In My Last Douchess, by Robert Browning, the speaker starts off as a nice man. He slowly shows attitude as the poem goes on and also displays what a jealous man he is. “Her husband’s presence only, called that spot” (Browning, line 14) The speaker seems annoyed that his wife, in her portrait, gave the painter her special look. He thought that she should only share this with him.
The speaker is a duke who lost his wife to death. He is a control freak who is looking for a new wife. As he describes his former wife, the duchess, he shows just how jealous of a man he is. “Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule” (28) He shows how displeased he is by other men trying to impress her.
The speaker’s tone suggests that he is a rude man. He cares for nobody else’s happiness, but his own. “Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands” (45 & 46) The speaker seems like he liked to bring his duchess down a few pegs, he didn’t want her to be walking around smiling.
He is talking to an emissary. He wants the emissary to arrange a marriage between the Duke’s daughter and himself. “Though his fair daughter’s self, as I vowed” (52) I am not sure how convincing he has been though, the emissary probably saw what kind of husband he was to the douches and assumed that he would be the same to the counts daughter.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment