"My Last Duchess"
...e she went, such as from the artist Pandolf or the “officious fool” who brought her cherries (My Last Duchess Analysis). Apparently, her presence drew others’ attention away from the duke so that he did not have control. In this way the duchess seemed to possess a type of power, which was unacceptable. A wife of the duke exists for his enjoyment alone. She should not be admired or take pleasure from anything other than the duke himself. He feels betrayed that “she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere”. He also cannot tolerate that “she thanked men… somehow… as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift” (Drew 48) The duke also could not stand the fact that the duchess treated everyone and every gift equally (Analysis); "all and each would draw from her alike the approving speech, or blush, at least.” The duke thought of his wife as one of his possessions and she could never be treated as his equal; "E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose Never to stoop.” Now her portrait is behind a curtain and he has absolute power over it, just like he thought he should have had over his wife while she was alive. Toward the end Browning alludes to Greek mythology while making the comparison of how the duke tamed his wife like Neptune and the sea-horse; "Notice Neptune, though Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, Which Claus of Inns...