Porphyria 's Lover By Robert Browning

Robert Browning provides a critical view of gender and power relations in his dramatic monologues “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess.” The dramatic monologue, as S.S. Curry has written, "reveals the struggle in the depths of the soul” (11). Browning delves into the minds of characters to show their conceptions of women and ideas of power. He explores the mental processes of the characters, and invites readers to question societal ideas of power and gender. The mental pathologies of the speakers is emphasized, which forces readers to examine the sanity of their own notions of gender dynamics.

“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning, commences off as a romantic poem being told by a deranged doter which anon, then has an ironic plot twist towards the cessation of the poem. Porphyria’s Lover was the first short dramatic monologue that Browning indite. In a dramatic monologue, the reader is revealed what the character is thinking and how they feel. This poem became published in January 1836. It is also one of his first poems to feature a character with a clinical dementia disorder. This poem went unnoticed upon its first publication, but it later gained attention in the literary and even psychological department as being one of the first poems to dig into the issue of mental illness in the 19th century. Robert Browning

“I found a thing to do, and all her hair in one long yellow string wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her.” (line 37) A beautiful young woman is killed in the woods by a man she had been seeing secretly. The killer is quite sure that there is nothing wrong with what he did. This is the scenario that Robert Browning has built for his readers. How can these crazy things be understood? What are we supposed to learn about the killer in this poem, and how does Browning show us these things? In the poem “Porphyria’s Lover,” Robert Browning uses careful diction and contrast to show that The Speaker in the poem yearns for control over his life.

“Art is an expression of human creative skill and imagination” (google) Paintings are works of art created to express or let out a person’s creativity or feelings towards a certain subject. In Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue, “The Last Duchess”, he uses the painting as a symbolism of the Duke’s relationship with his former wife. Therefore, as the Duke tries to impress people with his wealth through the painting of Fra Pandolf, he instead unintentionally displays his true personality to others. Initially, the painting is used to reveal Duke’s jealous nature as he mistakes his wife’s friendless as flirting which later reveals his controlling nature. Ultimately, the Duke’s selfishness and greed for power is slowly revealed through abusing art to control his wife and others.

During the poem “Porphyria’s Lover”, a switch in agency vividly presents itself to show when the lover’s obsession of Porphyria changes him. Porphyria’s ability to act freely depends on solely herself before the text reads, “To set its struggling passion free… And give herself to me for ever/ But passion sometimes would prevail” (Browning 23-26). Up until this major turning point, Browning gave all of the actions to Porphyria, proving her own agency and control over it. The lover discusses her heart’s passion as if it struggles because he feels as though he should act on and improve her situation.

In the Terrifying yet fascinating Short story “The Most Dangerous Game” and the poem “Porphyria’s Lover” General Zaroff and the man who loved Porphyria both had obsessions that were so extreme they became murderers. They both loved something so much that after time they became obsessed with them. The man who loved Porphyria was captivated by her beauty and when she finally told him that he loved her he was so pleased that he thought that she must love him forever so he murdered her to make that happen. The general fell in love with hunting it was his passion, but when he began to become bored with he decided to make it a little more interesting. He decided that hunting and killing men would be a good idea to keep him entertained. Both of these men have become insane from there intense attachment to the things they love. For instance Porphyria’s lover strangles her and becomes content and happy because she will now be with him forever, and General Zaroff laughs as he is hunting down Rainsford to murder him. Through Browning and Connells use of metaphors and intense details they were able to convey that obsession can lead to madness.

The love that Porphyria has for the Speaker is seen to be invalid due to the significant difference of social classes between the two. As the poem progresses, the Speaker’s frustration grows more and his patience more weak as he realizes the issue he is having with Porphyria is Porphyria herself and that there is only one way for him to solve his issue: murder. The speaker goes on to say, “she, Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour, To set its struggling passion free From pride” (Browning 20-24). The Speaker does not consider the presence of Porphyria to be a sin, but her issue with letting aside her noble pride to be with whom she truly loves, the actual sin.

