Journal Entry 5
In the poem “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, it is composed in the form of the dramatic monologue spoken by an individual Alfonso II, the fifteenth-century duke of the Italian city of Ferrara, describing the portrait of his wife. The duke says, “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive” (Browning). This tells the readers that the duke’s wife has passed away, but he admires the portrait of her when he looks at it, and it is as though she is still alive. The duke seems to as though enjoy the portrait of his wife more than when she was alive. He explains that, “She had a heart- how shall I say? - too soon made glad, too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere” (Browning). He explains that she had a heart that won the hearts of many and wherever she went, so it aggravated him very much. He also says, “I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together” (Browning). It is as though he loathed all the smiles she was giving to other people than to only him, so the portrait of her made him satisfied because she was now smiling for him only. The duke seems to treat his wife as an object for only his eyes to look at when he says, “Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed as staring, is my object” (Browning). In the end of the poem, the duke also mentions Neptune and his sea-horse saying, “Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse” (Browning). He compares her to a sea-horse and himself as Neptune as though he is trying to tame and control her. The portrait of her satisfies him because now she is his pocession and his to look at only.