Christine Ross Porphyria's Lover

While it is easy to say that this poem is simply a frightening and perverse account of a man who cannot properly express his feelings for a woman, it is much more complex. Two major motifs in the poem, love and sin, create a sense of contradiction. Browning uses this contradiction to explore the relationship between art and morality.

Contextually it is important to understand how women are presented as tragic victims of men in ‘Othello’. Contemporary views of women were, according to Sir Thomas Elyot “to be mild, timorous, tractable, benign, of sure remembrance, and shamefast.” Conversely men were seen to be “fierce, strong in opinion, covetous of glory, desirous of knowledge, appetiting by generation to bring for his semblable.” Elyot’s views of the contemporary man, though much grander than those of women, could prove to be their downfall in ‘Othello’. Shakespeare’s protagonist’s downfall could be based on the fact that he is desirous of knowledge, and Iago’s manipulation of Othello’s trustworthy nature suggests that not only are women the tragic victims of men, but it is men who are also victims of men.

Othello, by William Shakespeare is well known for its richness in literary content and elements pertinent to societal ideas. Moreover, women are portrayed in Othello in ways that confirm, but also contradict their treatment in Shakespeare’s time. Both female action and language represent these ideas such as expectations for a wife and expectations for how a woman is to act. That said, there are many other lines spoken by these characters that defy the expectations placed on women at time. Overall, the feminist critical lens allows a reader to understand Othello and the manner in which it is slightly sexist and controversial. This lens allows the reader to observe both discrepancies of how women are treated, and common characteristics found

Browning uses diction describing porphyria as angelic to stress her majestic qualities to the reader. She is capable of making “all the cottage warm” and can prevent any “cold” or “storm” from coming in. She has nice cloths, long golden hair, a white shoulder and white skin. She is clearly

   Throughout the length of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello there is a steady undercurrent of sexism. It is originating from not one, but rather various male characters in the play, who manifest prejudicial, discriminatory attitudes toward women.

look at but he feels as if the Duchess takes him for granted and she

   Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello features sexism as regular fare – initially from Brabantio and Iago, and finally from Othello. Let us in this essay explore the occurrences and severity of sexism in the drama.

The idea that marriage is the only gateway to have sexual relations--and thus the comparison of marriage to the restraints used on animals to marriage’s restraint on a man’s sexual desires--is stuck within the binds of the court’s ideals. Touchstone voices his ideas that a “man hath his desires”, comparing it to “pigeons bill”, coming to the conclusion that “wedlock would be nibbling” (3.3.74-75). Touchstone is taking the easy route to fulfill his desires, much like he did in the court, presenting the role of love in a temperate state in this play, where everybody has to get married to get the story to progress, or to simply fulfill the desires that would not be able to be fulfilled otherwise in society’s view. Touchstone, through this, ensures that he will be able to fulfill his sexual desires without seeming to have an animalistic desire, while, at the same time, not being confined to chastity for trying to avoid the animalistic persona. Touchstone believes that this can only be reached through marriage, as this is what is seen in the court as the appropriate way to engage in sexual relations.

However, in Porphyria’s Lover the speaker is talking about how “good” his lover is. From this, it is clear to me that the speaker is still in love with his partner – an extreme emotion that he is unable to let go of.

In the book “Gender Trouble” (1990), feminist theorist Judith Butler explains “gender is not only a social construct, but also a kind of performance such as a show we put on, a costume or disguise we wear” (Butler). In other words, gender is a performance, an act, and costumes, not the main aspect of essential identity. By understanding this theory of gender as an act, performance, we can see how gender has greatly impacted the outcome of the play in William Shakespeare’s Othello. From a careful analysis of the story, tragedy in Othello is result of violating expected gender roles, gender performance by Desdemona and Othello, and the result of Iago’s inability to tolerate these violations.

In his evaluation of the all-male version of Othello in the beginning to the co-ed version at the end, he contrasts the two by talking about how in the opening version we the audience is listening to the play from back stage. By the ending version, we are right there on that deathbed with Desdemona and Othello seeing and feeling every painful feeling.

In both tragedy and comedy, conflict between male and female characters can often be found at the crux of the theatrical narrative. In plays that present on-stage opposition between men and women, it can be perceived that a typical set narrative structure is followed: the actions performed by male characters incite women to castoff the role of passivity and impose their presence on stage . As a result of lapsing into a masculine mode of behaviour, the females’ traditional archetype is then left to be fulfilled by the male characters. In comedy, such sexual role reversals are found aplenty, emphasised and made comic by cross-dressing whilst in tragedy, it appears rarer. Furthermore, in tragedy the role reversal focuses on the women’s function as usurping the roles designated for male characters. Euripides’ Medea and Aristophanes’ Women at Thesmophoria provide one with a paradigm from each genre of how sexual role reversal can explore alternative representations of gender and result in having a transgressive impact on dominating gender ideology. Both playwrights present complex characters that conform to and discard their traditional gender roles during the course of the play’s narratives

The concept of the hair falling cannot be ignored, due to the publishing of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” less than two centuries before that of “Porphyria’s Lover”. The hair, according to Milton, is a symbol for a vail of innocence. The notion of the hair falling is a complex one, because when hair falls it seems to create an even better vail, covering more of the body. However, the fall of the hair meaning the loss of the vail of innocence makes coherent sense because Porphyria proceeds to take off all her clothes in the next few lines, which makes her no longer innocent. This power of sexuality makes Porphyria’s lover’s “heart swell”, because he thinks that “Porphyria worshiped me” (34, 33). This catatonic man’s struggle for power and authority is evident in the killing of his “love”. His possessive nature is undeniable, “That moment she was mine, mine, fair, / Perfectly pure and good” (36 - 37). Porphyria’s lover wants Porphyria to himself and only himself and will do whatever it takes to make this the case. The actual portrayal of the killing is of course biased based on the male narrator of the story. He seems quite sure that Porphyria felt no pain, but at the same time seems to be convincing himself of this, suggesting that there was struggle and

Since Porphyria is taking control of the situation and she is the one with power, he feels subordinate. In this poem the man represents the “object” and she represents the “subject”. The woman is the knowledgeable, powerful and the one in control; while the man is static and passive

In Isabella Whitney’s “I.W. To Her Unconstant Lover,” she adopted a female persona that attempted to rework the notion of constancy, or faithfulness, in failed male-female relationships of the Elizabethan era. Where women are often accused of being unfaithful, the speaker of the epistle “writes” to her unfaithful male lover and holds him accountable for their failed relationship. By analyzing Whitney’s “I.W. To Her Unconstant Lover,” this paper will argue that Whitney’s persona, I.W., challenges the misogynistic conception of female faithfulness because she uses rhetorical devices — like metaphors and allusions — to shift the blame onto dishonest male lovers, whose actions have a negative impact on the constancy of virtuous women. The speaker’s use of metaphors and Greek allusions fundamentally allows her to rework the idea of female inconstancy, which, in turn, absolves her of fault for being abandoned by her ex-lover and presents her as an intelligent and virtuous woman to her English audience.