“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning creates precise imagery and diction that suggests the emotional development throughout the poem. As the narrative progresses, the reader recognizes that the speaker’s lover, Porphyria, visits him on a stormy night; Once the speaker realizes how much Porphyria loves him he decides to capture the moment by murdering her. Although the speaker discusses the events steadily, the descriptive language used expresses the diverse emotions the speaker’s experienced. The speaker begins by describing a stormy scene stating, “The rain set early in tonight, /

No pain she felt” makes me say the speaker of “Porphyria’s Lover” is a murderer (984). In the poems both of the murderers makes readers believe that their victims are still alive. Not only are the speakers murderers, but they are selfish too. They are selfish because both of the men want to keep their women to themselves.

“ oh honey, you can’t drink the poosion and expect iy yo kill someone else”- unknown. Poe and Browning uses device’s setting and characterzation to convey that people can mean so much that you just don’t want themto go or you hurt people but you don’t mean it. Poe uses characterzation to show how the guy was evil. When he found fortunato and said “ my dear Fortunato you are luckily met”. He is coky “Ha,HaHe,He- a very good joke indeed- an excellent jest”. He loves the pain Fortuntato is feeling and finds joy in this also connects with a poem. Robert Browning uses imageryto help show the pyschoness in the man. First example is when he kills Porphyria “ in one long yellow string i wound three times her little throat around and strangled her.No

In both poems Browning presents violent, resentful, bitter, arrogant personas with a jaundiced perspective of women. The bitter tone presented within the hyperbole, ‘she liked whatever she looked on,’ in ‘My Last Duchess,’ provides the reader with an insight into the persona’s jealous and controlling nature. Furthermore, both personas actions towards their respective lovers are implied to be aggressive, hostile and belligerent. In ‘Porphyria’s Lover,’ the personas commits murder through strangulation, while in ‘My Last Duchess,’ Browning implies, through the use of sibilance and sinister connotations within the dialogue, ‘all smiles stopped,’ that the persona ordered the murder of his Duchess. Throughout both poems Browning suggests that the effectiveness of relationships is primarily concerned with a sense of mutual trust and respect, equal status for both the male and female, and lastly the ability to compromise. The failure of the respective personas to adhere to these vital values within their relationships, coupled with the implied sense of male superiority and the vanity of both personas, is suggestive of the notion of

The Victorian Age was a time of relative prosperity, improvement and stability. At the same time, there was also a strong emphasis on individuals becoming more educated and in two seemingly normal pieces of literature, “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” written by Robert Browning, are in actuality so twisted that the lovers of each poem are characterized as deranged. Both monologues incorporate unique aspects of love that deviate from the norm because it is nowhere close to a happy ending. The lovers of each poem provide contrasting views on love that convey their haughty attitude towards love and their irrational reasoning that justifies their behavior. Disturbing images are prevalent in both poems creating a mysterious and elegiac tone. Browning also includes fervent diction to contrast the different behaviors of each speaker in the poems and convey that pursuing love comes along with inevitable consequences.

The dramatic monologue “My Last Duchess” was penned down by Robert Browning. In this poem, the narrator is the Duke of Ferrara, and the listener is the count’s agent, through whom the Duke is arranging the proposed marriage to a second duchess. The poem is ironical and reveals its rhetorical sense, gradually. In the later part of the poem, the Duke claims that he does not have a skill in speech, but his monologue is a masterpiece of subtle rhetoric. While supposedly entertaining the listener by showing his wife’s portrait, he clearly reveals his character. Through his formalized tone of rhyme, he reveals his egoistic and jealous attitude.

The title ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ may indicate to the reader the idea that the lover would be the only active article in the poem, especially if it was written by a male during those times. However, at the beginning of the poem Porphyria is immediately given the active role, she’s the one who “glided in” wanting to visit him “for love of her…/ through wind and rain”, she also “shut the out cold and storm”. This gives Porphyria a masculine physical ability as she has the power to “shut…out” something as sinewy as a storm, which goes against the female stereotype.