Allyson O’Grady
Mrs. Huyghe
Honors English/Literary Analysis
8 August 2017
The Other WifeandMy Last Duchess
In “The Other Wife” by Colette and “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, both husbands have overbearing and dark sides to their personality. In “My Last Duchess” the story is told from the perspective of an unnamed Duke who is bidding for the hand of the daughter of an unnamed male who the Duke wishes to marry. In “The Other Wife” by Colette, the story is told in the third person and tells the story of a new wife and her husband running into the ex-wife. The husband is overbearing andnarcissistic. Both poems consist of a husband whose past relations hold darker tones and the point of view of the story leads to a darker tone and brings to light the sexism in the poems.
The darker past in “The Other Wife” is found in the husband’s overbearing attitude towards Alice, the protagonist. Marc blames himself for the divorce due to “totalincompatibility!” and blames himself for not being able to satisfy her. However, the darker tones occur when he states that Alice is “obviously” happy. He orders food for Alice and comments about her weight. His overbearing, “rare” behavior leaves Alice confused and doubtful about her happiness in the marriage.
The dark tone in “My Last Duchess” is far more dark and sinister. The Duke speaks of his ex-wife in light tones but begins to grow angry as he says “She thanked men- good!” and she “ranked/ My fig of a nine-hundred-years-old-name/ With anybody’s gift.” The Duke is explaining his anger with his wife’s alleged infidelity and lack of gratitude to him for marryingher. When the Duke describes a “Half-flush that dies along her throat”, that implies that not only was she killed but executed by the Duke for possible infidelity.
Most men used execution as their form of divorce during the 1800s due to the almost impossible task of being granted a divorce. The Duke most likely grew bored or jealous with his previous wife and had her executed. It was obvious he had suspicions of an affair when he states that she smiled “No doubt, / Whene’er he passed her; but who passed without/ Much the same smile?” Much like Marc in “The Other Wife” both husbands are divorced or widowed due to their own doing. Marc most likely wanted his wife to follow his orders and because that didn’t make him happy, divorced her. The Duke, as it is told in first person point of view, is bias towards how he described his wife and she most likely was not having an affair. However, his suspicion and dark nature left him without a wife.
The poems are told in two different points of views which allow the readers to get both an unbiased and a bias view of the poems. However the dark mood is obvious in both works. Browning accomplishes this with the dark crimes committed by the Duke and Colette accomplishes this with hidden messages from both Alice and Marc.Both poems consist of a husband whose past relations hold darker tones and the point of view of the story leads to a darker tone and brings to light the sexism in the poems.
