Hi everybody.... I've just started studying English and I'm really struggling with Textual Analysis.
Now we have to write an Analysis about a poem and a chose My Last Duchess (Ive posted it beneath)
I first have to start with writing the introduction and it should include a good (!) thesis statement.
Now I've had some ideas but don't know whether they good....
I try to post them here and hope that someone can tell me what I can do better ![Smile [:)]](/emoticons/emotion-1.gif)
-first I want to describe the situation (who is speaking to whom, that the Duke is looking for a new wife, that he killed his last one)
-than I wanna mention that we don't just read this i our text but have to read it between the lines.
-I would say that we have to read between the lines because the poet uses all kinds of irony (verbal irony, structural irony,....)
-this irony shows the tone of the poem
-then my thesis statement: something like:
through various kinds of irony we can read between the lines that the duke killed his last duchess and we can interpret him telling this on purpous as a warning towards his future wife.
(I did not have time yet to find nice formulations, just my ideas)
I thought to chose the thesis statement like this because it has to be a point that someone can argue about.
Really hope that someone could tell me whether I'm on the right way....
best wishes.....
1That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
2Looking as if she were alive. I call
3That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
4Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
5Will 't please you sit and look at her? I said
6"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read
7Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
8The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
9But to myself they turned (since none puts by
10The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
11And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
12How such a glance came there; so, not the first
13Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
14Her husband's presence only, called that spot
15Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
16Frà Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle laps
17Over my Lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
18Must never hope to reproduce the faint
19Half-flush that dies along her throat"; such stuff
20Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
21For calling up that spot of joy. She had
22A heart . . . how shall I say? . . . too soon made glad,
23Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
24She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
25Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,
26The dropping of the daylight in the West,
27The bough of cherries some officious fool
28Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
29She rode with round the terrace--all and each
30Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
31Or blush, at least. She thanked men,--good; but thanked
32Somehow . . . I know not how . . . as if she ranked
33My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
34With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
35This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
36In speech--(which I have not)--to make your will
37Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this
38Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
39Or there exceed the mark"--and if she let
40Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
41Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
42--E'en then would be some stooping; and I chuse
43Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
44Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
45Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
46Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
47As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
48The company below, then. I repeat,
49The Count your Master's known munificence
50Is ample warrant that no just pretence
51Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
52Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
53At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go
54Together down, Sir! Notice Neptune, though,
55Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
56Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.