’s character is the poem’s primary aim.

Commentary

But Browning has more in mind than simply creating a colorful character and placing him in a picturesque historical scene. Rather, the specific historical setting of the poem harbors much significance: the Italian Renaissance held a particular fascination for Browning and his contemporaries, for it represented the flowering of the aesthetic and the human alongside, or in some cases in the place of, the religious and the moral. Thus the temporal setting allows Browning to again explore sex, violence, and aesthetics as all entangled, complicating and confusing each other: the lushness of the language belies the fact that the Duchess was punished for her natural sexuality. The Duke’s ravings suggest that most of the supposed transgressions took place only in his mind. 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. The desperate need to do this mirrors the efforts of Victorian society to mold the behavior"gsexual and otherwise"gof individuals. For people confronted with an increasingly complex and anonymous modern world, this impulse comes naturally: to control would seem to be to conserve and stabilize. The Renaissance was a time when morally dissolute men like the 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"geven though it put men like the Duke in power.

A poem like “My Last Duchess” calculatedly engages its readers on a psychological level. Because we hear only the Duke’s musings, we must piece the story together ourselves. Browning forces his reader to become involved in the poem in order to understand it, and this adds to the fun of reading his work. It also forces the reader to question his or her own response to the subject portrayed and the method of its portrayal. We are forced to consider, Which aspect of the poem dominates: the horror of the Duchess’s fate, or the beauty of the language and the powerful dramatic development? Thus by posing this question the poem firstly tests the Victorian reader’s response to the modern world"git asks, Has everyday life made you numb yet?"gand secondly asks a question that must be asked of all art"git queries, Does art have a moral component, or is it merely an aesthetic exercise? In these latter considerations Browning prefigures writers like Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde.

MO

Reviews

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

You're a very clever writer. Not only did you tell your story well, but the poem and background information were intriguing enough for me to actually keep reading. Good work

[Linda alexander]

Thanks a lot for the review and it is a real complement for me, to be honest with you the movies I watched and the kind reviewers on this site especially few of them helped me to grow as a writer

[Sami Khalil]

An amazing read and write. You give meaning to your story-telling...:)....................

[Linda alexander]

Thanks a lot Missssippe for the review and kind words, this is the second story I wrote, so glad that you called amazing

[Sami Khalil]

Yep. You are welcome...:)........................................

[Linda alexander]

Take care, Mississippe

[Sami Khalil]

:).............................

[Bright Ocean Star]

I love this, LInda! I love how you used a historical poem from which to write your story, and gave it renewed life. Great job!

[Linda alexander]

Thanks a lot for the review, this is the second story I wrote in my entire life, to be honest with you I never thought I will write a story, but it happened, thanks a lot for appreciating it, take care