4/02/2009
Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess"
"My Last Duchess" is a poem in which the speaker, the Duke of Ferrara, shows a visitor round his mansion. The visitor is a representative of the young woman that the Duke is going to marry. The Duke shows the representative the portrait of his former wife, who is now dead. In the Duke's remarks about his dead wife, he seems happier with the portrait of her, "as if alive," than he was with her when she was alive. What's wrong with his dead wife? In this dramatic monologue, how do you describe the personality of the Duke?
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In this poem, the duke killed his wife because his jealousy. He envied anything could make his wife smile. In my opinion, he must be a artist, but a freak. He killed his wife to be his collection in order to save her smile only for him. And he must love his beautiful wife deeply. He loves her too much so that he killed she for saving her beauty forever. He might be a tyrannic husband to his wife and considered that woman is one of his property. Nevertheless, I still think it is so charming with the arrangement of these spots in this poem as a drama and the descriptoin of his emotion to his dead wife.
I think Duke is a tyrannic husband. He sent someone to kill his wife; I wonder if he really loved his wife, because he only refered his wife to a collection of his art, how scary. He had a picture of his dead wife on the wall, with her annoying smile. From my point of view, the reason why he put a curtain to cover the picture was to control the moment, the time when his wife "should" smile. And he wanted to have the authority to decide which person had the pleasure to appreciate her smile. In a nutshell, he wanted her wife smile or be shy for him ONLY. He wanted to be the center of the world. The smile which is not for him would only exasperate him.
Duke is a controlling and arrogant person. He accused that the Duchess never reserved her smile for him. He was jealous that he was not able to monopolize his former duchess’s smiles for himself. Moreover, the final image of, “Neptune,” taming a sea-horse demonstrates the relationship between the Duke (Neptune) and the last Duchess (seahorse). At the same time, the Duke is restating his power over his future bride, as well as his more general power in the world. I wonder that whether did he ever love his wife, or he just loved the image that his wife possessed. I think he just see women as an object, just like one of his art collections. He was also very proud of his family name-the rank. He thought he is superior to other people. I think he is a shallow man. I can’t see his true spirit; all I can see is a man with shining outlook with a hollow soul.
The duke seems happier when his wife's dead not because he doesn't love her, but because his enormous love to her. He wants his wife to show every emotion, which is adorable only in front of her husband. He's upset about her easily satisfaction. He hopes he is the most important thing in her heart; therefore only "he" could see her smiling pretty face. I think the duke is possessive about his wife, too obsessive. That's why he would kill her wife in order to save her beauty only for him to watch.
I think the duke is sick and insane. He seems to be happy that his wife died and became one of his collections. From my point of view, one might do this kind of sick thing if he or she "overloved" the other person. Too much love may cause horrible affair which many people call that "the desire to possess." And in this situation, the person who is being loved is poor since the one who loves might be out of control and do crazy things such as murder if his or hers love is too much. Even in nowadays, it still happens like a guy killed his girlfriend for wanting to own her for good. How terrifying.
I think from this poem we could found the duke is a person full of jealous and control. He wanted to decide everything and made everyone to follow his expectation. And if anything disturb him or let him unhappy, he would use any ways to eliminate those things. He is a really horrible person, he just think himself the center of the whole world. But I think it is not means he love his wife, he even said those things randomly. He just killed his wife and felt it satisfied him. He made women as a symbol of his enormous power over everything.
I think the duke is a very scared and tyrannic man. The thought of him, which the collection of the duchess picture is greater than the duchess herself, makes me remembered last semester we read a smiliar novel that a woman killed her lover and made him slept with her many year. It's a terrify love story. But in my mind, also a kind of sorrow feelings in it. The Duke thought that killing his wife was a way to control her love only for him. How could this call love? The duke was insane! He lose the sense of safety in this love, and he started to suspect his wife. He considered that only killed her the love would be eternal. In this poem, I feel it talks about the human's possessive and the fear of lose.
From “ My Last Duchess “ this poem, the Duke of Ferrara describes that his former wife is easily impressed; that is, she is touched by matters easily. For example, Duke mentions that some officious fools pick the cherries from trees, and she blushes. Duke doesn’t like the expression of his former wife; indeed, he doesn’t like to see she is also nice to other guys or matters. He thinks that his former wife is belonged to him. She is like the goods which possess him. From this, I can feel that the Duke is a tyrannical and controlling person. Besides, in the end of this poem, he compares himself as Neptune; however, his wife is a sea- horse which implies that his wife gets to be his one of trophies in his life.
