She treated everything equally and praised in the same way. The rhyming pair of lines in the form of iambic pentameter, is known as the heroic couplet. He didn’t even try to solve this issue by communication. Without even talking to her, he decides to solve the matter by his power. Most scholars agree that Browning … In a dramatic monologue, the speaker addresses alone at the stage in the presence of a silent listener. Even the bough of cherries from the orchard brought to her by a fool inspired her. Moreover, the white mule on which she rode around the terrace made her happy in a similar way. Ibsen, Review of the film adaptation of 'A View from the Bridge', The portrayal of love in 'The Nightingale and the Rose', The significance of love in 'The Crucible'. If a man was not satisfied with his wife, a woman who was his legal subordinate in the eyes of the law, he might not kill her off as the Duke so cavalierly does in Browning's poem. 'My Last Duchess' Questions for Study and Discussion, Love and the Brownings: Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Understanding 'The Pasture' by Robert Frost, Biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poet and Activist, The Best Dramatic Monologues by Greek Playwright Sophocles, Biography of Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, “Poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning Elope.”, M.A., Literature, California State University - Northridge, B.A., Creative Writing, California State University - Northridge. On one hand, it is a twisted plan, coupling evil and holy together. One of the powerful aspects of this poem is indeed this uncertainty created for the reader—did the Duke execute a guilty wife or did he end the life of an innocent, kind-hearted woman? In the same way, she became happy looking at the sunset in the West. The Duke also tells the listener that only he is allowed to draw the curtain back that hangs over the painting. Maybe, he told her that her shawl is covering too much of her beautiful wrist. Now the Duke explains the obstacles that stopped him from complaining about the behaviour of his Duchess to her. All of these traits are exhibited by the Duchess, if we assume that her marriage was an act of self-sacrifice. There was nothing special in her smile for the Duke. The Duke tells the listener that he told him the name of its artist purposefully before he asks himself. In the poem, the simile is used in the following line: “That’s my last duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive.” In this line, the poet compares a dead person to her painting by using the word “as”. What the painting captures appears to be a watered-down version of the Duchess's joyfulness. It shows that the poem “My Last Duchess” is a piece of art about another art. So, as the Duke reads their faces and knows what they actually want, he himself explains the art of wonder to them.