In My Last Duchess, the duchess dies, most likely as a result of a murderous deed. The poem's speaker is the duchess's husband, the duke. He has summoned up the courage to write a poem in her memory.
She was beautiful, and she lived happily with her husband. One day they were riding through a wood when they saw someone hiding in some trees. It was a man with a gun waiting for them to come by so he could shoot them. But the duke turned his horse toward the sound of guns and began to run away from the assassin. The duchess called out to him not to leave her but he ignored her. Then she cried "Oh God!" and fell off her horse. The shooter thought she was still alive so he shot her again, even after she was lying on the ground wounded. When the duke returned he found his wife dead. In sorrow he left the wood and went back home where he buried her next to a sweet flower named violets.
This short story tells us that beauty can kill. And this story also shows us that happiness can be deadly too because the duke and his wife were happy together but this happiness came at a great price: their lives.
"My Last Duchess," one of Shakespeare's best theatrical monologues, is a magnificent combination of social, psychological, and Victorian-era poetry that include pessimism about human nature, the dismal tone of existence, and the ruling inhumanity. It was written around 1590 for an unknown patron who may have been Lord Hunsdon or Henry Wriothesley, third earl of Southampton. The duke dies at the end of the first half of the play, and his wife, Marguerite, does not marry again. She lives in mourning forever after.
The play has no main plot line; rather, it consists of several subplots that sometimes intersect. There is the story of Bertram, the son of the Duke and his former nursemaid. When Bertram comes of age, he decides to leave home to seek his fortune. However, upon hearing that his father has died, he returns home without seeing his mother again. This causes a rift between them which eventually leads to her death.
Then there is the story of Lady Anne, the daughter of the Duke's ambassador to France. She falls in love with Bertram but he loves another woman, so she plots to kill this woman for him. But she fails and later dies of a broken heart.
My Last Duchess is a cryptic theatrical monologue about a Duke of Ferrara displaying a painting of his late wife to a guest to his home. Not only does he share details about his previous wife, but he also sheds light on his own character, potentially admitting to her murder.
The painter, who is not identified by name, creates a portrait of the Duchess that she finds beautiful but not flattering. When the Duke sees it, however, he becomes enraged and has him imprisoned. The Duke then shows the painting to someone he thinks is his friend, but in fact is an agent of Cesare Borgia, a powerful Italian nobleman. The Borgias want the Duke to give up some land that he owns so that they can take it over themselves. To get what they want, they tell the Duke that his first wife was unfaithful with another man and that she died as a result. Heartbroken, the Duke decides to go visit his former lover in order to understand why she would have done such a thing. During this visit, he discovers that she is sick with a fatal disease and she tells him that if he wants to see her again, he must marry again. Disappointed but understanding, the Duke returns home and marries another woman. However, when he displays the painting at his new wedding, he realizes that there is still love between himself and his first wife and so goes back to visit her. However, she has already passed away.
The main irony of Browning's "My Last Duchess" is that it is not about the duchess at all, but rather about the duke's domineering, jealous, and haughty temperament. The duke exposes us to his dark and ominous tendencies in his monologue over a portrait of his previous wife. He reveals himself to be a man who enjoys humiliating others by making them look up to him.
The duke also shows himself to be a man who knows no limits when it comes to seeking revenge against those who have offended him or someone he cares about. In fact, he goes as far as killing one person after another until he finds his last duchess. Then, he kills her too.
Finally, the duke is shown to be a man who wants everyone around him to fear him. He tries hard to prove this to us by killing anyone who gets in his way. Not only does this poem reveal much about the Duke, but it also tells us a lot about the nature of jealousy and how it can drive someone to murder.
In conclusion, the main irony of "My Last Duchess" is that it is not about the Duchess at all, but rather about the Duke's domineering, jealous, and haughty temperament.
Copyright © 2020 - 2023 Authors Cast Inc.
