is obviously overly confident, and he believes his Duchess should worship his every move. The Duchess did not treat the Duke with the officiousness that he wished, and, consequently, he "gave commands; then all smiles stopped together," meaning that he ordered her to be killed (ll. 45-46). This action is justified in the Dukes mind because he could not control her actions, and now his Duchess painted in a portrait covered with a curtain, which is only drawn by the Duke. Therefore, the control which was absent in their mortal relationship is now presented by the Duke when he draws the curtain revealing the Duchess. The listener in the poem plays an important role. The messenger is meeting with the Duke in order to arrange his next marriage, which may be to the messengers masters daughter. The Duke makes a specific effort to make the count feel good about himself, and at the same time, the Duke is feigning modesty. "Een you had skill in speech- (which I have not) to make you will quite clear to such a one" (ll. 35-37). In this excerpt, one can immediately understand that Duke pretends to be modest. The Duke seems condescending to the messenger, and he is trying to portray himself as an equal. The Duke wants the messenger to return to his master with pleasant thoughts, so the Duke may marry the masters daughter. The style and composition of the dialogue, the treatment of the messenger, and the Dukes ironic use of the word officious very well depict the Dukes character. Although the Duke spoke of officious as a negative characteristic, he wished to see such an attribute in his last Duchess. The reader can find many ways to define the false front the Duke carries, and where he fails to keep it on. The Duke apparently tries to hide his obsessive mannerisms, but even then, they dominate his personality throughout the dialogue....
