Robert Browning

10 Pages 2454 Words

hich his wife portrayed herself around others. He could not accept her civility towards those of unimportance and “a heart…how shall I say? …too soon made glad, / too easily impressed” (22-23). The Duke states that the Duchess was easily pleased by a compliment and through small favors from a servant or other insignificant people, a quality that the Duke could not tolerate.
“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.” (26-31)
The Duke felt that any pleasure she experienced should be drawn from him and that he should be the one single object of importance to her. This demonstrates his conceited nature that he should be the only focus of her life. “Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, / whene’er I passed her; but who passed without / much the same smile” (43-45)? The Duke views the Duchess as someone who would be courteous to all no matter what status they held. He does not share this opinion with the Duchess and he feels that no one of lower status should even be noticed. “She thanked men,--good; but thanked / somehow…I know not how…” (31-32). The Duke assumes that the Duchess gave men favors of herself and accuses her of being unfaithful to him. This reveals his jealousy towards other men and his paranoia that his wife would behave in such adulterous conduct.
The Duke is also very arrogant in his ways, a birthright that his title and name allow. He is not pleased that the Duchess does not see him in this manner and is rather bitter about it. “As if she ranked / my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / with anybody’s gift” (32-34). He resents the Duchess for not being grateful to have his name bestowed upon her and glory in the high social rank into which she married, but “who’d stoop to blame /...