"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning
Study Questions
1. What is important about the title?
2. In lines 2 and 47, the painting of the Duchess is described as looking like she was alive. What
does this imply about the Duchess?
3. How essential is the setting to the poem? Could the poem have taken place anywhere else?
4. What are some symbols in "My Last Duchess"?
5. What do lines 21-24 reveal about the speakers view of the Duchess?
6. What are the conflicts in "My Last Duchess"? What types of conflict (physical, moral,
intellectual, or emotional).
7. How do class, status, and title affect your perception of the characters in the poem? What is
implied by the line: “my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name” in line 33?
8. What is the role of women in the poem? Why does the poem end with the speaker focusing on
another piece of art? What does this comparison reveal about how the speaker values the
Duchess?
9. List 2-3 examples of figurative language in this poem.
10. What are some themes in the poem?