Form. "My Last Duchess" is an emotional speech. It's a monologue in the sense that it's only one person speaking. It is dramatic because another person is present, listening to the speaker's words, which are shared with a larger audience, the readers of the poem.
The Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue because it is spoken by a single person before a crowd of listeners. This type of poem is known as a "speech" or "oration". A speech can be oral - given out loud - or written (poetry). In general, speeches aim to persuade others to think or do something. The Last Duchess argues for her marriage to Alessandro de' Medici since it will improve relations between Florence and the papacy.
This poem is about love. Love is a feeling that brings happiness to two people in a relationship. It makes people want to be with each other and have fun together. Even though love isn't always happy, the poet wants us to believe that his love for Maria Guiccioli is true because it has brought happiness into their lives.
Love is also knowledge. The poet knows what love is supposed to feel like because he has been told that Maria is loves. He wants us to know that this love is real because it has been proven through actions - she has shown him kindness even when he hasn't done anything wrong.
"My Last Duchess," one of Shakespeare's best theatrical monologues, is a magnificent combination of sociological, psychological, and Victorian-era poetry that includes pessimism about human nature, the somber tone of existence, and the ruling inhumanity. The duchess in the play is a beautiful but cold woman who lives in a palace full of servants but has few friends. She is married to a king who favors his young lover over her, and so she kills herself. But first, she tells her story to a court jester.
The play was written around 1599 for Thomas Kyd's famous play "The Spanish Tragedy," which told of three different marriages to three different men. Each husband believes he is the true love of his wife, but they are all deceived. The last marriage in the trilogy ends in tragedy too.
Kyd based his play on real events that took place in Europe around this time. There was a princess who was married at an early age to a king of Spain - Elizabeth I of England. However, she soon grew tired of him and married another man. This second king died mysteriously, and his wife became an outcast. Finally, she decided to end her life with a sword rather than live without love.
"The Spanish Tragedy" was a success when it was first performed at the Globe Theatre in London.
Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess" is widely anthologized as an example of dramatic monologue. It initially appeared in Browning's Dramatic Lyrics in 1842. The poem is made up of 28 rhyming couplets written in iambic pentameter. A duchess who lives in a castle near Turin falls in love with a young man named Bertram. But she cannot marry him because he is in service to another noblewoman. So she sets out to find a husband for herself among the men-at-arms training at her father's military camp. She chooses a young lord known as the Black Knight and they marry. But after only six months of marriage, she finds out that he has been having an affair with another woman. Filled with rage, she kills herself. As she dies, she confesses that she killed herself because she could not live without him.
The poem is narrated by the duchess in the first person. Thus, it is called "My Last Duchess". The title comes from Iago's statement, "O my last Duchess, how often have I told thee that thy mercy exceeds thy mind?", which appears several times in Shakespeare's play Othello.
Browning was a major influence on 19th-century poets such as Oscar Wilde and Arthur Hugh Clough.
My Last Duchess is a theatrical monologue set in Renaissance Italy (early 16th century) that reveals the thoughts of a wealthy nobleman as he presents a marriage broker, an ambassador, and a portrait of his late wife, "my last duchess." The play is considered one of Shakespeare's best comedies.
The title of the play comes from a famous poem by John Keats. It is not entirely clear how closely Shakespeare modeled My Last Duchess on Keats' work, but there are similarities in theme and language that suggest their influence on each other.
My Last Duchess was probably written sometime between 1599 and 1602. It was first published in 1607, so it must have been performed before then. It has been suggested that it may have been written as early as 1588 for the King's Men by Thomas Knyvet, who would have been about twenty-five years old. However, this theory has not been proven conclusively and some scholars believe it to be a pseudonym for Shakespeare himself.
The play contains many allusions to events and people of its time. For example, the marriage broker is looking for a bride who is "young, rich, and handsome" - requirements that would have matched those of an attractive daughter of one of the great families of Venice.
My Last Duchess is an enigmatic theatrical monologue about a Duke of Ferrara displaying a portrait 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 play has been interpreted as a warning against arrogance and self-destruction, as well as a metaphor for the Italian Renaissance.
It was written by Ford in 1908 when he was 50 years old. He used his own money to produce the play with some help from his friend and fellow expatriate Englishman, Cecil Harmsworth.
The setting is a room in the Ducal Palace where portraits of the former duchesses line the walls. The audience learns that they were all beautiful but that the current Duchess is considered the best looking. She also has many friends who visit her in the palace room which is why she spends so much time there.
Ford intended for this play to be a tribute to his native England where he had found success with other plays such as Cromwell and Oliver Twist. But due to its controversial subject matter (including possible incest) it failed to make any impression at the London theatre where it was first performed.
However, My Last Duchess has had a long-lasting influence on later artists. Ford's work was admired by Ezra Pound who cited it as one of his influences. T.S.
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