Option B: "My Last Duchess"

The speaker in “My Last Duchess”, by Robert Browning reveals himself to be a possessive and jealous man. The speaker is a duke that is trying to arrange a marriage with the count through the word of an emissary. His last wife died and he keeps the painting of her hidden for no one else to see but himself, which proves he is obsessive of her. The duke realized that the painter caught a special look on his wife’s face and doesn’t like that either, because that look should be only for him to see. He claims his wife had a heart “too soon made glad”, “Too easily impressed” (line 22). The duke’s tone and choice of words suggest that his state of mind is a complexity of selfish, controlling, and obsessive thoughts and actions. Everyone smiled back at her whenever she smiled. “Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,/Whenever I passed her; but who passed without the same smile?” (43-45). He couldn’t handle seeing the attention she got from others so he “gave commands” and “all smiles stopped together” He only shares information with the emissary that he wants to be taken back to the count, making himself look like a good man; however, the readers see otherwise. The duke claims to be an unskilled speaker, “Even had you skill in speech—(which I have not)—to make your will” (35-36). Even so, he cleverly turns the conversation around with the emissary at his own advantage to look impressive, proving to be a selfish man with not only his wife but with everything he does.

Erika Knutson