Poem The Duke example essay topic

In the dramatic monologue the poet disappears behind the 'I speaker' reveals himself to the reader not just by his actions but by the way he expresses himself. He reveals his psychological state of mind to us and we feel we have come to know him. Disc In the dramatic monologue the poet disappears behind the 'I speaker' reveals himself to the reader not just by his actions but by the way he expresses himself. Discuss with reference to: 'My Last Duchess'- Robert Browning, 'Porphyria's lover'- Robert Browning and 'The Farmers Bride'- Charlotte Mew.

In these three dramatic monologues which we have studied in class, all of them tell stories about men who do not understand the women in their lives, some to such an extent they end up killing them. They vary in the fact that not all the men are as intense as some. One man has even been driven crazy by his lover, but in another one of the poems the man is confused and does not understand why his wife does not want to speak to him. Robert Browning and Charlotte Mew have manage to capture the persona of the characters in the poems very well. At the end of the piece of writing you believe that you have actually come to know the people, there problems, there lives and the reasoning behind what they have done. 'My Last Duchess' - Robert Browning tells the story of a high Duke and his last Duchess who he had killed as she was not impressed with all the possessions and money he had to give her, 'as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift.

' She was easy pleased riding her horse, or eating a bowl of cherries. The Duke disapproved of her being nice to everyone and treating them the same way as she treated her husband. The Duke was self-centred and failed to understand his wife character. Without thought he had her murdered. A painting of her was made which only he was allowed to look at and show people. Then she would be officially his object.

The poem is written as one long piece of writing with no breaks, this is to show the Dukes arrogance that he did not even have to think about what he had done. In his mind it was no crime to kill a perfectly innocent person, because they treated everyone fairly. The poem has a stanza rhyming scheme, which means four or more rhymed lines repeated as a unit. The Duke makes it clear from the beginning that he is a very proud man, he boasts about the painting saying twice that it was painted by 'Fra Pandolf', a famous Renaissance artist. The Duke tells the Counts enquirer that only he can show people the picture, it has a curtain covering it: 'since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I'. The Duchess often used to blush and the Duke explains to the Counts enquirer that it was not just the Duke who made her blush and smile.

He suggests Fra Pandolf may have flattered her as she is blushing in the painting: 'Was Courtesy, she thought, and cause enough for calling up that spot of joy. ' Often during the poem the Duke pretends he does know what to say, he pauses as if waiting for a reaction: 'A heart - how should I say? - too soon made glad'. He asks a rectorial question in this particular example. The Duchess was easily pleased and we get the impression she liked the simple things in life: 'The dropping of the daylight in the West, The bough of cherries'. The Duke was jealous that his wife treated normal people with the same respect she treated him with.

The Duchess was not impressed with money or possessions: 'As if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift'. The Duke had a reputation and a lot of self-pride he would not 'fall down to The Duchess's level' and meet and greet any old person: '-E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose never to stoop. '.