Conventional Ideals of Masculinity and Irony in My Last Duchess Essay

Conventional Ideals of Masculinity and Irony in My Last Duchess

The dramatic monologue is used in this poem to highlight certain events that have deep irony. One of them being the irony the Duke presents to the audience about his Personality and the affection for History and arts. He is powerful and desires control over everything; he wants the audience to imagine of him as a powerful personality with great masculine traits that of pride and kind personality, but when the instance comes about his Duchess, who is glorious, but the Duke unable to control her smile and affection for him, he becomes vain and jealous. His kindness turns into vain and he is overcome by his jealousy which is not the conventional ideals of masculinity.

From the beginning of the poem we get an idea about the vain character of the Duke. The Duke admires his wife not when she was alive but now after she is dead. Thats my last Duchess painted on the wallThats a piece of wonder, now (5). The word now indicates that only now the Duke seems to glorify the beauty of his wife because while she was alive the Duke was unable to capture the glory for himself. She liked whateer she looked on (25), meaning she did not give the Duke any special treatment or likes him more than others. Here we have to be careful because these are the words of the Duke, who is in vain, probably this was the nature of the Duchess but the Duke seemed to hate this quality in her and that is why he comments this. Further he admires the painter, Fra Pandolf who captured the depth and passion of its earnest glance (meaning captured the Duchess glory accurately). The Duke tells the painter that he captured the Duchess right Spot of Joy (20) (meaning that right smile of hers which the Duke wanted from the Duchess only for him) of the duchess and painted it so well that now when the Duke looks at that painting he is able to capture all her glory which he was never able to get when the Duchess was alive.

But to myself they turned (since none puts by the curtains I have drawn for you, but I). Here the Duke strengthens his jealousy and the nature of his control over objects. He tells the audience that now I am the only one who can control her beauty and her smile. Now she is not able to give every man the same treatment which she used to when she was alive. Also that now not everyone will be able to see her because the Duke controls her glory by hiding her behind the Curtains. The Duke desires to be given special treatment because of his bloodline My gift of nine-hundred years old name (35) which is according to the Duke a very precious gift more than a beautiful sunset and other great things and desires that his wife gives him that treatment, which is clear he is asking for a favor (Lance). But the Duchess did not give him that treatment. And that she did not consider his gift to be of any value and considered it like any others gift (With anybodys gift (35)).

One main advantage of the dramatic monologue is that the since there is only one speaker, he can project different ideas and ironies easily to the reader without anyone to object him. He further he gives instances where he tries to give a negative image about Duchess. The Duke is at his best trying to give the audience a positive image about him, that he is a generous man who was ill-treated by his wife but forgets that the he is actually projecting his negative qualities instead of his Duchess. And this is an irony hidden in Brownings poem that also contradicts the conventional ideals of masculinity.

She had a heart how shall I say? - too soon made glad, too easily impressed; she liked whatever she looked on (20). here the Duke is portraying a negative and flirty image about his Duchess. He wants the reader to feel sympathy for him. Since he is a royalty but his wife did not give her any special treatment and instead was unfaithful to him. This is what the Duke hates in her and then he says This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles Stopped (45). This shows that the Duke out of his desire of controlling over everything uses his power to control his wife. Though it is unclear what the command is that is to murder or something else, is not clear. But it is clear that because of such unfaithfulness of his wife, he could go to any step to get control over what he wants.

The time he says This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles sopped together. There she stands As if alive. Willt please you rise? Well meet the company below, then. I repeat, The count your Masters known munificence The Duke is showing his powerful side to the person whom he is talking to. And this person is the one who is going to arrange his next marriage. The reason behind telling all this is to warn the Count that this Is ample warrant that no just pretence of mine for dowry will be disallowed meaning that as my last wife was flirtatious, and this annoyed me and I had her killed this is a warning that if my other woman also flirtatious, I will do the same with her.' (Barbara).

From the beginning till the end he boasts about his qualities and presents a powerful and superior image in front of the reader as well as to the father in law of the new bride ( the time when he says Well meet the company below indicates that the Duke has called upon the for a re-marriage). Besides this he even boasts about his History and shows the passion for art. He considers the painting of his Duchess as a glorious piece of art work. He further strengthens his claim by saying that even at his new marriage he will consider his new wife to be a glorious object. We can support this claim form the lines when he says Though his fair daughters self, as I avowed At starting, is my object (55), meaning that as he framed his wife due to her unfaithfulness to him and made it a piece of art similarly if this repeats he would not hesitate in making his new wife as another glorious piece of art work as he calls it an Object.

As earlier instances from the poem show that the Duke is a lover of art, and casts the painting of his Duchess as a glorious piece of art and shows his power through keeping her hidden in curtains. Similarly, when he says Notice Neptune, though Taming a sea horse he conveys that as Neptune tames the sea-horse, Neptune being a Roman God (Gemmette), which he addresses himself to show his power, taming a sea horse, the sea horse on the other side being a very small object as compared to the Neptune, he refers sea-horse to his wife whom he tames. Hence he brings out his image as a powerful personality. Transforming her uncontrollable spirit into an object of art and preserving her lovelinessas if she were aliveinto a medium over which he can exert complete controls (Arnold).

In conclusion to the critical analysis of brownings poem, it can be said that the dramatic monologue has been beautifully used to portray the irony that browning wanted the reader to imagine. The quality of the Duke and his Duchess both came out clearly yet hiding a few instances which were not very clear what the Duke meant to convey actually. Keeping in mind the real masculine traits we also find that the Duke even though trying to portray a masculine character, fails to put that image in the readers mind and instead the reader imagines him to be emotionally and physically weak.

Works Cited

Butler, Lance St. John. "My Last Duchess: Overview." Reference Guide to English Literature.

Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1991. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

Browning, Robert. My Last Duchess. Browning and Spera. Print. 8th Feb. 2011.

Gemmette, Elizabeth V. Brownings My Last Duchess: An Untenable Position.Studies in

Browning and His Circle. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 8th Feb. 2011.

MacMahon, Barbara. "Indirectness, Rhetoric and Interpretative Use: Communicative Strategies

in Browning's 'My Last Duchess.'." Language and Literature 5.3 (1996): 209-223. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 97. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

Markley, Arnold. "An overview of My Last Duchess." Poetry for Students. Detroit: Gale.

Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.