Formalist Criticism of My Last Duchess
My Last Duchess is probably the best example of the dramatic monologue, a poetical form that was invented and applied essentially by one of the foremost Victorian poets, Robert Browning. A dramatic monologue should certainly have a character who speaks to some particular person, mainly certain silent listener, in the manner of a dramatic speech and has to take place in specific physical setting like that of a drama. The poem My Last Duchess definitely belongs to the dramatic monologue because it, at first, possesses three formal elements, such as an occasion, a speaker, and a hearer. Secondly, the ...
