MY LAST DUCHESSThemes, Attitudes and Ideas:In My Last Duchess the Duke thinks the world revolves around him simply because he has "a nine-hundred-years-old name". In condemning his late wife, he reveals the unpleasant side of his nature. There are themes of that pride is not an attractive quality and that the Duke's arrogance comes across clearly when talking about himself and his things. Also the ideas of being upper class and having good morals don't necessarily go together such that people of great wealth and breeding often considered themselves to be morally superior to others and the Duke shows that isn't the case. There is also a theme that money and possessions aren't everything. The duke might have a wonderful house, terrace, orchard, paintings and statues but his obsession about his late wife comes across and reflects his insecurity. The Duke spends a lot of time criticising his late wife but the reader finishes the poem feeling sorry for her and disliking the Duke a lot.How these are shown through language, form and structure:This poem is a dramatic monologue written in iambic pentameter and in rhyming couplets. The poem is one long speech, pretending to be a conversation. It is divided up into rhyming couplets but to mimic unrehearsed speech there are differences within the lines, shown by a variety of punctuation. For example "She thanked men good! But thanked/Somehow - I know not how". Although it is written in rhyming couplets, the sense of rhyme is partly lost because there is so much enjambment, for example, "Will't please you look at her? I said/'Fra Panfolf' by design, for never read/Strangers like you that pictured countenance". There is lots of stopping and starting and it is hard to read. Also there are lots of personal pronouns in this poem. They are significant as one of the themes is the narrator's high opinion of himself and his selfishness. Many of the words also relate to his love of possessions including his former wife "My last Duchess". The narrator says he is not very good with words: "Even had you skill/In speech - (which I have not). This is not a poem full of wonderful imagery and this does not describe the Duke.Which two poems would you compare it with and why:There are comparisons with River God and Ozymandias as all the poems have one clear, distinct voice and each poem is built around a character that has some distinctly unpleasant qualities. Also all of the poems are about power, Ozymandias was incredibly powerful in his time but is now merely a remnant of the past; the Duke is powerful in the society of his time and perhaps shows his power by killing his wife; the River God exerts his power through drowning people. None of the characters actually exists in the real sense. Ozymandias is ancient history; the Duke himself and even his title died out centuries ago; the River God is a mythical creation. The characters in each poem clearly display a dark side to their nature.