"The Flea" who haunts "My Last Duchess" History has blessed the English language with many great romanticists; they were men and sometimes woman who had an affinity for describing the glories of love. Yet in the midst of such uninhibited amorousness, they were a select few who chose to write about the seamier side of romance. It was these works which perhaps best represented the complexities of the male-female relationships of the time. Although written …showed first 75 words of 1070 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1070 total…e Duke has over the narrator of "The Flea"; he knows when to shut his mouth. When reading both "The Flea" and "My Last Duchess" in an isolated context, the two male Protagonists seem to paint their entire gender with a less than favourable brush. Both these poems exist most effectively when contrasted with a broader range of writings from their respective time periods, which represent both admirable and despicable members of the male race.