My Last Duchess

The speaker in “My Last Duchess” is a very narcissistic man. He rants and raves about his last Duchess “as if she were alive” (line 2), but he is merely talking up his painting and the fact that some well know artist has painted it. He is more proud of his painting than of his beloved dead wife. He is a controlling man, and an even more controlling husband. He states that his wife had “A heart – to soon made glad” (line 22), this represents his self centeredness. This man saw his wife as an object and not a woman who was just a naturally happy person. She seemed to like everybody and this drove him insane. He also appears to be of a higher social status, as he clearly lets whomever he is talking to know. He makes sure to let them know that he gets only the finest things in life, and that he is the one calling all the shots. The more he talks about his late wife the more he sounds like a self centered little man; he doesn’t have any confidence in his wife or himself. He thinks because he is giving her his “nine-hundred-years-old-name” (line 33) she should just succumb to the life being his eye candy. His grossness is proven when he has his wife killed; he obviously is more concerned with his social standing than finding true love.