"My Last Duchess"

In Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess" the speaker known as the Duke uses vague and inhuman words to describe his late wife, throughout his conversation with an emissary sent by the Count. Ideally, the speaker can be described as arrogant, bitter, proud, and possibly wicked. The speaker exhibits affluent lifestyles of the rich, famous, and powerful individual with family wealth and fortune. He states, “My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody's gift” (pg. 703). The speaker reminds the guest about his social class and old family inheritance. The speaker’s entire speech is about his late wife who since her death has been reduced to nothing, rather than another piece of his beautiful art objects. “That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf s hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands” (pg. 702-703). Unfortunately, such remarks about his former duchess reveal the true character of the duke as soulless and selfish individual who has no respect for the soul of his late wife. In a nutshell, the speaker is talking to an envoy from the Count who has been sent to negotiate another marriage. “The Count your master's known munificence is ample warrant that no just pretence of mine for dowry will be disallowed; though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed” (pg. 704). Ultimately, the speaker indirectly express what he expects from the new duchess and her family.