"My Last Duchess"

Paper Summary:

"My Last Duchess", written in 1852, is a dramatic monologue by Robert Browning. The paper tackles this popular literary work and focuses on the irony and imagery that Browning is noted for.

From the Paper:

"As the poem unfolds, the reader learns the speaker of the poem, Duke Ferrara, is talking to a representative of his fiance's family. Standing in front of a portrait of the Duke's last wife, now dead, the Duke talks about the woman's failings and imperfections. Robert Browning used imagery to depict the Duke as the villain instead of the atypical "renaissance man". The idyllic image of nobility was not something that Browning felt comfortable with, "Browning rebelled against Victorian moral didactic verse and against imagery used only for decoration and elaboration." (Signet, p. 97)."

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