My Last Duchess Flashcards
1
Q
What was the context for Downing’s “My Last Duchess”
A
*Loosely based on duke of Ferrera and written from his perspective, talking to a messenger about arranging his next marriage
*Assumption being that he was dissatisfied with his former wife and had killed her
2
Q
“my last duchess”
A
- possesive pronoun - speaker laying claim to her as a possesion
- duchess used as symbol of posession to amplify and exagerrate the dukes control and power
3
Q
“half-flush that dies along her throat”
A
- sinister tone
- semantically linked to murder
- suggests he didnt want to see the damage he had done
4
Q
“My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”
A
- reference to dowry gift
- he is suggesting she should be submissive to him due to his legacy
5
Q
“i gave commands:/then all smiles stopped”
A
- use of semi-colons gives a sense of finality
- breaks up sentence like he broke up her life
- suddeness of a sharp stop symbolises sharp stoppage to her life
- semicolon mirrors list of commands, suggesting she was killed on request
6
Q
“notice neptune…taming a sea-horse”
A
- shows how quickly he forgets about previous life showing how little she meant to him and disposable a wife is to him - warning to his guest about how he expects his next ife to behave
- suggests he is powerful neptune and the duchess is seahorse being tamed
7
Q
“she thanked men,-good!”
A
- exclamation and change of structure, verse brokenn into caesuras to show rising anger, loss of control
- embodies sense of power in the duchess - he was so bothered by her actions that he felt angry enough to kill her
