Robert Browning's The Last Duchess
... Duke. The Duke continues to go on about the Duchesses’ numerous flaws and how she didn’t treat her right and Browning makes sure that the reader feels sorry for the Duke that he was treated so horribly. But as he gets further and further into his rant it seems as though he was angry with the Duchess. He says, “I choose never to stoop,” implying that he thought the Duchess was way below him and he was superior to her. The duke was unhappy that the kindness she showed to everyone else was not shown to him and he and his 900 year old name deserved better. Browning makes it out almost so that the reader thinks, without directly saying, that the Duke killed his Duchess himself. “Then all smiles stopped altogether,” the bluntness by which this line is said makes you think that her death was not an accident. Then finally Browning just kills all feeling altogether and gives the reader a little time to reflect by changing the subject to the Duke’s next wife. He is searching for another wife. As they are leaving he once again demonstrates his proud nature by bragging of a statue he has in his home. Browning’s use of sympathy and constant portrayal of different emotions is what made ‘the Last Duchess’ such a good example of his excellence in the dramatic monologue technique. Browning conveys the speakers’ attitude towards the Duchess by changing his tone throughout the monologue. The poem starts off as I stated above with the Duke in a seemingly good mood describing his wife’s painting and bragging about who painted it. He speaks in good manner about his wife until he reaches a certain point in the poem. This is where Browning decided he needed to show the Duke’s unhappiness with his Last Duchess. The tone changes to a sarcastic, condescending, almost angry tone. He starts to complain about the way she was always around other men and he wasn’t the only one who made her smile like that. He starts to rant and rave about the way she ‘disgraced’ his name and he really starts to become quite bitter. By using many examples of her behavior Browning does a good job of reinforcing the point into the readers head that she was not a great Duchess. He shows the speakers bitterness well by the strength of some of the words that he uses. He doesn’t use soft words but instead hard, harsh words to make sure that the listener in the poem and the person readi...