Robert-Browning-My-Last-Duchess-賞析.docx

The speaker in the poem is the Duke of Ferrara. Browning appears to have modeled him after Alfonso II dEste, the fifth Duke of Ferrara, Italy. At the age of 25, he married. But his wife died suspiciously within two years of their marriage.In the poem the Duke is giving the emissary of the family of his prospective new wife a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife. As they look at the portrait of the late Duchess, the Duke describes her happy, cheerful and flirtatious nature, which had displeased him. He says, She had a heart how shall I say? too soon made glad. He goes on to say that his complaint of her was that twas not her husbands presence only that made her happy. Eventually, I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together. The Duke then resumes an earlier conversation regarding wedding arrangements, and in passing points out another work of art, a bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse.Characters of the Duke: cruel, jealous, selfish, possessive, cold, peremptory, autocratic, intolerant, hypocritical, imperious, seemingly proud of his art, having a strong mind of noble class.Though there are few lines describing the duchess, these lines provide a glimpse of her characters. She is innocent, kind, optimistic, mild-mannered, and grateful to life and people.The Duke thinks that he is dignified, noble, elegant and an aristocrat having great passion for art, but the duchesss behavior is undignified and “trifling”. She always smiles toward others, blushes hearing praise and admiration.Robert Browning is an expert at talking with imaginary speakers, and he finds the dramatic monologue to be the expression form that best suited for his genius in analyzing unusual personalities. In Brownings hands, the dramatic monologue became an instrument for revealing character in a dynamic context rather than in a static one. What the Duke thinks about himself is quite different from what I think about him. So is his opinion of the Duchess. The poem is a pentameter constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of lines-heroic couplet except last two lines. Browning uses enjambment to show the Dukes wavering mentality. In the first sentence of the poem the Duke talks about his dead wife peacefully. I dont think he feels sad. He is cold. The line “since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you” manifests his jealousy and autocracy: only he can put by the curtain; only he can appreciate this picture; only he can own his wife and his wifes smile. From what he says we can know that his wife is pretty and optimistic. But he cannot even accept such nice personalities, which shows that he is intolerant. “Whod stoop to blame This sort of trifling? Even had you skill in speech” he thinks himself is noble, eloquent and he disdains to rebuke his wifes behavior. But he finally makes an order to stop “trifling” behavior, which shows his arrogance, and hypocrisy. He is treating the duchess as his personal property. He is selfish and self-centered. He wants an absolute control over his wife. Isnt he hypocritical and imperious? He is quite proud of his art collection and seems love art, as he shows his guest around his collection. But from the last sentences, we can know that the Duke only concerns for valuable articles, not for arts sake. His attitude toward art is not sincere. And the paint of his wife is not a painting in memory of her, but just one of the collections which he can show to others. Just after talking about his late wife, the Duke then resumes an earlier conversation regarding wedding arrangements, which proves his ruthlessness and greed for money. Maybe also he wants to indicate that he expects his new wife a “dignified” one, or else she may have the same fate as the late Duchess. “his fair daughteris my object.” here “object” is a pun: it means aims or purpose, and physical object, something not alive. Female in the Dukes eyes is materialized, just like the paint, the dowry, the Neptune, the Taming a sea-horse.As for the duchess, she is not trifling as the Duke thinks. The words from the painters “called that spot of joy”. She is pure, innocent, and bashful. “she liked whateer she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” “the dropping of the daylight in the West”, “ the bough of cherries” “the white mule she rode with” make her blush. She loves nature and life. “not plainly set Herself wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse” she is mild-mannered. “she smiled, no doubt, Wheneer I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? The Duchess smiles to everyone passing her without discrimination, which shows her enthusiasm.The line “all smiles stopped together” may manifest the duchesss death. People believe that the duke has killed the duchess. However, when Browning was asked about the final fate of the duchess, he firstly said “yes, the demand is to kill the duchess.” After a while, he turned his answer into that “perhaps the Duke will imprison the duchess in a convent.” There is no need for Browning to tell us what on earth happened to the Duchess, there is no right or the ultimate explanation existing but the readers self-exploration. We can formulate a viable interpretation of the poem. As Browning once put it “The creation of the poem is to reside the infinite into the finite.”Browning didnt tell us what happened to the Duchess, but he did depict some characteristic of the Italian Renaissance, though it was not purport to show the view of marriage or something else during the Renaissance. The Italian Renaissance was the earliest manifestation of the general European Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement that began in Italy during the 14th century and lasted until the 16th century. In that period of time, magnificent art can be created, as in the poem the paint of the Duchess, and Neptune. At that time, noble class like the Duke still exercised absolute power. But the Duchesss attitude towards the nobles reflects that she stands for the democracy influenced by the Renaissance (against the capitalist class). It is worth mentioning the Dowry Funds System. Dowry had social and symbolic function. The scale of dowry shown the identityandst