Robert A. Heinlein said, “A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity. This quote explains how jealousy is caused by insecurity ” In “My Last Duchess” a poem by Robert Browning, the Duke expresses the theme of jealousy to hide his inner struggle of insecurity.
The internal conflict or struggle the Duke experiences is being jealous of the Duchess when she was alive and also when she passed on the Duke still harbored jealousy to the Duchess. The Duke expresses his jealousy because of the need for attention. In the Duke’s eyes, the Duchess had faults that he could not ignore. One fault being that the way the Duchess interacted with people. The character the Duke spoke of how she did not have a separate way of looking at him and that she treated everyone the same no matter who they were. To the readers that would seem to be a positive trait, but the Duke saw it as a disgrace. Mr. Browning states in his poem, “A heart how shall I say? Too soon made glad, too easily impressed, she liked whate’er she looked on and her look went everywhere (Browning lines 22-24). The quote
…show more content…
In the poem, the Duke speaks frequently about Fra Pandolf who painted the Duchess. Essentially, the Duke was jealous of the skilled painter. First, being that Fra Pandolf compliments to the Duchess while she stood and posed for him, which made her smile; however, the Duke knows the smile is not for him solely. Mr. Browning states in his poem, “...Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps Fra Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps over my lady's wrist too much…” (Browning lines 15-17). As the Duke reminisces about the Duchess he uses the curtain as a mean of control. This exhibits the Duke as a self-centered man who needs to utterly dominate at all times to hide his feelings deep