A story, or not A story?

In Li-Young Li's "A Story", the author uses foreshadowing and irony to develop the tension of the story, that the father cannot think of a new story for his young son, and doen't want to dissapoint him. The use of Irony in the story begins in the second stanza, when the poem says "In a room full of books, in a world full of stories, he can recall not one...". The ironic fact that the father cannot think of a single story, and doesn't want to dissapoint the boy by not having a story, while in a rooms full of stories he could tell, supports the tension because the father would feel like dissapointing the boy if he were to look for a new story. Foreshadowing is used because of the father's dread of not being able to think of a story, imagining "the day this boy will go. Hear the alligator story! the angel story once more! You love the spider story. you laugh at the spider. let me tell it! But the boy is packing his shirts". The father dreads that his dissapointment will make the boy grow up faster and leave him. The father doesn't want in any way to dissapoint his young son with a repeated story, or to have to look for a story, and so he finishes at a stalemate, being unable to think of one.

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 Duke Wants the Truth

The Duke does seem like a very negative character from the start especially when he says and he is very selfish. The duke must have been very overpowering especially when he describes how his wife died. The duke stated,” I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together”, In other words he was a very negative person. However he does value his art and the duke has certain values and expectations that he wants in art. I think these values consist of detail and truth. This is because the man really focuses on the small things such as the grin of his wife and what his wife is wearing. On line seven, the Duke says,” That pictured countenance, the depth and passion of its earnest glance” this is just one example of the many references to detail of the painting in the poem. Lastly, the duke values truth in his artwork, while most people have a blank look or they are smiling in a picture, his duchess has a pessimistic look. He does not want people with fake smiles or looks he wants something to be reminded of as he looks at the piece. Possibly, he would like to be reminded their character and what they were like in real life. Anyways, that’s what the duke values in his art.

The Duke be Tripping SCR #3

                     The Duke is easily angered and selfish.  He unnecessarily gets angry at frivolous things.  The Duke made his last wife “disappear”.  One the main reasons he did was because he felt his wife did not appreciate him enough.  He says, "She had A heart-how shall I say?- too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she like whate'er She looked on and he looks went everywhere... My favour at her breast, The dropping of daylight in the West, The bough of cherries by some fool."  He is being really jealous over something simple.  This jealousy leads to her disappearance.

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

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.

"My Last Duchess" Assignment

{Image source}

Select one of the following prompts, and write a short constructed response (here on the blog).  I would advise writing your response in a Word document, saving it to Google Docs or on your flash drive, and then copying and pasting it into a blog post. This is the best way to ensure that you do not lose your work if the blog freezes up. Don't forget to give your post an original title!

1. The Duke reveals himself to be an emotionally cold, calculating, materialistic, haughty, aristocratic connoisseur; on the positive side, he is a patron of such artists as Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck (both fictional). What does the duke value in art? What does he see as his role in the creation of great art?

2. The speaker is the arrogant, art-collecting Duke of Ferrara. We might even call him the protagonist, for, although we may not agree with him, we are virtually compelled to identify with him since he speaks directly to us, with a mediating narrator. How does Browning force us to place our sympathies with so objectionable a persona?


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?