Essays on My Last Duchess

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 ...

Part 1

In “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning we meet the narrator who is a Duke. The duke is meeting an emissary in order to discuss marrying the daughter of a very important man. As he is giving the emissary a tour of his home he stops to admire the portrait of his dead wife. The Duke begins to speak of his dead wife with affection. This quickly turns into bitterness when he goes on a rant about the fact she engaged in behaviors that he found distasteful. As he goes on he reveals that he “gave commands; / Then ...

A look into the work of Fredrick Douglass and Robert Browning shows that the society around them heavily influences their work. While Douglass concentrated on larger social issues such as slavery and false use of religion, Browning looked into the interpersonal relationships of members of their societies. A common aspect of both writings, however, is the social critique that the two writers engage in. Through their work, they attempt to point out at the evils they see in their society, with the hope that their criticism will help change the situation . Fredrick Douglass, in his poem, a parody, analyzes ...