Feminist Criticism With Reference To Sir Robert Browning's Poem 'My Last Duchess' : A Brief Discussion

'Man for the field and woman for the hearth:

Man for the sword and for the needle she:

Man with the head and woman with the heart:

Man to command and woman to obey;

All else is confusion.'

(From 'The Princess' [1847], V, L. 437)

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Introduction : This blog is a response to the thinking activity assigned by my professor Dr Dilip Barad concerning the Feminist Criticism as a part of Critical Studies, and is also the part of the series of blog wherein Marxist Criticism, Ecocriticism, Feminist Criticism, and Queer Criticism are dealt with. By clicking the following keywords, you will get redirected to the respective blogs. The thinking activity assigned to the students is to apply the ideas of chosen critical studies in day-to-day T.V. advertisements, serials, shows, songs, movies, poems, novels, etc. in order to practice what we have learnt and acquired under the umbrella of critical as well as cultural studies.

Marxist Criticism, Eco-Criticism, Queer Criticism.

In this blog, I will be demonstrating the following points :

• What is Feminist Criticism?

• The Poem : 'My Last Duchess' by Sir Robert Browning :

The poem is preceded by the epigraph "Ferrara:", indicating that the speaker is Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598), who, in 1558 (at the age of 24), had married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the 13-year-old daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo. (Resource)

☆ Brief Introduction to Feminism :

The word feminism itself was first coined in 1837 by French philosopher, Charles Fourier (as féminisme). It originally referred to “feminine qualities or character,” but that sense isn’t used any more. Toward the end of the century, the word came to refer to equal rights for women and became inextricably linked to the suffragist movement.

Early feminism was heavily influenced by the Enlightenment in Europe during the late 1700s. The movement focused on reason and equality for all, and it ultimately inspired the American and French Revolutions. (Resource)

》First Wave of Feminism :

The first wave in the late 19th-century was not the first appearance of feminist ideals, but it was the first real political movement for the Western world. In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published the revolutionary Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In 1848, about 200 women met in a church. They came up with 12 resolutions asking for specific rights, such as the right to vote. Reproductive rights also became an important issue for early feminists. After years of feminist activism, Congress finally passed the 19th amendment in 1920 and gave women the vote. This was almost 30 years after New Zealand became the first country where women could vote.

First-wave feminism had a fairly simple goal: have society recognize that women are humans, not property. While the leaders of 1st-wave feminism were abolitionists, their focus was on white women’s rights. This exclusion would haunt feminism for years to come.

》Second Wave of Feminism :

Second-wave feminism took place in the 1960s and ‘70s. It built on first-wave feminism and challenged what women’s role in society should be. Inspired by the Civil Rights movement and protests against the Vietnam War, activists focused on the institutions that held women back. This meant taking a closer look at why women were oppressed. Traditional gender and family roles were questioned. Queer theory became more established. There were major victories in this era including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Roe v. Wade in 1973, and other Supreme Court cases.

》Third Wave of Feminism :

Thanks to the institutional victories of second-wave feminism, women enjoyed more rights and power going into the 1990s. They were able to think about other aspects of their identity, welcoming individuality and rebellion. This was an era of reclaiming. Important cultural touchstones include Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, the Guerilla Girls, and punk rock riot grrls. Many women more freely expressed their sexuality in how they spoke, dressed, and acted. This sometimes bewildered 2nd-wave feminists, many of whom had resisted traditional femininity. While many ideas and mini-movements swirled around in this time, the one “rule” was that there weren’t rules. A woman should choose how she lived her life.

Third-wave feminism also became more conscious of race. Kimberle Crenshaw, a gender and critical-race scholar, coined the phrase “intersectionality” in 1989. The term refers to how different kinds of oppression – like those based on gender and race – intersect with each other. While mainstream first and second-wave feminism had largely ignored or neglected racial disparities within gender, the Third wave paid more attention.  The phrase “third-wave feminism” was coined in 1992 by Rebecca Walker, a 23-year old Black bisexual woman. When the internet became more commonplace, it was even easier to hear perspectives and ideas from feminists around the world. Feminism was expanding.

》Fourth Wave of Feminism :

Some people think we’re still in the third wave of feminism since the fourth wave isn’t so much of a shift as the continued growth of the movement. However, with the MeToo movement and a resurgence of attacks on women’s rights, many believe we’re living in a new wave. Social media activism has propelled the movement firmly into the technological age. It builds on the third wave’s emphasis on inclusivity and asks hard questions about what empowerment, equality, and freedom really mean.

