You have quoted the final section of this impressive and
rather chilling dramatic monologue, which reports how the "smiles" of the last Duchess
stopped completely after the Duke had given certain "commands," which we are meant to
understand referred to the death of his Duchess for his displeasure with her. The way in
which the Duke is able to comment on this in such an unaffected way and then carry on
the conversation as if nothing untoward has actually taken place adds to our impression
of the calculating and chilling nature of his character. He is certainly somebody that
believes he is so important that he can kill with
impunity.
Even more disturbing is the way that these final
lines reveal the identity and the purpose of the listener to this monologue. It is the
servant of another lord who is trying to marry his daughter to this Duke. This of course
forces us to re-examine the entire monologue and the purpose of the Duke for showing
this man the portrait of his last Duchess. He clearly is sending a message of the kind
of obedience and loyalty that he expects from a wife. The way that he describes "his
fair daughter's self" as his "object" reflects his objectification of women and how he
refuses to treat them as humans. As if to underline the point, the poem ends with the
Duke showing off yet another of his treasures in the form of a sculpture. Wives to him
are yet another art form to be owned and displayed according to his whims, and are never
allowed a reality of their own.
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