At first when reading this poem, I only know that the Duke’s wife is dead and he’s going to marry again. But after comprehending the atmosphere of the poem, I can slightly feel the affection that the Duke toward his former wife, actually it’s really immense. People think that the Duke is a domestic tyrant, because he’s egocentric and abnormal. He regards his wife as a trophy or a work of art to reserve the standing within them. His wife is becoming a collection, so most people may consider that he is an eccentric man. However, I think the same at the beginning, but I would like to reckon a converse way little by little. If I look at the standpoint that the Duke is unable to free himself from loving his former wife, maybe I will not think he is a despot. It’s wrong I think that when discussing other people’s attitude or custom about sentiments, people always judge them by their own will or idea, right? We are not sure whether his wife is controlled with pleasure or that is the manner they get along with each other. The Duke’s affections are centered on his wife, so he expresses the devotion on his own way. Perhaps he uses such eerie way to conceal the suffering of losing his wife or to store up his wife’s beauty or everything in his mind or to string along with his wife forever. Does he do something wrong? Maybe you can think about it again.
I think that the duke very loved her wife. In this dramatic monologue, I think that the duke is also an arrogant person. However, his overbearing, domineering, and self-righteous personality had made his love for his wife become into the desire of monopolization and jealousy. He thought that her wife’s cute smile only belongs to him and she should only devote her heart and soul to him; however, his wife’s vivid and charming personality could not as his wish. His jealousy made him kill his lovely wife.
Everybody said that the Duke loves his wife very much so he killed her to make her smile only show for him; however, I don’t think this is love. If he really loves her, he would not kill her but do something else foe her. What he did is selfish and tyrannical, and I think the Duke may be lack of confidence so he wants to gain the achievement by controlling his wife. It’s pathetic and unreasonable.
The personality of the Duke is very jealous. He wanted to control his wife. He didn’t like the duchess smiled to another man. He thought that he, himself, was the only man who could own her smile. He felt very jealous and angry when he saw the duchess smiled to another man and blushed when man greeted her. He wanted to monopolize her, and he hoped to hide her from other man. So he killed her so that he could own her forever and didn’t need to worry that other man would replace his position in the duchess’s mind. She became one of the art collections of the duke, and he could own her forever and ensure that he was the only man in her mind.
The duke is a very tyrannic person who regard his ex-wife as his own property.He makes a painter draw her last wife a portrait,which evokes his jealousy and kills his wife;moreover,he keeps the portrait privately,not letting other people see it.This poem is a monologues of the duke maybe to a visitor,who maybe is his futuer wife.After reading this poem,though the duke does not say he wants his wife be and acts like what,I can know that actually the duke is implying the visitor "you should be like that,and you should be my own object."
‘’she had a heart-how shall I say?-to soon made glad, too easily impressed.’’. From this line, we can tell that the duchess was a woman with a kind heart, and was easily impressed by those things around her—beautiful sunset or a bough of cherries. However, the duke didn’t want to share her wife with others, but to be his own ’’possession’’. Therefore, he killed her so that she could only smile to him. The duchess has become a ‘’trophy wife’’ and the man’s property. The duke is nothing different to domestic tyrant. I think this poem conveys the idea of patriarchy in a special way, which is more exaggerated and shocking.
I will describe the Duke use “abnormal” he loves his wife crazily. She has already been his wife but he still displease, he love her and unwilling to share her anything such as her smile to anyone. The best way to keep her: destroy. He murdered her and then her beauty could only keep on his mind. I wonder the Duchess must be greatly beautiful, because of the insane love.
In my opinion, I think the Duke's sense of possess is too strong, for he always suspect his wife. He loves his wife so much that he becomes mad. He is a creep anyway, and I think his talking contain an crazy elements. For example, he loves his portrait more than his wife, and I believe this proves the Duck is crazy. He wants a silent, quiet, woodenly portrait rather than his real wife. I guess that he only allows his wife look at him, but he can't control his wife so easy as the painting. To be brief, the Duck is a weirdo.
“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.”
Actually, the Duchess didn’t do anything wrong. This stanza revealed that the Duke hated the Duchess just because she was impressed easily. And the Duke thought that the Duchess shouldn’t smile to everyone she met. The Duke is a selfish, arrogant, and heartless person. He didn’t have wide mind and he also materialize the female as his own fortune.
In my opinion, the duke is a man of jealousy and selfish. He wants to control whatever he wants to, and he can not bear anything that he doesn't want. He love his wife so he thinks she can only smile at him. However, the duchess can be pleased easily, and this makes the duke crazily jealous and makes him want to kill her. It doen't mean the duke doesn't like his wife. On the contrary, it is his selfish love that makes him killed his wife.
I think nothing wrong with the duchess, but there is much wrong with the duke. In the poem, he killed the duchess because he wants to let her leave in his heart only. Like the paint which he shared with the matchmaker joyfully, it stands for he is glad to the love which only he has. In other words, the duke is the person who is selfish and has the desire to own her only. So, when the duchess smiles to others, he would feel upset and think that the duchess pays more love to others. It’s a horrible love; it means the duchess should pay all love, actions, and so on only to him. In conclusion, I think it is a lot of problems with the duke’s selfishness and his own to the duchess.
