Jealousy and Self-Love in My Last Duchess by Robert Browning Essay

Robert Brownings dramatic poem My Last Duchess defines how extremely a person may lose hang with reality, as a result of jealousy and self-love. This aboriginal thought is achieved through an aristocrats conversation with a visitor concerning a painting of his ex-wife within the conversation, the aristocrat--Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara--reveals that he has been a key figure in the murder of his late wife. The Dukes sense of reality and his misuse of power stand as important facets within the fabrication of the central idea.The Duke almost seems to be encouraging the reader to focus on the fact that his sense of reality is defective. He begins pressing this notion to the reader within the earliest stages of the poem, while talking to the visitor about a portrait of his murdered wife I call that piece a wonder now Fra Pandolfs hold worked busily a day, and there she stands(Browning 695-696). Upon reading this so early in the Dukes conversation, the reader is taken back how could an individual be more interested in the quality of work in a piece of art than his dead...