Question

give a character sketch of duke based on your study of browning's My Last Duchess'​

Answer 1

Explanation:

The duke in the poem "My Last Duchess" has many of the classic traits of a narcissistic personality order, including an inflated sense of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, problems with interpersonal relationships, and lack of empathy.

The duke tells the story of the late, deceased duchess while oblivious to how it makes him sound. With an inflated sense of self importance, he assumes that whatever he thinks and does is right, not seeming to comprehend that others might be critical of his behavior. He finds intolerable that his young wife behaved in ways most people would find perfectly reasonable and generous. For instance, she takes pleasure in the small gifts, like cherries, that others give her, a sunset, and a compliment from the artist painting her portrait. The duke deeply resents this as he wants all her attention and admiration to be focused exclusively on him.

The duke's intolerance of his wife's very normal behavior leads him to have a relationship problem with her. He shows his lack of empathy in how he treats her, implying he had her killed:

I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together.

The duke exhibits no regret or remorse that his wife's is dead, moving immediately on to pointing out her portrait. He values her more as a portrait, an art object he can own and show off, than as a living human being who threatened his ego.

One hopes the emissary sent to negotiate a new marriage with the duke will be able to send back warnings about the duke.