That's My Last Duchess Painted On The Wall

“Art is an expression of human creative skill and imagination” (google) Paintings are works of art created to express or let out a person’s creativity or feelings towards a certain subject. In Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue, “The Last Duchess”, he uses the painting as a symbolism of the Duke’s relationship with his former wife. Therefore, as the Duke tries to impress people with his wealth through the painting of Fra Pandolf, he instead unintentionally displays his true personality to others. Initially, the painting is used to reveal Duke’s jealous nature as he mistakes his wife’s friendless as flirting which later reveals his controlling nature. Ultimately, the Duke’s selfishness and greed for power is slowly revealed through abusing art to control his wife and others.

In poems it is essential to be a creative writer. The author uses many techniques from from exposing deep thoughts to giving humorous jokes throughout the sentence. As a human being, we may have difficult times in understanding what is trying to be said. We may agree or disagree depending our viewpoints on life. One of my Favorite poems is “The Ballad of Sue Ellen Westerfield” by Robert Hayden. My favorite poem is the type of poem that has some history and confusion. When getting the audience confused, it makes them want to know more and reread the whole passage again. Hayden’s poem is a fresh new opening that brought an old dimension, his creativity to open the minds of others and look back to the past.

Robert Browning uses descriptive details to portray a theme of how darkness rises from warmth and happiness by showing us on how a man’s love for someone makes him turn to savagery. The narrator of the poem has very deep feelings for his lover, but he only thinks of himself and he never wants the girl to leave his side so he does the unthinkable. In the times that the girl was not home or was not with the narrator then there was coldness and darkness, but when she was with the man then the house would “blaze up, and all the cottage warm”. She created hope and the narrator needed that constantly, so he realized that his love was too strong to put on hold everyday when she would leave. The fact that the narrator had to watch his lover leave everyday

This poem is about a woman who is expressing her love but she’s not only expressing her love. She is convincing herself and the audience that her love is not just superficial it is real, and it is honest. Figurative Language – Elizabeth Barrett Browning used three different types of figurative language in this poem as well. She uses metaphors, hyperboles and puns throughout this poem. Some of the metaphors she uses are in lines 3-5.

In her book Recollections, Browning describes what poetry means to herself. She explained that it “became a distinct object with me; an object to read, think, and live for” (Preston xii). Browning was described as a strong woman-poet who had little to no training. She came from the “Italian hills into a prim English feminine household, and inevitably assuming there that attitude of superiority to

In Robert Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess,” the author writes of a Duke who seems to admit to murdering his last duchess. The poem starts with the Duke introducing the painting of his last duchess to an emissary. He goes on to claim that she was unfaithful and believes that she was flirting with the artist of her portrait. The Duke insists that he should be the only one that has her attention. Throughout the poem, the Duke’s ego is revealed and he implies that he executed his own wife (Browning 1016-1017). “My Last Duchess” is filled with ambiguous claims which calls the reader to examine every possibility. This is difficult considering there is only one speaker, the Duke, in the poem. The three things that are discovered when a reader dives deeper into Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess”, are the dysfunction of the Duke and Duchess’ relationship, the reason for the Duke’s vanity, and the misrepresented Duchess.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806 in Burnham, England. Elizabeth was the first of her family to be born in England after 200 years, as all of her family had lived in Jamaica where her father owned sugar plantations. Unlike many poets, Elizabeth’s poetry little reflected the life she lived. Considering the circumstances of her living, some of her poetry was quite contradicting to her lifestyle. She lived the expected life that a “daughter of a wealthy squire” would be expected to live, riding her ponies on the countryside, and having tea with other county families. Elizabeth, however, was very different from her siblings in a way in which she was so immersed in her books and drawn into learning new things, that she barely acknowledged life around her. “Books and dreams were what I lived in, and domestic life only seemed to buzz gently around, like bees about the grass”, said Barrett who was in almost every aspect, self-taught.

The two Browning poems, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were written to convey to the reader how women were treated in that era; as possession, as assets. Both of these poems can be read from different points of view and they also both are what is

The poem “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning gives a haunting look into the thoughts of a possible murderer. From the first reading, one can deduce that the “Last Duchess” was murdered by the Duke. While the motive for the murder is not blatantly expressed, I believe that the Duke became aware of his wife’s rampant infidelity and that this drove him to murder his Duchess. Throughout the poem the Duke makes use of suggestive language to allude to his former wife's lack of commitment.

To make a clearer depiction of the character of the Duke and his opinion and treatment of his late wife, Browning effectively made use of Renaissance images. The most apparent symbol used is the portrait of the late Duchess, painted on the wall by artist Frà Pandolf. The poem only tells the reader that the painting captures the Duchess’ bright personality and her love for life – a depiction that has distressed the Duke when her wife was still alive. But the painting itself and how it came to be tells us more about the Duke’s personality. The painting portrayed and captured the duchess in a nice light, however, the duke chooses who can see it as he stated, “none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I…” clearly the duke only wants to show a select few of people how he wants his last duchess to be remembered.

At the age of twelve Browning sent a collection of poems off to a magazine editor, which were rejected. Once rejected Browning decided to start a career as a poet, writing poetry that is still read today. One of Browning poems “My Last Duchess” starts off by introducing that the Duke is talking to an ambassador from another nobleman while staring at a picture of his deceased wife. The Duke goes on to say how he wants to arrange another marriage. While reading this poem, the reader may start to understand that this marriage was not a happy one. Browning goes on to say some of the things that made the Duchess happy in her life, “The dropping of daylight in the West,/The bough of cherries some officious fool/Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule.” A metaphor the narrator uses to describe the Dukes problem on wanting to control everyone is a sculpture of Neptune taming a sea horse. In the end, the reader starts to understand that the Duke killed his wife because he could not contain

Throughout the course of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s life, poetry played the hand of fate. All of the major events that took place in her life seem to coincide with her poetry. Poetry made her famous. It gave her solace, and comfort, somewhere to drown her sorrow. It introduced her to her husband, and (indirectly) divorced her from her father. Poetry was not only a part of her life, but an integral part of her soul.

In the poem, "My Last Duchess" is about, a Duke who collects portraits. He pulls back a curtain to reveal a portrait of his last duchess. It was painted by a monk and painter named Fra Pandolf. The duke tells the listener that his previous wife was too friendly. He doesnt approve the fact that she is easily impressed or happy.

Robert Browning is an amazing poet. He wrote many poems in the late 1800’s that are connected with storylines, characters and plot. “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” are examples of Browning’s connected poems. Both are considered to be dramatic monologues in which the character narrates his story of love. The Duke from “My Last Duchess” and the speaker from “Porphyria’s Lover” are known as “brothers in character and action”. They share many similar personality traits and the make many of the same actions. Both the Duke and speaker manipulate other characters from the poem. They are both possessive over women and objects, love the feeling of power are both over confident. Manipulation is a very important action of both the

The society around her attempted to suppress her creativity, yet she continued to fight against them through her words. In her poem “The Soul's Expression” she narrates her “struggle to deliver” what she believes to the extent that she has “stammering lips and [an] insufficient sound” (Browning “The Soul's Expression”). Through her poems she is able, to express her feelings of deprivation in regards to women’s basic human rights, which have been so intensely denied. Browning asserts herself as a strong, unconventional woman with a “right to work and be independent” (The British Library).