The Duke

The narrator is an unnamed duke. Due to the poem's epigraph, which is the word "Ferrara," he is associated with the historical Fifth Duke of Ferrara, a man named Alfonso II d'Este, who neglected his wife until she died tragically young. Ferrara was suspected of poisoning the young girl. The duke in the poem is enormously proud of his social station. He values his "nine-hundred-years-old name" above all else (33). He is a patron of the arts, having commissioned both the titular portrait and other art mentioned more briefly in the poem. He is also controlling, jealous, and violent. He resented his young wife for her liveliness and for the pleasure she found in life outside his company and station. He also implies that he believed she was unfaithful with other men. Ultimately, he alludes to being responsible for her death, that he "gave commands" that ended her...