Fourth-wave feminism continues to reckon with intersectionality. Critics of “white feminism,” which ignores the unique struggles of women of color, expose how non-white feminists and ideas have been – and continue to be – suppressed. Trans rights are a big part of the conversation, too. Feminism has often been an unwelcoming and hostile place for trans women and others who reject the gender binary. Many fourth-wave feminists are working to combat this exclusion. As with every wave before it (and any wave that comes after it), the fourth wave is complex. It encompasses many movements that both complement and clash with each other. This tension is unavoidable. While some types of feminism can have harmful impacts, having a variety of voices makes feminism more inclusive and successful. (Resource)

• What is Feminist Criticism?

Feminist Criticism chiefly seeks to identify the place of women in the fields of Civilization, Anatomical Differences, and Literary Writings, especially the Great Classic Masterpieces. It is once in a blue moon accident that a woman has got the stage to perform her ken in highly patriarchal societies throughout the globe. Their repression, subjugation, and mental as well as physical control by patriarchal norms are today held as a dazzling topic upon which the critique is essentially to be made.

Even there are certain emotive dialogues in movies of Hindi Cinema wherein the protagonist is depicted to be regarding nation as his/her mother, one such sequence comes from the movie 'Indian' (2001) which was directed by N. Maharajan, wherein the protagonist compared his nation to his mother and passionately argues his nationalist spirit in front of the representation of law & order by his senior police officers. :

The very feminine entity has been subject to the aesthetic pleasure - either in literature or royal events - and generally, the tool for furthering male-driven posterity in families en masse. Calling one's nation "Maata" (Mother) as in "Bharat Maata" (Mother India) itself attests to the fact that subconscious mind plays main role in decisions made in daily life, especially men whose minds have not been honed enough to accept the gender equality and letting the archaic facts die their natural death, despite believing themselves as 'modern' and (so called) 'civilized' people of the prevailing era.

• The Poem : 'My Last Duchess' by Sir Robert Browning :

Lucrezia de' Medici by Bronzino or Alessandro Allori, generally believed to be the subject of the poem

The poem is preceded by the epigraph "Ferrara:", indicating that the speaker is Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598), who, in 1558 (at the age of 24), had married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the 13-year-old daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo. (Resource)

Here is the full text of the poem 'My Last Duchess' written by Sir Robert Browning :

FERRARA

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not

Her husband’s presence only, called that spot

Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps

Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps

Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint

Must never hope to reproduce the faint

Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

For calling up that spot of joy. She had

A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terrace—all and each

Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked

Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame

This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech—which I have not—to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—

E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet

The company below, then. I repeat,

The Count your master’s known munificence

Is ample warrant that no just pretense

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

- Robert Browning

• Stanza-wise application of Feminist Criticism in the Poem : 

It is the fact that literature captures the contemporary lives lived by people and poets as well as literary authors reflect upon the happenings of their times. Robert Browning has captured the place of women which was subsidiary to men in his time - the Victorian Age - with the historical reference of Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598), who, in 1558 (at the age of 24), had married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the 13-year-old daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo. 

Let us begin the 'deconstructive reading' of the poem with reference of feminist criticism : 

'She had

A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.' 

In the aforementioned stanza, the speaker is the duke who starts describing the ultimate reason of assassinating his duchess; he tells that she was not having the traits of an ideal royal woman, as she was more open and bold in expressing her heart to the world. Bu this we get the patriarchal expectation from femininity which conceives females to be demure and shy. So, this indicates the subdued place of female in highly patriarchal society. 

'Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terrace—all and each

Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked

Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame

This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech—which I have not—to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—

E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop.' 

In this stanza, the speaker narrates how her duchess was breaking the royal dignity endowed (or burdened) on a royal woman by talking flirtively with a stranger who ranks lover in echelon. This is something unbearable for the duke who is the speaker and thus he holds his lineage dignity over the freedom of his duchess by saying "She thanked men—good! but thanked, Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked, My gift of a nine-hundred-years old name, With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame, This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech—which I have not—to make your will, Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose Never to stoop." This takes in the conflict between culturally held esteemed position of royal member, especially of women, who were not even free to roam by their will outside of the fort or Mahal just like other women were able, and that is why we have the idea of 'Andarmahal' or 'Zenankhana' (Seraglio) in Ottoman Empire.

'Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive.'

The above-given stanza has words from the speaker rendering the culmination of his duchess' freedom over his royal dignity into her cruel assassination by the speaker; this episode is ostentatiously indicative to the subjugation of women by men in the Victorian Era which was highly "phallogocentric" in social characteristic.

☆ Conclusion : Sir Jacques Derrida's theory of post-structuralism incorporating deconstructive approach in reading famously held great classical texts from ancient times to the day helps find the way to give voice to femininity in the society dominated by the "presence of masculine voice" suppressing that of the feminine.

Thank you!