Two Personalities in My Last Duchess :: My Last Duchess Essays

Two Personalities in My Last Duchess The poem "My Last Duchess" is about a powerful Duke, and his beautiful, flirtatious wife who has two different personalities, one that was reality and the other was the lady in the painting. The poem begins and ends with him mourning the loss of his deceased Duchess, but from the way that the mighty Duke speaks, he knows more about her death than he leads us to believe. The Duke chooses his word very carefully, when he talks to his friend about the painting of his wife. He only drops small hints, to his friend about the death of his Duchess. Which leads me to believe that the Duke killed his wife, or had someone to put her to her death. As the Duke speaks of his Duchess, in the beginning, he sounds extremely compassionate and caring towards her. The Duke had an absolute love for his Duchess as most husbands and wives do.   He sounded so proud of her and the beauty that she posed: almost like she was a trophy. Despite all of the pride and excitement that he showed towards her, there was an element of distrust that lingered inside of his mind. The Duchess created the element of distrust that was bestowed into the marriage. The Duke explained that his wife was extremely flirtatious and easily impressed. The Duke said, "Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere." This line is telling about the Duchess, as she was when she was alive. The Duke believes that his Duchess is a cheat, and that she doesn't try to hide it either. A husband can tell when his wife is interested in another man, cause she once looked upon him in that way she is looking upon her new male interest. The Duchess probably didn't know that her husband was watching her, while she was taking interest to her lovers. She may have thought that she and her male interest at the time were alone, cause not any woman, in that era would have been seen with another man besides their husbands. Given the fact that this poem dates back to the Duke and Duchess era, so they lived in an old fashioned world. The Duke believes his wife is not being faithful to him.