The Fickle Duke

The Fickle Duke

Prompt 3: The Duke eliminated (divorced? sent to a convent? had executed or poisoned?) his last duchess because (he felt) she undervalued him and treated him much as she treated other men. Which trivial incidents in particular seem to have produced this response in the Duke?

The Duke seems to be a very fickle person, as he makes big deals out of small problems.  An example of this is his criticisms of his former wife, the Duchess.  Some things that he attacked were small, trivial problems, such as her smiling too much at everything.  Actual examples include the Duchess being flattered by the simplest things anyone did for her, being made overly happy by everyday things (such as the sunrise, riding around the house, etc.), and blushing at every compliment.  He claimed these to be overly annoying, and that she would keep it up just to irritate him.  After some time, he gave her the order to stop, which could mean a divorce (or perhaps her getting killed).  The number one trigger of his actions, at least in my opinion, was the Duchess acting as if his commissioned painting was made by a famous artist, and that any other gift was considered ages old and very special to her.  The Duke obviously did not agree with this behavior, as he made remarks that any great speaker could say “This disgusts me; here you are wrong; or there you have gone too far.”   Even though the Duchess is obviously complimenting his actions, he thinks it is disgusting and that she overdoes everything.  This, in a way, shows the Duke as being a patriarch and wanting his wife to stay quiet, but also to compliment/admire him more than other men.

- Gabe Coffman-Lee