My Last Duchess-Qs-Ans-The Duke's Character

 The tyranny, pride, and greed of the Duke have been shown in sharp contrast to the good nature of the Duchess. Explain.

 Or The Duke’s Character

Ans. The poem” My Last Duchess’ is in the form of a dramatic monologue. It very beautifully depicts the contrast between the characters of the Duke and his former wife, the Duchess.

The Duke’s character has been an epitome of the evils like tyranny, pride, and greed, while the Duchess has been shown as a woman full of human values like kindness and sympathy. Let’s discuss both of these characters; in sharp contrast to each other.

The Duke’s cruelty and tyranny come to the surface when he talks to the envoy about his previous wife, the Duchess.

First of all, we find the Duke’s possessive nature,  which makes him a despotic husband.

The use of the possessive adjective ‘my’ in the line ‘‘That's my last Duchess” shows his possessive nature in the very beginning. He considers his wife his personal property.

The Duke did not allow an ordinary artist to execute the work of painting the portrait of his late wife. He willingly engaged a monk, who is supposed to have won over his physical desires. Here also, we may say that the Duke was a man of jealous nature. He did not like other men to have a close look at his wife’s beautiful face. He appears to be a tyrant, who did not allow his wife the very basic freedom of life.

Indirectly also, the Duke suggests to the Count’s messenger that he would like strict discipline from his would-be wife while behaving with ordinary people. He was not at all democratic in his ideas. He did not believe in the goodness of a human heart. That is the reason why he could not appreciate the inner beauty of the Duchess.

The Duke was also class-conscious. He believed in social discrimination while his wife believed in equality. She had a simple and innocent heart.

‘Then all smiles stopped together: This single line of only ‘five words’ contains “the tragedy of a whole life” in a little space, says Robinson, a famous critic. It means a lot. When the Duke could not further tolerate the duchess’ liberal behaviour with others, it may be guessed clearly that he passed orders to kill her. In this way, her smiles were stopped forever. Thus we see

The Duke also exhibits several Renaissance qualities that surely are appreciable. First, he admires the portrait of his wife. It shows his love for art. After that, the Duke starts moving downstairs. The messenger gives the Duke way, but he tells him politely that both of them would go together downstairs.

As the Duke starts to step down, he indicates to the messenger to see a bronze statue of Neptune. He tells the messenger that it was a rare piece of art carved by the famous sculptor Claus of Innsbruck. Thus, it shows that the Duke has a great love for art.

But his greed, hypocrisy, possessive nature, jealousy, and cruelty overshadow his qualities.