Sympathy Towards a Conceited Duke?

                The Duke of Ferrara has a condescending, conceited attitude in the poem "My Last Duchess". He is the narrator of the story and speaks directly to the reader. The Duke causes us to have much sympathy for him even though he has such an offensive personality. Robert Browning makes us feel sympathy for this persona because his choice of Diction and syntax makes us read what he did but not fully acknowledge it. Browning’s choice of diction is selected in a time from the 1800s so the word choice is very timeworn. The use of words he picks may not be very clear to the reader, so we do not automatically get the hidden meaning of the poem. So we do not know that the Duke has eliminated his wife because she was flirtatious. Browning’s syntax also makes us feel sympathy for the Duke because at first he insinuates that his wife died of a tragedy. In line 1 he says, “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive” (Browning).  The reader may think that the Duke is mourning the death of his wife, but as you continue to read the reader realizes that the Duke was jealous of his wife and her enticing behavior towards other men.  You feel sympathy for him then again because he does not feel loved by his own wife. Robert Browning has the reader feel sympathy towards the Duke of Ferrara because his syntax and diction of the poem. 

-Tiana

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

Jealousy of the Duke

3. The trivial incidents that made the Duke want to kill his wife were mostly from her treating other men like she treated him.  In the poem the Duke says “all and each would draw from her alike the approving speech, or blush, at least.  She thanked men-good! But thanked somehow-I know not how-as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift.”  This is an insignificant reaction towards why the Duke should have killed his wife because maybe she was just a really nice woman to the other men.  Instead of just giving commands to kill her he should have dealt with the problems.  Another trivial incident was when the Duchess would always smile at everyone she passed including the Duke. This means that she was treating his royal self as any normal peasant and wasn’t getting any extra attention.  This is a really vacuous reason for why the Duke had his wife killed.  He was jealous because the duchess didn’t see him as a gift or even as a husband, but this doesn’t give the Duke the right to just execute her. She was a nice women that had never committed a transgressed before. There are more events leading to the Duchess's death and all of them to me are trivial.  All in all, the Duke used his story in a poem format to make his jealousy look less of the problem and to make it harder to understand what happened in order to make him look more innocent of the duchess's death.

Why The Duke's Last Duchess was the Duke's Last Duchess

Prompt 3 -
The Duchess was a very joyful person that valued  everybody equally with respect. She was always joyful. This would make the Duke impatient. The Duke wanted that his very own wife respect him, and enjoy his presence more than any other man. The duchess would thanked all men for their goods. including their willingness to break into fields to get her cherries, as well as their complements. The dutch was really jealous, claiming he wanted to exceed the other men. He had gifted her a nine - hundred year old name but she acted like it was any name. Thus, the dutch had her executed. In the poem, it says: "This grew; I gave commands; Then all the smiles stopped altogether." This implies that the duke did not want to live as if he was equal to other men. He also implies her execution using the fact that he was not subject to a trial in court.

 - Rahul Verma