This poem is about how his wife acts with other men, which causes him to be very jealous. "She looked on, and her looks went everywhere", pg 664, suggest her unfaithfulness. The Duke in my opinion was arrogant, egotistical and controlling, but he could not control his wife's wondering ways.
Did the Duke kill his wife? "I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands." pg 664. or did he have her killed? This poem indicates extreme example of jealousy and the Duke would rather do whatever it took to save his ego from being crushed with shame or embarrassment. Throughout the peom he only talks about himself, so how dare she take the spotlight off of him. He is the one in control always. Good poem, but sad.
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2 comments:
Gloria,
Good discussion of Browning's "My Last Duchess," with good selection and discussion of quotations from the poem. I think this posting shows improvement.
I personally think that the poem is suppose to show that the Duke did in fact kill the duchess. It said in the introduction that Browning liked to let his characters reveal their deep dark secrets, and in this poem the duke does reveal it. I find it odd that he is having this conversation with the father of the next woman that he wants to marry though!
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