My Last Duchess Summary

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In both “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” Browning criticises the position of women in Victorian society by showing the relationship between men and women through two dramatic monologues. In both of the poems the men appear to be the villains, in “Porphyria’s Lover” Porphyria is killed by the man who she has run through the rain to seen.

In “My Last Duchess” although it is unclear if the Duke had the Duchess killed or just sent to a convent, there is quite clearly something going on with the Duke saying “I gave commands/Then all smiles stopped together”.

The Duke and Porphyria’s certainly do not appear to be anything but villains but perhaps there is a little more to both characters. Although the characters may not be as simple as being just villains, it is very hard to feel much sympathy for them.

They are both jealous and controlling, especially the Duke who even has to have control of the picture of the Duchess – “None puts by/ the curtain I have drawn for, but I”. Porphyria’s Lover is even more jealous and kills Porphyria so that she could belong only to him “That moment she was mine, mine”, with the repetition of mine emphasising the jealousy and selfishness of the character.

What Might The Statue Of Neptune Symbolize In Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”?

The Duke and Porphyria’s lover reduce women to objects with the Duke treating the Duchess very much as one of his expensive treasures and with Porphyria’s love saying how Porphyria felt after he had murdered her – “The smiling rosy little head/so glad it has its utmost will”.

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Neither has any understanding of the women in the poems, the Duke’s selfishness is especially obvious in his comment “But who passed without the same smile” which shows how jealous he was when ‘his’ Duchess even dared to smile at someone else.

They both are very much in control over the women in the poems, with even god like associations; the Duke has a statue of Neptune “Taming a sea horse” which shows how the Duke feels natural things should be ‘tamed’, perhaps how he felt about his wife who appears to be very ‘natural’ with imagery such as “bough of cherries” “orchard” and “white mule” associated with her. Porphyria’s lover convinces himself that his murder of Porphyria was fine since “God has not said a word” which seems a frighteningly light hearted take on the murder of the women who mattered so much to him.

Porphyria’s love is certainly the more frightening of the characters, this is partly because of the metre used, iambic tetrameter, which gives the monologue an almost sing-song effect, and seems strangely calm considering it, tells the story of a murder. Porphyria’s lover is more passive and wretched than the Duke adding to the sinister effect of the poem, this is shown in “she put my arm about her waist” and the pathetic fallacy at the beginning of the poem, for example “the sullen wind” and this wretched, depressed nature makes Porphyria’s lover seem more selfish and villainous.

The Duke is not as obviously villainous as Porphyria’s lover, he appears to be more subtle, or least tries to be more subtle about the disposal of his wife, this is shown is his evasiveness which is made clear in his convoluted syntax, for example “I said “Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance”. Although the Duke seems less frightening than Porphyria’s lover he still comes across as controlling, possessive (“My last Duchess”) and selfish, and almost impossible to feel sympathy for.

The same is true of Porphyria’s Lover, he is a character who is it virtually impossible to feel sorry for. Perhaps this is because both of these poems are a criticism of women’s position in Victorian society, women could not vote or hold political office and although attitudes were slowly beginning to change, women were still very much seen as objects, much like the Duke sees the Duchess as an object to be admired like his many paintings, and seen by many as being incapable of serious thought about anything.

Robert Browning was married to successful woman poet Emily Elizabeth Barret Browning, who was more successful than Robert Browning during their lifetimes, indicating that Browning clearly thought women to be capable of more than just housework, unlike many other Victorian poets, most notably Coventry Patmore, who wrote ‘The Angel in the House’ which described the perfect Victorian wife whose job it was to please her husband – “but him to please/Is woman’s pleasure”.

Both of the men in the poems might be so villainous you are not supposed to feel sorry for them, because they represent a larger problem in society rather than just individual stories. Although the Duke and Porphyria’s lover are both clearly villainous characters perhaps it is impossible to feel no sympathy at all towards them.

Both characters ultimately defeat their own desires; Porphyria ‘belongs’ to Porphyria’s lover for the short amount of time before her death is found out, and the Duke wanted the Duchess’ attentions to be focused only on him and his “Nine hundred years old name”, but how can this be achieved with the Duchess dead or locked away in a convent?

It is only a small amount of pity felt towards them for this, but they both are very self deceived and unable to see the reality of their actions and the world around them – for example Porphyria travels through the rain to see her lover in his “cottage” and he thinks that she is “too weak” to set herself free “From pride, and vain tides dissever/ and give herself to me forever”, however this might be feeling sympathy towards the situation overall not the men, because if they had understood what was really going on there would be no need for the women to have been killed.

Perhaps, also, before this episode their relationship was more normal, would Porphyria journey through harsh weather to visit someone she thought would not show kindness to her – however we cannot tell if she would as the story is told from Porphyria’s lover’s point of view. However violent and sinister the character of Porphyria’s lover is there is still a bit of sympathy felt towards him, he is consumed by jealous and wants Porphyria to be his alone, but because she has a higher social status than him this is not at all possible.

With the Duke the image of him running after the envoy – “Nay, we’ll go/together down sir” for me sums up just how pathetic the Duke’s life is, he feels his world with pictures by famous artists – “Claus of Innsbruck” and “Fra Pandolf” but yet he is unable to get what he wants, for his money and “nine hundred years old name” could not give him the Duchess’ undivided attention that he so craved.

His convoluted syntax, which is empathised by the frequent use of enjambment, and attempts to be subtle show very effectively how hollow his life is, which is most clearly shown when he is addressing the envoy about a possible marriage between himself and the daughter of another noble towards the end of the poem The Count your master’s know munificence Is ample warrant that no just pretence Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed At starting, is my object and perhaps this is the main reason that some sympathy is felt towards him. Overall, although both characters commit terrible deeds however some sympathy remains towards them, although this might be partly because the stories are told from the men’s point of view and we have to guess at the true events of each of the stories.

Overall I feel that although both men are quite clearly villains, with Porphyria’s love strangling Porphyria and appearing to feel no remorse at all, and the Duke sinisterly hinting at his was able to get rid of his last wife, it is impossible to feel no sympathy at all for them because they both have such hollow lives, in the case of the Duke, and would never have been able to achieve what they actually wanted – especially Porphyria’s lover who, because of his lower social status would never be able to marry Porphyria perhaps leading to his all consuming jealousy that led him to commit the murder.