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His Everlasting Moment of Intimacy Essay

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In the widely acclaimed novel “Catching Fire”, the fictional character Peeta Mellark is quoted as saying, “I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever.” (Collins). Coincidentally, that is what the unnamed lover in Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “Porphyria’s Lover” aspires to achieve when he murders his beloved Porphyria, in hopes of preserving their intimate moment for eternity. At the start of the poem, Browning seemingly shows his audience a loving, romantic scene of Porphyria affectionately tending her inert beau. As the dramatic monologue progresses, it is learned that the originally envisioned romantic love story has transformed into a disturbing tale of a cruel lover’s massacre of his …show more content…

He does this when he refers to Porphyria in a peculiarly different way after she has died: “The smiling rosy little head, / So glad it has its utmost will, / And I, its love, am gained instead!” (52-53, 55). The persona, through synecdoche, addresses his dead lover as only a “head” and continues to objectify her by calling her “it”. The speaker’s objectification of his beloved shows how he only views Porphyria as an object that he owns—a mere possession. He also stresses about how Porphyria has “gained” him, when in actuality what he really means is that now he finally owns her forever. This clearly illustrates his outrageous and crazy way of thinking as he fulfills his never-ending moment with Porphyria by murdering her, and diminishes her later into a simple possession that he could do whatever he wishes to do with. Therefore, Browning makes use of adept word choices in order to display the persona’s extreme possessiveness and irrationality. In addition, Browning blatantly uses imagery to convey the persona’s deliriousness, and obsessiveness towards his lover. In the poem, Browning noticeably visualizes the events that have just occurred in the monologue, while at the same time he effectively illustrates the underlying meaning behind its imagery to reveal the persona’s nature. It is visualized in the piece, “Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss;” (48). If

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