The Duke's Relationship Problems

3.

         The Duke of Ferrara had an incident with his former duchess, and she’s now dead. There were a few incidents which led up to their breakaway, whether it was divorce or something much worse. They broke apart because the duke felt undervalued, and he proves this when he says, “Too easily impressed, she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere (Line 23-24)”. The duke is jealous that the duchess’ looks did not only go his way. But he’s not just jealous about looks, he’s jealous about her response to gifts. He states, “Somehow—I do not know how—she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift (Line 32-34)”. I believe this angered the duke so much he ended up executing her, when on Line 45 and 46 he says, “I gave commands. Then all the smiles stopped together”. I believe the command was death, and she stopped smiling when she knew she was going to die. There were a few events leading up to this event, but these really caused the anger in the duke.