The Duke's Revenge

3. The Duke eliminated (divorced? sent to a convent? had executed or poisoned?) his last duchess because (he felt) she undervalued him and treated him much as she treated other men. Which trivial incidents in particular seem to have produced this response in the Duke?

            The Duke is a cold and controlling man who, if the object is not up to his standards, he sees it as worthless and must be removed. He similarly treated his last Duchess as an object, and because she undervalued him, he eliminated her. The incident in particular that created the particular response was her treating him the same as everyone else, when “she smiled…Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile?” The Duke was treated the same as her other male admirers- men who “broke in the orchard for her” were the same as the man who gave her the “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”. His love for the Duchess was unrequited, so he “gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together”. The Duchess was finally eliminated, because the Duke felt that no smiles were better than the generic ones. 

The Duchess's Mistake

(Prompt #3)

The Duke eliminated his wife, the Duchess; because he felt she treated him just like all other men, and not as her husband. One event that suggests this is when the duke describes her in the terrace, riding a white mule, thanking a man for getting her cherries. She also received several compliments from other men, and gladly thanked them for them.

 “The white mule she rode with round the terrace-all and each would draw from her alike the approving speech, or blush at least. She thanked men”

 This angered the Duke very much, (even though saying thank you doesn’t mean that she is in love with another man) and provoked him to have her executed. 

The Duke's Jealousy

3. The Duke of Ferrara is a conceded man. He disposed of his wife because he felt that she treated him just like all other men, not like her husband. Two examples of this is on lines 22 23 where it states, “A heart-how shall I say?-too soon made glad,” and “Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er.” These lines are talking about how easily she was amused or impressed by other men who were not the Duke. She gave smiles to all of them in the same way and appreciated their efforts. On line 27 it says, “The bough of cherries some officious fool.” This is talking about how some unimportant fool in the Duke’s eyes, and the Duchess appreciated it just as much as his, “gift of a nine-hundred years old name” which is the marriage between them and the title of Duchess. The Duke becomes so jealous and angry that he finally decides to execute his wife. One lines 45 and 46 the Duke says, “I gave commands; Then all the smiles stopped together.” The Duke knew now that the Duchess would never again smile, at any man, or at himself.

-John-Michael Osley

Question 3: Trivial Incidents Against the Duke

3. The Duke eliminated (divorced? sent to a convent? had executed or poisoned?) his last duchess because (he felt) she undervalued him and treated him much as she treated other men. Which trivial incidents in particular seem to have produced this response in the Duke?

             The Duke seemed to be pleased with the beauty of his wife but unimpressed with her “defining qualities”. He felt as though she undermined him as a man and as a husband treating other men the same as he; he took this in a way of him having insignificance. In the poem he referenced, “A heart-how shall I say?-too soon made glad, too easily impressed.” This would make any man feel unimportant. He would have been put into a trivial position of not feeling the same as other men she conversed with. This could also be interpreted as her only liking the Duke because she liked everything about everyone. This would have struck anger into any man. This would be what eventually caused him to snap and “eliminate” his Duchess.

-Cooper Snowbarger

Browning And His Trickery

(2) The way that Browning makes us fell sympathy for a character who seems incontrovertibly ignorant is by giving us only one view. An example of this is is a campaign commercial for a candidate, they only give the view of one person that way the audience votes for them, similar to what Browning is doing. If the poet gave us another character to get a good sense of the Duke, then our view of them would probably be different. Also, no other character can highlight the speakers character so we cannot get an appropriate view of how the speaker killed her or how he really feels about her or even if this type of obsession is okay in this setting. An example of a moment that were easily persuaded to have feelings for her is,"The Count your master's known munificence is ample warrant that no just pretence of mine for dowry will be disallowed..."  For all we know, it could be a ritual of some sort to mourn over someones death which is why we feel sympathy for the speaker, because we make up excuses for him because we don't believe what he is doing is appropriate without knowing the views of the other characters.    

A trivial matter

During the poem, the Duke eliminated the duchess for such a trivial matter as the fact that the duchess would smile the same to everyone, saying to the reader ""oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, whenever I passed her; but who passed without much the same smile? this grew; I gave the commands, then the smiles stopped together."(The last duchess, Robert browning). this phrase shows that just because the duchess was being as kind to all as she was to him, he had her "eliminated". Also, earlier in the poem it states that "all and each would draw from her alike the approving speech... She thanked them" The duke was angered by the fact that other men were flirting with his wife, and saw her thanking them as an insult to his authority by the duchess. After The duke had seen this and the smiling at everyone, he felt the problem was growing and must stop so he had her "eliminated.
-Response to Prompt 3

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.