Write a critical appreciation of Browning's poem 'My Last Duchess".

Write a critical appreciation of Browning’s poem ‘My Last Duchess”. Compare it with Browning’s Ulysses.

Ans.

A Dramatic Monologue

My Last Duchess is one of the best dramatic monologues of Browning. It is a profound dramatic piece which astounds critics for having been thought out and written by the poet at such an early age. The poem is remarkable for its psychological penetration into character.

A Renaissance Study

The poem presents a typical crafty character of the age of Renaissance, in the person of the Duke of Ferrara, who is the speaker of the monologue. He shows a portrait of his previous wife, who is dead, to the messenger of a Count whose daughter he wishes to marry. While commenting on the nature of the Duchess he unconsciously reveals the working of his own mind.

A Brief character sketch of the Duke

The Duke is a vain, jealous and a cold blooded murderer. He is an aristocrat, with an exaggerated sense of his dignity and greedy nature. A patron of art, he praises the portrait of his wife and a bronze statue he has got done to order. but his praise of these works of art also betrays his vanity. He is jealous of the ready smiles of his wife. He thinks it below dignity even to point out the simple faults of his wife to her. When he finds his wife not conforming to his own standards, he gets her murdered secretly. The Duke shows no signs of pity for her. He is so greedy that he tells the messenger that he is expecting a rich dowry from the Count.

Brevity and Simplicity

The poem is a superb example of compactness and condensation. Browning’s famous critic, Philips, points out that though the poem consists only of 56 lines the story suggested in it could have covered thousands of pages. In swift, broad strokes of genius, Browning gives us an insight into the Renaissance period, its customs and the unscrupulousness of the rulers of that age.

Poetic Qualities

The poem is interesting from the point of view of metre. It is written in heroic couplet, a style so commonly associated with Pope. But, whereas in Pope, the rhymes are pronounced like regular hammer strokes, here the rhymes are hardly noticeable. The sense runs so smoothly from line to line that the rhymes become muffled or concealed.

“….She thanked men, – good; but thanked

Somehow I know not how-as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred years old name

With anybody’s gift, who’d stoop to blame

This sort of trifling.”

Pictorial Qualities

Browning’s descriptive genius is in evidence in this poem. Some of the lines present striking word-pictures.

She smiled ……………. the same smile.”

“The depth and passion of its earnest glance’, the ‘spot of joy”, “the faint half flush that dies along her throat, the statue of Neptune ‘tanning a sea horse’ are word-pictures which have a compelling effect on the reader’s imagination. A touch of pathos is noticeable in this poem.

My Last Duchess is one of the greatest dramatic monologues of Browning but it is by no means the only one. Indeed, almost his entire poetry at least his great poetry is written in this form. Browning is the greatest master of this from and is at his best when writing in it. Unlike Shakespeare, he cannot show many characters together in action. His greatness lies in taking hold of a single character and presenting him in such a way that his soul very is laid bare before us. As a critic says, “He would take a character, get inside it and make, it speak in such a way that it expresses its whole personality, history and philosophy.”

In the fifty-six lines of the poem, the poet besides presenting a situation, gives a ruthless analysis of the Duke’s character. His jealously, his greed, his masterlines, nobility of his lineage all are admirable comment – only the Duke speaks. The picture is thus built up with the help of little touches of character which are insignificant in themselves but which gain intensity in this poem.

Comparison with Ulysses

Ulysses and My Last Duchess are two of the best examples of dramatic monologues written by browning. Ulysses is supposed to be talking to his sailors. He is caught at the moment when he is about to leave on another expedition. In the course of what he says we come to know what he is about, what sort of man he is and what he believes. Similarly, My Last Duchess presents the Duke as talking to the messenger of a Count whose daughter he wants to marry. He talks to him of his last Duchess-i.e., his wife who is now dead. In the course of fifty-six lines, he has not only set forth this situation, but also gives a masterly analysis of the Duchess’s character through what he himself talks.

Prof. Jabir Jain writes, ‘the poem tells the story of possessiveness and the consequent murder. Written in the form of a dramatic monologue, the speaker is an Italian Duke of the Renaissance period. The listener is a messenger who has come with a marriage proposal. The reader is exposed to a multifaceted examination of the act of murder. The Duke’s possessive passion for collecting objects of beauty, his sense of refinement and aristocratic pride do not only contrast with his cruelty and material greed, but also provide in an uncanny way the explanation for it. In a brief span of fifty-six lines, the characters of the Duke, his dead wife and of the period are delineated very skillfully – at times with the help of parenthesis, colloquial diction and broken syntax.

(1) “She had / A heart…. how shall I say?…….too soon.”

(2) She thanked man-good; but thanked somehow…..I know not how……………”