“My Last Duchess” as a Dramatic Monologue

 What is dramatic monologue? Evaluate Robert Browning's “My Last Duchess” as a Dramatic Monologue

“My Last Duchess” is a fantastic dramatic monologue composed by a great Victorian poet Robert Robert Browning. A dramatic monologue, traditionally, includes lyrical strain, abrupt beginning, single speaker, silent listener, psychological analysis and clues to suggest what the silent listener says or does. Now we will see how the poem contains all these elements of a dramatic monologue.

The poem begins with the dramatic suddenness:

“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive.”

The readers can understand that the event has begun earlier.  But the poem begins from the middle to make the start dramatic. As the poem progress, it becomes clear that only a single person speaks. The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara talking about his dead duchess’ portrait painted by Fra Pandlof. At several points of the poem, it becomes evident that there is a listener who remains silent. For example, when the Duke says:

“Will’t please you sit and look at her?”

Or

Will’t please you rise?

We understand that someone is present around him. Letter in the poem, we come to know that he is an emissary for that second marriage of the Duke.

 Throughout the poem the listener does not talk but his reaction are revealed through the Duke’s speech. For example, the clue to understand the surprise in the emissary’s face has been revealed by Duke himself:

“…so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir…” Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir…”

We know he doesn't ask anything but there has been a question in his expression.

The main principle controlling the form of a dramatic monologue is what the lyric speaker says to reveal his soul. In “My Last Duchess”, the Duke while talking about the duchess, he reveals his own mind. We understand that he is a possessive husband, a cruel person, a proud aristocrat, a greedy bridegroom:

“…she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift.
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody’s gift.… I gave commands
Then all smiles stopped together.” Then all smiles stopped together.”

 But he is also a connoisseur of art works. He further reveals that the duchess was an innocent easy-going lady.

“Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile?”

This analysis of Duke’s temperament are the essence the dramatic look.

To conclude our discussion we can say that, “My Last Duchess” is one the best examples of dramatic monologue.  It has all the elements that a dramatic monologue requires. 

This paper is prepared for you by Talim Enam, BA (Hons), MA in English.

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