Grade 9 My last Duchess and Ozymandias comparison

MY LAST
DUCHESS VS
OZYMANDIAS
COMPARISON




My Last Duchess and Ozymandias In the poems My Last Duchess’ and
‘Ozymandias’, both poems depict a speaker full of self-love and hubris where they
exert control however both portray a mockery of it, as nature and time transcends
human power. My Last Duchess depicts a man speaking about his deceased past
wife whom he preserves via a painting on the wall hidden behind a curtain, as a
possession. Similarly, ‘Ozymandias’ uses art to immortalise their power and wealth,
in which both poets essentially mock the desire for longing power, which both
speakers think will transcend death.

In ‘My Last Duchess’, Browning utilises dramatic monologue, portraying the Duke’s
stream of consciousness as the reader is opened to the Duke’s developing feelings
of pride to anger; the reader is overwhelmed by this long and volatile stream of
emotions. The use of dramatic monologue also signifies the Duke’s domineering
presence as he chooses to soliloquise on his own thoughts only neglecting the
Duchess- female- side of view the reader is exposed to a male-biased narrative