The Duke of Ferrara is arrogant, pompous, boastful, jealous, paranoid and completely controlling. He refuses to view women as anything more than possessions, as is evident by his incredibly long monologue that emerged from his lips when he showed me a painting of his last Duchess, which he hides behind a blood red curtain (so that even in death he can control who sees her). On and on, he spoke about how much he disliked his dead wife for merely enjoying life and smiling at the joys it has to offer. After several name drops of Fra Pandolf (just to reiterate his status and his need for validation), the Duke became incredibly paranoid that the reason his wife was blushing in the painting was because the artist had been making slightly flirtatious comments, although he had absolutely no evidence to back up these ridiculous claims.
All of his sophisticated speech is to arrogantly emphasise his high social status and his interjections are so coated in false modesty that it made me feel nauseated. It is transparent to me that he is full of many insecurities which he allows to foolishly flow out of his mouth by degrading his wife even while she is dead, and he also confessed that he never told his wife why he was upset with here, as he didn't want to "stoop" lowly, allowing her smiles to stop altogether instead.
Our conversation about his late Duchess came to an abrupt end as he swiftly became distracted by a rare bronze statue of Neptune; the language he spoke with made it clear to me that he viewed himself in the same league as this God of the sea – powerful and controlling. Another name drop reinforced his obvious wealth and disgusting showing off. Personally, I believe this man to be a dangerous Duke and a horrific husband, no matter how extraordinary his wealth and social status is.