There are lots of personal pronouns in this poem, as one
might expect in this situation but in this case they are
significant as one of the themes is the narrator's high
opinion of himself and his selfishness.
The ex-wife is almost refered to as an object, like at
the begining where he says "that is my wife"
This could mean that he does not have much
respect respect for the woman
THEMES
Pride is not an attractive quality: the
Duke's arrogance comes across quite
clearly when talking about himself and
his things.
Being upper class and having good morals don't
necessarily go together: people of great wealth
and breeding often considered themselves to be
morally superior to others - the Duke shows that
isn't the case.
Money and possessions aren't
everything: he might have a wonderful
house, terrace, orchard, paintings and
statues but his paranoia about his late
wife comes across and reflects his
insecurity.
The poem uses dramatic irony where the writer
drops little hints that the Duke has killed his
ex-wife whereas the guest doesnt. he does this
by frequently saying something related to her
state of being
This changes our opinion even further of the Duke as it
portrays him as a murderer or something along those lines
Context
Robert Browning (1812-1889) was heavily influenced as a
youngster by his father's extensive collection of books and
art. His father was a bank clerk and collected thousands of
books, some of which were hundreds of years old and
written in languages such as Greek and Hebrew.
He was a big fan of the poet Shelley and
asked for all of Shelley's works for his
thirteenth birthday.
My Last Duchess is an example of this and it also
reflects Browning's love of history and European
culture as the story is based on the life of an
Italian Duke from the sixteenth century.
Structure
This is one long speech, pretending to be a conversation
t is divided up into rhyming couplets but to
mimic unrehearsed speech there are lots of
twists and turns within the lines, shown by a
variety of punctuation
The poem is structured like a block
This could be interpreted like a photo frame as almost
all of the poem, it is talking about a photo