The sense of pride and possession in the Duke of “My Last Duchess”
The Duke of Ferrara in “My Last Duchess” is the embodiment of pride and possession that is verbalized through his attitude and collection of paintings. Robert Browning chooses the best way to introduce the self-representing duke through the dramatic monologue of him who fathered him. The hiring of Fra Pandolf and Claus from Innsbruck, two imaginary sculptors, the collection of paintings, the ‘nine-hundred-year-old name’ fame, Neptune taming a seahorse, all represent his pride and controlling attitude.
The Duke likes the painting of his last Duchess more than she did when she was alive, as he now has full control over her portrait. He can uncover the curtain and enjoy her smile whenever he wants. He wanted her to smile only at him and she didn’t tolerate it with anyone else. He thought that his ‘nine hundred year old name’ fame should make him happy. But she was common and smiled with the common present of any common person. Her heart could be gladdened by anything common. He did not distinguish between the duke’s adornments, “the fall of daylight in the west”, and the “cherry branch” of “some unofficial fool”.
The duke did not want to lower himself to correct her but gave the order and ‘all the smiles stopped together’. The portrait of her is “alive”, but when she was alive she was nothing more than a subject of shame for the duke. As a duke, he did not love his duchess, but instead gave orders that reflected her cruelty. He regarded the duchess as his possession and hoped that she would not follow anyone other than the duke.
Of course he has an aesthetic sensibility and a love of art. He described every detail of “the depth and passion of his serious gaze” from the Duchess of him to the envoy. But it’s no use looking for lives by killing a living. On the duke’s ground floor there is a sculpture of Neptune taming a seahorse that expresses nothing more than the duke’s tamer and controlling mentality. It is what the duke wanted and it is what he will want too.
The Duke also has possessiveness and pleads with his indirect expectation of dowry from the Count. He says ‘through the me of his beautiful daughter’, but it is really for himself. His feeling of pride is that he is the Duke, not the common one. His sense of ownership is that he believes everyone is under his power and control.