My Last Duchess by Robert Browning tells the story of a duke who has taken an advisor from another nobleman whose daughter the duke is trying to marry. On his tour, the duke runs across a portrait of his ex-wife. This is not his last wife because it is his final love; she was his most recent. This seems to imply that this is a constant string of marriages and murders for him, and the woman that we see in this portrait is his latest victim. The meeting with the advisor suggests he is not slowing down. This oppressive violence towards women becomes even more insidious when one takes into account that the possessive nature does not end at the death of the duchess. The painting itself is an act of violence against the woman, for it takes away her autonomy as it both stills and silences her. She is objectified in a literal sense. Trapped within the oil paints bought by the duke’s wealth, she is his forever. His wealth and standing allowed him to marry her in the first place, allowed him to capture her image, and allowed him to kill her without consequence. He even covers her with a curtain so that he alone may be allowed to dictate who is allowed to see her “(since none puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)” (Browning). However, I think that the last three lines of the poem give the clearest demonstration of Browning’s intentions with this poem. Neptune taming a seahorse, a wild beast, made into a trophy, a possession. Similar to how the duke sought to tame his last duchess. Obvious symbology aside, how the duke talks about the trophy of Neptune is at the same level of grandeur as how he talks about his dead wife, and he moves on from her with startling ease. She is no more than a horse cast in bronze to him.
Help Me I’m Trapped Inside of This Computer,
Carmine “Red” Zingiber
Red, I find your comment really interesting and insightful. I’m particularly interested in your last remark, where you compare the duchess to the seahorse that Neptune tames. I think what is interesting about Neptune is that he is both in a position of power (like the duke, as you suggest) but he is also one of the duke’s possessions (like the duchess). I wonder what that complex position might suggest about not only him, but the duchess, as well. For instance, she gains the “nine-hundred-years-old-name” that her husband prizes above all else and society admires, but by gaining her husband’s name, she simultaneously loses her own name along with her autonomy.