Critical Summary of the Monologue The Last Duchess

 

Critical Summary of the Monologue

The Duke of Ferrara, a powerful, proud, and hard-hearted Italian Duke of the 16th century, has been widowed recently. He intends to marry a second time. The messenger of a powerful Count, who has his estate in the neighbourhood, comes to the Duke's palace to negotiate with him the marriage of the Count's daughter. The duke takes him round his picture gallery and shows to him the portrait of his last Duchess. The portrait is lifelike and realistic, and the Duke, who is a great lover of the fine arts, is justly proud of it.

In response to the inquiring look of the messenger, the Duke tells him that the deep passion in the eyes of the Duchess does not result from any sex intrigue or guilty love. He did not give her any occasion to be unfaithful to him. Even the portrait on the wall was done not by an ordinary artist, but by a monk, and he was allowed only one day to do it. He did not allow the Monk any longer time, for he did not want to provide them any occasion for intimacy. This shows that the Duke is a jealous tyrant and the poor Duchess could not have enjoyed any freedom of movement as the wife of such a man.

The Duke points out the portrait of the Duchess to the messenger and tells him that he alone uncovers the picture and nobody else is allowed to do so. At this point, the Duke notices an inquiring look in the eyes of the messenger and at once understands that he wants to know the cause of the deep, passionate look in the eyes of the Duchess, and proceeds to satisfy his curiosity. In this way Browning turns the monologue into a colloquy. The inquiring looks, particular gestures and movements of the listener, here the messenger, serve as big question-marks, and provide the speaker with an occasion for explanation and self-analysis. In this way, much valuable light is thrown on character, and much that is past and dead is brought to life.

Continuing further with his explanation, the Duke tells the envoy that his last Duchess had very childish and foolish nature. She was pleased with trifles, would thank others for even the slightest service they happened to render to her, and had no sense of dignity and decorum. For example, the faint blush of joy on her cheek and neck was not caused by the presence of her husband alone. If the painter happened to mention that her cloak covered her wrist too much, or that paint could never hope to capture the light pink glow on her throat, she would take such chance remarks as compliments and blush with pleasure. She had a childish heart, and was pleased too easily by such trifles as the gift of a branch laden with cherries, the beautiful sunset, or the mule presented to her by someone for her rides round the terrace. She would blush with pleasure at such trifles, just as much as she would blush at some costly ornament presented by him. She was the wife of a Duke who belonged to an ancient family, nine hundred year old. But she considered. even this gift of his at par with the trifling services rendered to her by others.

As a matter of fact she had no discrimination and no sense of dignity and decorum she smile that everybody without any distinction she thanked everybody in the same way. He expected better sense from his wife. He did not correct her, for even to notice such frivolity would have meant loss of dignity, and he did not like to suffer this loss. Besides, she would have argued and discussed with him, instead of listening to his advice. Her habit of smiling continued to grow till it became intolerable to him. At last he gave orders, and, "Then all smiles stopped together". The line has been left intentionally enigmatic, we cannot say for certain how the smiling stopped. But, most probably, the poor, innocent Duchess was murdered at the command of her brutal and stony-hearted husband.

The Duke then asks the messenger to come down, where the other guests of his are waiting. In passing, he tells the messenger that he would expect a rich dowry from his master, the Count, though, of course, he adds very cleverly, his primary concern is the daughter, and not the dowry. The Duke is not only hard-hearted, proud and tyrannical, but also greedy and cunning. He is a hypocrite of the first water. The only good point about him is his love of art. As they go down the stairs, he asks the messenger to have a good look at the bronze statue of Neptune, the sea-god. In this statue, the god is shown riding and controlling a sea-horse. It was done specially for him by the great sculptor, Claus of Innsbruck. It is the name of an imaginary artist invented to impress the messenger, just as earlier he had invented the name of the painter, Fra Pandolf.

The Last Duchess

My Last Duchess was first published in the volume of poems called, Dramatic Lyrics, in 1842. It was republished in the Dramatic Romances of 1863. It is a dramatic monologue and Phelps regards it as one of the finest dramatic monologues, not only of Browning, but in the whole range of English literature. The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara, an important city of Italy. It was an important cultural centre during the Renaissance. Whether the character of the Duke in the Monologue is based on some actual historical figure or not, there can be no denying the fact that in the Monologue, the poet has captured the very spirit of Renaissance Italy, its intrigues, its sensuality, its greed, as well as its cultural and artistic activity.

 As a Dramatic Monologue: The Critical Situation

 Browning's monologues grow out of some 'crisis' or 'critical situation' in the life of the principal figure, and embody the reaction of that figure to the particular situation. Placed in such a situation, the chief figure, the speaker of the monologue, indulges in self-analysis and self-introspection and in this way his soul is laid bare in the poem. In his monologues, generally, the speaker refers to other character or characters, and in this way reveals not only his character but that of others also. The presence of some listener or interlocutor is also implied. Thus the present monologue is a remarkable piece of character-study not only of the Duke but also of his last Duchess, and the messenger of the neighbouring Count forms the listener and the interlocutor.