How is power used in "My Last Duchess?"

Duke Ferrara, the speaker in Robert Browning's dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess," wields absolute power within his sphere of influence. The poem gives insight into his power over artists and their work, over his employees, over his wife, and over the Count and his representative. The Duke commissioned artists to create for him: Fra Pandolf to paint a portrait of his last Duchess and Claus of Innsbruck to cast a statue in bronze of Neptune taming a seahorse. The Duke displays a derisive tone toward Fra Pandolf when he speculates how Fra Pandolf was able to call "that spot of joy into the Duchess' cheek." He was evidently satisfied with the painting, though, because he shows it off to the person he is speaking to in the poem, namely the agent from a Count who is there to negotiate the dowry for the Duke's next Duchess. The Duke keeps the painting behind a curtain and only he draws it open for visitors to view the painting; thus he exercises full power over the work of the artist.

As the owner of a large estate, the Duke no doubt employs many servants on the grounds and in the house. One of them happened to break off a "bough of cherries" in the orchard, presenting it to the Duchess. For that Ferrara calls him "some officious fool," and the reader might wonder whether that servant was reprimanded for his effrontery.

The Duke's power over his Duchess was supreme. He believed that to instruct her about what pleased and displeased him would lessen his power; it would be "stooping." Rather than lose any of his power, he "gave commands; then all smiles stopped together." The reader assumes the Duke had the Duchess killed, usurping complete control over her life.

Finally, the Duke holds power over the agent to whom he is speaking. Apparently the agent, appalled at hearing the fate of the former Duchess, wants to make a getaway. The Duke stops him, saying, "Nay, we'll go together down, sir." He also implies that he will hold the power in the negotiations for the dowry, saying, "No just pretense of mine for dowry will be disallowed."

Ferrara is a man who is used to having his own way and displaying great power over everyone he comes in contact with.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

Search This Blog