Text C My Last Duchess

Robert Browning

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive.I call

That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandol f’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus.Sir, ’twas not

Her husband’s presence only, called that spot

Of joy into the Duchess’cheek: perhaps

Fra Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps

Over my lady’s wrist too much,”or “Paint

Must never hope to reproduce the faint

Half-flush that dies along her throat”: such stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

For calling up that spot of joy.She had

A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, 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,—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.Who’d stoop to blame

This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech—(which I have not)—to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the mark” —and if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,

—E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop.Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together.There she stands

As if alive.Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet

The company below, then.I repeat,

The Count your master’s known munificence

Is ample warrant that no just pretence

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object.Nay, we’ll go

Together down, sir.Notice Neptune, though,

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

1.List some of the devices used in the poem and provide examples and deductions.Feel free to add other rows if you wish.

2.Answer the following questions on the text?

1)What historical event is this poem based on?

2)Who is the speaker/the audience in the poem?

3)How does Browning have the Duke himself subtly reveal this location and the general circumstances under which he addresses the envoy?

4)What does he value in art? What does he see as his role in the creation of great art?

5)The Duke has been described as both “disdainful”and “proud”.Other terms that might be applied to his character are “hubristic”and “megalomaniacal”.Explain with reference to the poem how each of these adjectives is appropriate.

6)Despite his depravity, what is pathetic about the Duke?

7)What is dramatic monologue and how does Robert Browning use it successfully in his poem My Last Duchess?

8)The statue of Neptune (“a rarity”) taming a seahorse may be regarded as a symbol of brutal male domination of the beautiful and natural.How might we regard this statue as representing the Duke?

9)Why does the Duke find the portrait of his late wife preferable to the living original?

10)Why is the form of the poem (iambic pentameter couplets) both appropriate to the characterization of the speaker and effective in presenting him as a Renaissance “type”?

3.Group work: Character portraits.

1) Read through the poem in groups of three.

Each one of the group should take the perspective of one person within the poem:

·The Duchess

·The Count’s envoy

·Brother Pandolf

2) Present a dramatic monologue based on the characters you chose.

3) Write a character profile of the Duke as a group.

Notes

1. Critical Realism:The critical realism of the 19th century flourished in the forties and in the beginning of fifties.The realists first and foremost set themselves the task of criticizing capitalist society from a democratic viewpoint and delineated the crying contradictions of bourgeois reality.But they did not find a way to eradicate social evils.Representative writers of this trend include Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray and so on.

2. Charles Dickens (1812-1870):He was an English writer and social critic who is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period and the creator of some of the world’s most memorable fictional characters.During his lifetime Dickens’s works enjoyed unprecedented popularity and fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was fully recognized by critics and scholars.His novels and short stories continue to enjoy an enduring popularity among the general reading public.

3. Agatha Christie (1890-1976):She was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays.She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and more than 15 short story collections (especially those featuring Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple), and her successful West End plays.

4. Dramatic Monologue:A monologue is a lengthy speech by a single person.Dramatic monologue does not designate a component in a play, but a type of lyric poem that was perfected by Robert Browning.By using dramatic monologue, a single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment.For example, Robert Browning’s famous poem My Last Duchess was written in dramatic monologue.

5. Robert Browning (1812-1889):He was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.Browning is often known by some of his short poems, such as Porphyria’s Lover, My Last Duchess,Rabbi Ben Ezra, How They Brought the Good News to Aix,Evelyn Hope,The Pied Piper of Hamelin, A Grammarian’s Funeral, A Death in the Desert.

For Fun

Works to Read

1. Adam Bede (1859):It is the first novel written by George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans).It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time.The novel has remained in print ever since, and is used in university studies of 19th century English literature.Immediately recognized as a significant literary work, Adam Bede has enjoyed a largely positive critical reputation since its publication.

2. Great Expectations (1860):It is a novel by Charles Dickens.It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip.The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens’weekly periodical All the Year Round, from December 1860 to August 1861. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and the story genre is Victorian Literature.It is set among the marshes of Kent and in London in the early-to-mid 1800s.

Movies to see

1. Vanity Fair (2004):It is a British-American costume drama film directed by Mira Nair and adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel of the same name.The novel has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations, and Nair’s version made notable changes in the development of main character Becky Sharp.The film was nominated for “Golden Lion”Award in 2004 Venice Film Festival.

2. Oliver Twist (2005) :It is a British drama film directed by Roman Polanski.The screenplay by Ronald Harwood is based on the 1838 novel of the same title by Charles Dickens.The film was preceded by numerous adaptations of the Dickens book, including several feature films, three television movies, two miniseries, and a stage musical that became an Academy Award-winning movie.

Song to Enjoy

Home

by Michael

Another summer day

Has come and gone away

In Paris or Rome

But I wanna go home

May be surrounded by

A million people I

Still feel all alone

Just wanna go home

I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters

That I wrote to you

Each one a line or two

I’m fine baby, how are you?

I would send them but I know that

It’s just not enough

My words were cold and flat

And you deserve more than that

Another airplane

Another sunny place

I’m lucky I know

But I wanna go home

I got to go home

Let me go home

I’m just too far from where you are

I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living

Someone else’s life

It’s like I just stepped outside

When everything was going right

And I know just why

You could not come along with me

This was not your dream

But you always believed in me

Another winter day

Has come and gone away

In either Paris or Rome

And I wanna go home

Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by

A million people I

I still feel alone

Let me go home

I miss you, you know

Let me go home

I’ve had my run

Baby I’m done

I gotta go home

So let me go home

It’ll all be alright

I’ll be home tonight

I’m coming back home