Answer each the following questions in a paragraph of approximately eight sentences, making direct reference to the poem.

Have a chat with the person next to you, by all means, but make sure you write your own response to each question in your exercise books dont write the question out, just answer in full sentences and any points you think are important, transfer them over to your Anthology I know the wording looks difficult at first, but Id like you to have a go at these as best you can.

*Help is on Fronter our room is 10c/En2 Rollover 2012* (You have a week to complete these questions Ill take your books in on Tue 10th July.)

Questions
1. The poem is of the type called a dramatic monologue because it consists entirely of the words of a single speaker (persona) who reveals in his speech his own nature and the dramatic situation in which he finds himself. Browning's Duke has been labelled (despite his apparent cunning) as "witless" by some readers - why? 2. The speaker is the arrogant, art-collecting Duke of Ferrara. We might even call him the protagonist, for, although we may not agree with him, we are virtually compelled to identify with him since he speaks directly to us. How does Browning force us to sympathise with so horrible a persona? 3. The place is the grand staircase in the ducal palace at Ferrara, in northern Italy. How does Browning have the Duke himself subtly reveal this location and the general circumstances under which he addresses the envoy (his next wifes fathers servant Sheri played him yesterday)? 4. The time is the Italian Renaissance, as Browning establishes by references to art and the dowry which the Duke is negotiating with the Count of Tyrol (his next wifes father), as well as by the Duke's "thousandyear-old name." Why is this "name" so important to this Renaissance Duke? 5. The Duke eliminated (divorced? sent to a convent? had executed or poisoned?) his last duchess because (he felt) she undervalued him and treated him much as she treated other men. Which trivial incidents in particular seem to have produced this response in the Duke? 6. As the poem opens, the Duke has been making dowry arrangements with the envoy of the Count of Tyrol, whose daughter he intends to marry; "the company" awaiting the Duke and envoy below are the Count's party. Why does the Duke apparently try to stall the envoy's rushing down the stairs at the end of the poem?
Ms J Foster 10c/En2 July 2012

7. The statue of Neptune ("a rarity") taming a seahorse may be regarded as a symbol of brutal male domination of the beautiful and natural. How might we regard this statue as representing the Duke? 8. The envoy, apparently alarmed by what he has heard, tries to break away from the Duke, but is restrained by him. What, if anything, does Browning reveal about the envoy? 9. Why do you think the Duke finds the portrait of his late wife preferable to the living original? 10. Precisely what about the duchess did the Duke object to? How do his values partially justify his actions to the reader? 11. Why do you think Browning chose to use the form of a monologue thereby eliminating the possibility of providing a narrator to comment on the action and the characters? 12. Why has the Duke positioned the full-length portrait on a landing on the grand staircase, then had it covered with a curtain? 13. Based on the clues that Browning provides in the poem, explain both what happened before the opening of the poem (i. e., what fate befell the Duchess and how) and what will happen just after the poem closes. 14. The title of the poem was originally simply "I. Italy." Suggest why Browning so named it and why do you think he changed the name?

Ms J Foster 10c/En2

July 2012