He is paranoid. The last few lines of this poem show that he sees her duchess as one of his collections, and he wants her, who’s his poverty, to see him as the center of her life. She was a girl who was easily pleased and impressed by others, but the Duke was jealous of her joy toward others although she also liked and smiled at him. He wanted all her emotions to be only aroused by him. As a result, he must have killed her and then preserved her smile via a portrait, which became his collection that belongs to him. Hanging up on his mansion’ wall, she would not smile at others anymore and would only smile at him. Thus, his desire is accomplished through this way and is eventually satisfied, and it’s why he seems happier with the portrait of her, "as if alive," than he was with her when she was alive.
Since Duke’s jealousy of her wife, he killed his wife. Duke’s presents as a tyrannical husband. He looked his former wives as art collections, and showed his past collections to a woman. In this way, he thought that his past wives were his personal belongings; moreover, nobody could close his wives anymore. For this reason, I doubted that Duke did not sincerely love his past wives. In line 54, “Neptune” presents sea-god, Poseidon. Poseidon could tame a sea-horse (in line 55). Horse refers to his wife who was controlled by Duke. Duke’s personal opinion of wives was too patriarchal. In fact, we can still meet this kind of patriarchal man around us. I can’t endure a man who said that my choice will be better than girls’. I will think that “Oh, come on, the man who need to see Pluto in my mind.”
Actually, the Duchess was punished for her natural sexuality. The duke killed his wife on account of his jealousy. He could not bear things that make his wife smile because he thinks himself is the only qualified person to own his wife. In this dramatic monologue, the Duke is quite a performer who mimics people’s voices, creates assumed situations, and uses the force of his personality to make horrifying atmosphere. In some perspective, he maybe an artist yet he is also a tyrant who brutally controls his wife.
Duke is a control freak. Duke is a control freak. Yes, he truly is a control freak, and man, Duke is a control freak. I repeat the sentence three times to demonstrate how solid my belief is. He is definitely a control freak that cannot bear with anything that is “out of control”; that cause his wife’s death, as dead wife with a portrait is much easier to control than the real one, Duke is a control freak that enjoy his own sick personality.
From this poem, I think the duke is so infatuated with his wife that he keeps the portrait of his dead wife. From this we can know that the duke is a man of great ambitious to possess his wife. Because he cannot tolerate other guys to have a glance on her wife, he killed his wife and keeps her wife in the form of a portrait permanently. I am shocked after reading this poem because it is so terrible that duke love his wife so much and he choose to own his wife completely in such an abnormal way. We can never know what a person can do with a strong feeling of love. After all, a lot of people can do terrible things with the jealous mentality.
Apparently,the duke wasn't really pleased when his wife was still alive.It is obvious that the duke is a self-centered person,so he wants his wife to treat him as the center of the universe,nothing else comes before him.From his tone,we can feel that he considers women as an object,and his wife is his private property that could only be possessed by him.However,the duchess sees all things as equal by showing her smile without restraint,which made the duke jealous.Eventually the duke can't take it any more,so he gave orders to kill his wife.Now the beauty of his wife exists only in her portrait,forever restricted and loyal to her husband.
The Duke is suspicious about what he owns; therefore, it can be unbearable for him to see his wife being kind to others. This may be the personality of Duke that I suppose. How come a husband owns owns his wife to the extent of even restricting her expressions toward others? In my opinion, the Duke might have lacked confidence into believing others, so he killed his wife to prove that he owned her.
I think the duke is abnormal . Few days ago I just heard a similar story from my friend which she learned from her Engligh class is talking about a weird duke who hates to get along with people lives without anyone else . The deals in his life all depends on the door of his room . The things he wants will show on the notes with empty food plate , and servants is ruled to come up in a peculiar time finishing all works then leave . Most point wonders me is that the author didn’t tell the reason why he become the person he is now . And this poem also relates with a strange personality on a duke . But more terribly is that this duke is more scared .From it we can find the reason why he kills his wife , just because of her pure and optimistic mind . Through his soliloquizing , the cruel and selfish badness show up invisibly . It makes me more frightened after understanding it . Poor weird duke……oh my gosh！
First of all, I think The Duke like the way the the duchess looks like but not the way she really is.
So, the duchess is simply an ornament or a work of art to him; it doesn't matter she is alive or not. He even introduces the protrait of his wife to the representative in proud but not in grief. The protrait seems to be something that he can show off.
Then, Because he is so obsessed to her that he can't bear those things that make him jealous. He is actually possessive toward the things belong to him.
I think the Duke's personality is very autocratic and jealous. He can't tolerate his wife to even give others a simple smile. I also think he may suffer some lunacy because he killed his wife just because his jealousy. And when he looked at her picture, he really acted like a psychopath.
The duke treated his wife like an object more than a human, he wanted she control all of the things of her, even her feelings. He was the only one who could decide who was the duchess going to see, she listened to her husband with no doubt. Nevertheless, the duchess was kind to everyone; she was also easy to be pleased by the praise of he painter. She was sweet and delights n small things, but the duke hate her alwasy showing her feeling frankly. Her behavior drove him insane, and she was killed by her husband. The duke longs to make her wife exclusive, but he showed his feeling in an abnormal way.
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