My Last Duchess Flashcards
(19 cards)
My last duchess
“Last” - can be replaced, expendable
“My” - possessive, domineering attitude
As if she were alive
Lack of sorrow, reader learns that the duchess is dead, but opening remains innocent, before the poem shifts to have a more insidious undertone, creating dramatic tension
Fra Pandolf, Claus of Innsbruck
Duke is boastful of his status in society, his ability to hire these respected artists, feels the need to involve them in the conversation, insecure about himself
There she stands
Ironic, she is now no longer standing
Will’t please you sit and look at her?
Even in death he controls her and who she can see, the considerate language is a masquerade for the cruelty he has demonstrated
(Since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you but I)
Dominance, obsesses over the painting like he did his duchess when she was still alive, insecurity
If they durst
Duke threatening other men, asserting dominance, believes he is intimidating, compensating for the lack of respect his duchess shows to him by trying to receive it from other men
Too soon made glad
Views the duchess as promiscuous, flirtatious, loved others too easily for his liking
Too easily impressed
Suggests infidelity in marriage, perhaps not literally but Duke equates it to such because of his immense insecurity, repetition of the intensifier too insinuates that the duke reached his limit and had no choice but to kill duchess
Her looks went everywhere
Duke is paranoid, believes she is constantly looking at other men, self absorbed and insecure
Cherries some official fool broke
Even someone bringing the duchess fruit concerns the duke, completely self conscious
Daylight in the west…the white mule
Duke is jealous of her enjoying ANYTHING else, even if they are objects that serve no threat - cherries, sunset, a horse
She thanked men, -good!
Caesura displays an almost hesitation to state this, Duke immensely jealous of her speaking kindly of other men
My gift of a nine hundred year old name
My shows possessive nature of Duke, he gave her HIS title and she is ungrateful
Never to stoop
Sees her as lower than him, whether that be by class or gender, reiterates his arrogant nature
She smiled
Pronoun insinuates resentment, reader never learns her name or identity, Duke controls who does even in death
Who passed without much then same smile?
Rhetorical question, sarcastic, Duke showcasing his disdain for the Duchess smiling at other things
I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together
Suggesting that the Duchess was killed/assassinated upon Duke’s orders, climax of his insecurity
Will’t please you rise?
