PART 4

The main themes are power, influence, marriage, aristocracy and egoism. It is possible to use blanket terms such as love and death when commenting on themes, yet love does not seem to play on the duke's mind heavily. At least he does not love women, however he does love the painting and gains joy from intimidating the messenger by commenting on how he had her killed. Death does occur prior to the poem, but can only be considered as an expression of the duke's control and not a comment on death itself.

At the end of this part, finish the following assignments:

(1) Discuss the theme of the poem.

(2) Give a brief comment on the poem from different perspectives.

(3) Review Lesson One to Lesson Three.