Robert Browning

Robert Browning

Dramatic Monologue
- Specific speaker (individuated)
- Implied listener
- Dramatic scene of some kind
- Gap between what speaker says and reveals

My Last Duchess
- Duke of Ferrara
     - Was a historical person - though this is fiction
- Count's representative
     - his agent/ the listener
- Scene
     - Looking at painting
     - Duke wants to marry the Count's daughter
-Aristocractic, old name
- Pompous

Historical Placement
- Art
- Unreliable narrator
     - Often in play with dramatic monologue

Duke
- 900 year old name
- Pompous/ proud
- Jealous, possessive, and controlling
- Didn't get distinguished from others in wife's eyes
- Warning what he expects of his wife
- Art Collector, thus women collector
     - Bluebeard
- Desires trophies that adore him
- Unspoken expectations
     - rather off his wife than communicate