My Last Duchess

The first line of Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”, presents us, the reader, with the essence of the poem, “That’s my last Duchess painted on the Wall”. With these first words we see that the narrator is telling a story to someone about his deceased love. However, we must continue to read and analyze the writing to answer some key questions, such as, who is the narrator, is the narrator reliable, why is …

…t take any of the blame upon himself. His almost pleading attitude raises suspicions within the Agent. The last three lines of the narration, “Notice Neptune, though, Taming a sea horse, thought a rarity, which Claus of Innsbruck case in bronze for me”, seems to show the Duke in an attempt to change the subject after realizing he divulged too much information to the Agent. This leads one to believe that he is hiding something.