Robert Browning's My Last Duchess reveals the story of a duke's negotiation with a servant for the hand of an earl's daughter. While the Duke attempts to paint an inaccurate picture of himself as a loving and caring husband, he instead shows how psychopathic, manipulative and jealous a man can be by describing his ex-wife's "disrespectful" acts that led to her murder. Browning carefully constructs the most distinctive attribute of his poetry, the dominant nature of the Duke, through form, meter, symbolism, and rhythm. The Duke's desire for control is made evident by the structure of the poem. The poem's iambic pentameter puts the stressed syllables in the spotlight and shows which words the reader should pay most attention to. For example, in line 1, the Duke says, "This is my last Duchess painted on the wall," and in this line the word "mine" is underlined, introducing a possessive tone. Although the Duke was unable to control the Duchess when she was alive, after her death he has complete control over her. The Duke says “no one puts near the curtain I drew for you but I,” revealing that he is now able to control both the Duchess's face and whoever looks at the portrait by using a curtain to cover the portrait (10). , the Duke's loss of control is represented through the rhythm of the poem. The lines of the poem, or the enjambment, highlight the duke's nervous distress over the murder of his wife. For example, towards the end of the poem, the duke loses control. The reader can only imagine the horrified servant getting up to go down the stairs, the duke's disquiet when he loses control, and his desire to regain control of the situation as he says, "No, let us go down together, sir" (53) . The frequent use of the caesura......medium of paper......the painter praises his hands, effectively reducing his person to a mere instrument used for painting. Then, as he continues, one cannot help but sense the intense jealousy that resides in the Duke's heart, as he despises the ease with which his lady delighted in anything beautiful and pleasant. He can't stand her blushing and smiling at everything and everyone she likes. He is full of conceit, a characteristic that is tarnished and called into question when his wife does not share his arrogance and haughty attitude. His arrogance is such that having a normal conversation with his wife or telling her what he expects of her is considered by him to be below his standards. He chooses not to tell her about his flaws, which are nothing more than a liveliness of nature, a happy disposition and a desire for life, but rather puts an end to what he cannot control..