{"id":1610,"date":"2021-09-08T22:51:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T02:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1610"},"modified":"2021-09-08T22:53:51","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T02:53:51","slug":"1610","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2021\/09\/08\/1610\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Audley and “My Last Duchess”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe walked straight out of the house, this foolish old man, because there was some strong emotion at work and his heart – neither joy, nor triumph, but something almost akin to disappointment; some stifled and unsatisfied longing which lay heavy and dull at his heart, as if he had carried a corpse in his bosom. He carried the corpse of that hope which had died at the sound of Lucy\u2019s words. All the doubts and fears and timid aspirations were ended now. He must be contented, like other men his age, to be married for his fortune and his position\u201d (Braddon 17).<\/span><\/p>\n

This passage describes Michael Audley\u2019s emotions after his conversation with Lucy about if she loves him. Lucy\u2019s response was that she does \u201cnot love any one in the world\u201d, and this was reassuring to Michael (Braddon 17). In this passage, the word \u201ccorpse\u201d is repeated many times. The \u201ccorpse\u201d is referring to the emotional burden that Michael is feeling due to his uncertainty of whether Lucy loves him or not. Michael is also described as a \u201cfoolish old man\u201d, which could mean that Lucy is lying to him and does in fact love another person (Braddon 17). Michael wishes to be married to someone who truly loves him, and his hope for that \u201cdied at the sound of Lucy\u2019s words\u201d (Braddon 17). At the end of the passage, Michael accepts that he is being married for his wealth and status.<\/span><\/p>\n

This passage reminds me of Robert Browning\u2019s poem \u201cMy Last Duchess\u201d because it deals with marriage of people of different economic status. The poem depicts a wealthy duke reminiscing about his wife who has died. Like Michael, the Duke suspects that his late wife had possibly cheated on him or loved another person. In the end of Browning\u2019s poem, it says \u201cI gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands, As if alive\u201d This makes it seem like the Duke had her killed, possibly because she loved another man. This might be a stretch, but I wonder if Michael will do something similar to Lucy. This could also be why \u201ccorpse\u201d was repeated so many times in the passage as well.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe walked straight out of the house, this foolish old man, because there was some strong emotion at work and his heart – neither joy, nor triumph, but something almost akin to disappointment; some stifled and unsatisfied longing which lay heavy and dull at his heart, as if he had carried a corpse in his … Continue reading Michael Audley and “My Last Duchess”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4766,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4766"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}