The speaker in "My Last Duchess" is a man who is speaking about a portrait of his wife who has passed on. In the fact that she is on the wall and in the first sentence is explained, "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall," gives the reader the belief that he has money. At first one believes he is explaining and reliving the love he had for her. When one reads, "My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name," if you haven't already, you begin to think he is more about his money, title, and one should be so lucky to be with him.
His tone seems rather condescending at times and makes it hard to like him.
It is a difficult poem to understand. The love of his Duchess is apparent throughout the reading, though is it true love he speaks of for her or having her hang on the wall only for himself to see?
Reading the poem and the information preceding it is given away that he is speaking to an emissary who is there to arrange the second marriage of the speaker of the poem.
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