Fatal Happiness

The Duke seems to be very insecure with his marriage and turns to methods of elimination to get rid of his Duchess. He does this because he feels as if his Duchess values other men as much as himself. The duke says this in the line 24 when he says “She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” The Duke feels as though he should be valued more than others. There are many situations where it seems questionable if the Duchess was faithful to the Duke. One of these times is when many other men could please her with gifts very easily. The Duke describes this in line 27 through 31 “The bough of cherries some officious fool/broke in the orchard for her…all and each/would draw from her alike the approving speech, / of blush at least…” The Duke felt as though he always gave the Duchess so much and she did not care. He states this in line 32 and 33 “ Somehow- I know not how –as if she ranked/ My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name/ with anybody’s gift.” These few incidents are simple things that made the Duke jealous of other men. The Duchess did not believe she was doing anything wrong but she later found out that these simple things were worthy of death.