Relationships

My Last Duchess

The Duke killed his wife, because of her infidelity. He immortalised her in a painting so that he could continue to control her:

• ‘painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive’
• ‘Half-flush that dies along her throat’
• ‘I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together.’
• ‘There she stands As If alive.’

Poppies

It is ambiguous as to whether or not the son has died but there are many details to suggest that he has:

• ‘poppies had already been placed on individual war graves’
• ‘spasm of paper red’
• ‘After you’d gone I… released a song bird’
• ‘skirting the church yard walls’
• ‘I traced the inscriptions on the war memorial’
• ‘I listened hoping to hear your playground voice’

Kamikaze

The pilot should have sacrificed his life on a suicide mission but he returned home, because he loved his family:

• ‘Her father embarked at sunrise’
• ‘my mother never spoke again in his presence’
• _‘till gradually we too learned to be silent’ _
• ‘to live as though he had never returned’
• ‘must have wondered which had been the better way to die’