| Literary Criticism |
Historical-biographical approach (see history page)
Feminist approach The Duchess was a victim of her extremely possessive and jealous husband. Not only did he want to control her activities, he even wanted to control her smiles and blushes. Ferrara could not understand why she enjoyed such natural things like the sunset or her white mule; in his mind, only his gift of a wealthy name and power should be considered worthy by her. In the end, his inability to possess and dominate her life led him to kill her instead. He couldn’t control her person, but he could control her painting. Because the Duke prefers the painting to the actual Duchess, the reader deduces that she was never more than an object to him anyway. In fact, the Duke explicitly states to the ambassador he is speaking to in the poem that his new Duchess would be “[his] object” (line 53). |