My Last Duchess

After reading “My Last Duchess” I am left wondering more about who the duke is? Why does he feel the need to be so possessive of his late wife’s painting? “His” Duchess has many desired attributes such as her “approving speech,” a heart, and was portrayed as a very happy lady. Instead of recollecting all of these good things about his Duchess he speaks about them with bitterness and jealousy; as she was “too soon made glad, / to easily impressed” (22, 23). The Duke sounds like a very unhappy man, one who covets the attributes and character of his late wife. His way of dealing with this is to possess her: “I gave commands” (45) and “My favor at her breast” (25) or “My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name” (33). This possession is only a way for him to cover up where he is lacking as bitterness and jealousy eat away at him.
Emera Gould