EN 1006 Lecture Notes - My Last Duchess
17 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
Argument about nature and role of women in 1870s: petitions to parliament advocate woman"s suffrage. Married woman"s property acts allowed woman to own and handle property. In portraits woman is depicted as a vibrant woman. Transformation of a woman into an image of a woman. Artists feeds in an exploited and hungry fasion. Painter cannot capture her as she is, other than through a set of metaphors. A painter can only depict how she was, but not how she is as she fills his dream. A poem delivered as though by a single imagined person, the speaker is not to be identified with the poet. One speaker who gives his or her perspective, which is normally weird. Browning chooses unexpected point of view that forces reader to accept unfamiliar perspective. Is capable of startling changes of focus within a poem: use of irony. Ferrara"s jealousy: of attention wife received from men, of wife"s ability to be flattered.
