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In common households, they were mothers, daughters and wives. In high class societies, they were seen as a pricey decoration item that was supposed to possess certain qualities like haughtiness and vanity.
The duke always suspected his wife of being charmed by others. He felt that she enjoyed glances and compliments from other men and that these pleased her. That was the reason, he had her killed. This is a clear sign of how things work in male dominated socity like England where women were expected to be completely devoted to their husbands so much so that they will not even smile at other men. The duke was not the only person suspecting his wife. Normally in such a male dominated society, men would be very controlling and suspicious. The duke was even more so because he belonged to a very high ranked family and couldn't afford to have other people talk about his wife. He thus wanted to completely control her and during the conversation with the envoy, he explicitly reveals his displeasure so that the other person would take this as a warning and convey his message to the new duchess to be.
Interestingly, the duke is so controlling that he doesn't even allow everyone to see his late wife's...
This is his way of controlling her after her death as he must have controlled her when she was alive.
In those days, women of high class were even more suppressed than low ranked women. This was because there were many rules and regulations that they were expected to follow, failing which, they could meet the same fate as the duchess. There was another ptoblem as well. Women from high ranking families were expected to bring with them large dowries as they were seen as a source of wealth. This was how greed worked in such a society. Women were seen as objects and source of wealth and they were desired for their name and money and not themselves. This is agan very clear from what the duke tells the envoy about dowry:
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence [50]
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Here the duke shows that he is indeed a very greedy man who expects his wife to bring with her significant dowry even though he himself is a wealthy man. This was how greed and regulations controlled the lives of women in 19th century English society.
Last Duchess The Objectification of Women in Victorian England and Browning's "My Last Duchess" Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is a macabre poem about jealousy and rage, which simultaneously highlights Victorian ideals of women and their role in society. In "My Last Duchess," the unnamed narrator has not only objectified his last wife, nonchalantly telling the emissary sent to arrange his next marriage about his last wife and the tensions that
Last Duchess Jealousy, Rage, and Possession in Browning's "My Last Duchess" Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" emphasizes Victorian ideals of women and allows readers to understand how they were objectified. In this macabre poem, Browning uses the themes of jealousy, rage, and possessiveness to describe what motivated the Duke to behave as he did. In the poem, the unnamed narrator has transformed his wife into an object on numerous occasions and
The duke virtually suffered of megalomania, as he considered himself to be an almost supernatural being which had been endowed with the power to control other people's lives. The duke did not consider his wife to be more than a simple object, as he almost identified her with a painting. Furthermore, he believed his wife to be similar to something that could simply be replaced when it finished serving
Chekhov employed an attitude similar to most nineteenth century short story writers, as he attempted to captivate the reader's attention through putting across concepts that would make it especially difficult for him or her to keep his or her state of mind. The lawyer and the banker both go through intense emotional and physical occurrences as they struggle to find their personal identity. The fact that the banker eventually
In an attempt to curb his boredom, the imprisoned lawyer spends his time reading, writing, and playing music, while the banker slowly loses his money. Realizing that if the lawyer fulfills his part of the deal, the banker will lose the remainder of his fortune, he plots to murder him. Unbeknownst to the banker, the lawyer has developed a disdain for material things and has counter-plotted in favor of
Last Duchess' is a poem narrated by a widowed Duke as he looks at a portrait of his first wife. Through the Duke's voice it first appears that he is an evil character and should not marry another woman, less she be treated the same. With a more careful analysis and putting the Duke's words in the context of the situation, we see that the Duke has faults that