Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” was written about an infamous Duke who was suspected of killing his first wife. In “My Last Duchess,” the narrator reveals the traits that accompany pride within him while he complains about his former wife’s flaws to a marriage negotiator. The narrator shows himself to be suspicious of his wife’s smiles and wishes to control his wife and even the marriage negotiator.

     The Duke’s first trait is suspicion. He’s certain that the Duchess is cheating on him because of the way she smiles at everyone and everything. The Duke even states that “She looked on, and her looks went everywhere” (24). The Duke had no problem with the fact that she thanked men for their gifts; his problem was that she thanked everyone equally, from the “bough of cherries some officious fool/Broke in the orchard for her” (27-28) to his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name” (33). His pride in the fact that his name was not just anyone’s gift, but that she treated it just as she treated everyone else’s gift, drove him to see things in her smiles.

      The second trait seen in the Duke is that he wants to control everything, from who the Duchess smiles at to the marriage negotiator’s movements. The first indication is the irritation he feels at her smiles. He wants her to stop smiling at everyone, although knowing how silly this sounds. He lets it eat away at him day after day, until he figures out how to control her smiles. In his own words, “This grew; I gave commands/Then all smiles stopped together” (45-46). He has her killed and her painting, in which she’s smiling, hidden behind a curtain, where he can pick and choose who sees her smiles. He finally has control over her smiling face.

     The marriage negotiator is also a victim of the Duke’s controlling ways, though on a lesser scale than the Duchess. As the Duke escorts the negotiator around, the

Duke first tells him to “sit and look at her” (5). When the Duke is done discussing his wife’s flaws, he then tells the negotiator to get up so they can go and meet everyone else downstairs. As the negotiator begins to walk downstairs, the Duke cries out, “Nay, we’ll go/Together down, sir” (53-54). He also tells the negotiator that “the Count your master” (49) will not have to worry about the amount of the dowry as long as “his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed/At starting, is my object” (52-53). The Duke has so much pride in his position as a noble that it makes him feel as though he can order how everyone moves, acts, thinks, and feels. This leads to the Duchess’s death.

     In conclusion, “My Last Duchess” is a story of a Duke in search of a new wife. However, the Duke shows more of himself than he wishes as he complains about his deceased wife’s flaws. Browning gives a portrait of a cruel Duke who wishes to control everything, even his wife’s smiles. His pride has driven him to feel he is owed obedience, and when his wife unwittingly disobeys, she is killed. The Duke leaves the impression that if his new wife doesn’t obey, she will be killed too. “My Last Duchess” is a poem that explores the irrational thoughts that come with pride.