Many characteristics about the Duke are revealed throughout Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess". The reader becomes aware of these characteristics by his dramatic monologue. A dramatic monologue is a lengthy first person speech. There seems to be a motivation in speaking to the Count's representative. With all of Ferrara's characteristics you can tell that he was a feared man, and got what he wanted.
In this poem the speaker, the duke of Ferrara, is speaking to another character who is the representative of a Count whose daughter the duke plans to marry. The duke shows the representative a portrait of his first wife. As a privilege to the representative he is aloud to sit and look at this painting. By doing this the duke is "buttering up" the representative because no stranger has ever looked at the duke's portrait of his duchess before " But to myself they turned (since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I). . ." (9).
He explains how this portrait was painted in one day by "Fra Pandolf". With this told, the reader can imagine that the duke was very selfish about what he owned, and wanted no one else to see what he had, because the duchess was his. Also, the reader can see that having the painting done in one day, by a friar none the less, shows that the duke is very over protective and makes sure what is his, stays his, and isn't for anyone else. The duke makes this known that she showed no pride. She would smile at the smallest things, and thank the littlest gifts that were done for her. By smiling and thanking these things, the duke believed that she" ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-year-old name with anyone's gift." (33) All these things made her happy and this was the problem, it was extremely insulting towards the duke. She failed to be aware of his superiority in even the most insignificant matters. He was frequently offended by her courtesy to others and she was too easily pleased.
