Picture Of His Last Duchess example essay topic

My last Duchess " That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive". The duck of Ferrara starts his monologue with a sight of regret that raises the sympathy of the readers and makes them feel that he had lost his beloved wife and is very upset about that. However, in the next few sentences he reveals the dark side of his character and brings the readers to a realization that the Duck of Ferrara is not a noble gentle man. In fact, he is a hysteric murderer who has killed his wife and is very arrogant, possessive, and oppressive. Like many other renaissance Ducks, The duck of Ferrara is very arrogant and selfish. He is very proud of himself and his ancestors.

He believes it is his wife's privilege to be married with him and she should be thankful for "the gift of a nine-hundred -year's-old name" that he gave her. The fact that " [his] favor at her breast, the dropping of the daylight in the west, the bough of cherries some officious fool broke in the orchard for her... all and each would draw from her alike the approving speech" disgusts him. He thinks he should be treated specially not like anyone else and with "Much the same smile", but he can not stoop "to blame this sort of trifling". Duck of Ferrara is very materialist, possessive and greedy. He has a sense of ownership and a strong desire to control everything. He thinks of his wife's picture only as a fine art work and refers to it as "a piece of wonder".

Her pure emotions and sentimental nature are more disgusting for him rather than fascinating. He thinks that her heart was "too soon made glad, too easily impressed". He even wants to control her looks and complains, "She liked what " er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere". He thinks his wife is a part of his belonging "My duchess" and wants to monopolize her both physically and emotionally. "Sir, 'twas not her husband's presence only, called that spot of joy into the Duchess's check" When the Duchess was alive, the Duck could not control her smile and her love for life and nature. Therefore, he kills her and places the picture behind a curtain so that. ".. none puts by the curtain [he has] drawn for [her], but [him]".

He also has a complete control upon the conversation and guides the listener by telling him what to do: "will it please you sit and look at her", "Will you please rise", and after talking about the picture he simply turns and starts to talk about another piece of his belonging "Notice Neptune... cast in bronze for me". The Duck of Ferrara also is very greedy. Although he is very wealthy, he still "stoops" to ask for "dowry". Duck of the Ferrara is also oppressive, ruthless, cruel, and joules.

He believes every one should do what he wishes them to do. For example, his wife should exactly know how he expects her to behave: "To make your will quite clear to such an one and say, just this and that in you disgusts me; and here you miss, or there exceed the mark... ". He wants everything to be in the way that he wants it to be and the things that are not in the way that he wishes them to be, simply should be removed from his way. He is ruthless. He did not like his wife's behavior; therefore", [he] commends and then all the smiles stopped all together".

He is also very jealous. The only person that he trusted to draw his wife's picture is "a Fra Pandolf... for never read stranger like you that pictured countenance the depth and passion of its earnest glance". He also is jealous that his wife talks to everyone and treats every one "with much the same smile". In the poem "My last Duchess" Browning takes the reader inside the castle of a renascence Duck and introduces her to a noble duck who is showing the picture of his last Duchess, the innocent smile that is disguised behind the curtain of oppression. Duck is telling the story of his last duchess and as he goes on, a horrifying image of a murderer who is very arrogant, possessive, and oppressive becomes vivid in reader's mind.