Robert Browning And Porphyria's Lover

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on March 6, 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. She was the eldest of eleven children born of Edward and Mary Moulton-Barrett (DISCovering Authors). Her father was a “possessive and autocratic man loved by his children even though he rigidly controlled their lives” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Although he forbid his daughters to marry, he always managed to encourage their scholarly pursuits (DISCovering Authors). Her mother, Mary Graham-Clarke, was a prosperous woman who earned their wealth from a sugar plantation in Jamaica (EXPLORING Poetry). When Elizabeth was “three years old, the family moved to Hope End in Herefordshire,, and she spent the next twenty-three years of her life in this

Robert Browning wrote the two poems, "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover." Both poems convey an thoughtful, examination profound commentary about the concept of love.

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.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was already a published poet at the time she wrote Cry of the Children in 1843. “In 1838, The Seraphim and Other Poems appeared, the first volume of Elizabeth 's mature poetry” (Everett, 1). If fact, Browning was said to have written poetry as early as age six. Her collection of poetry written during her childhood years is one of the largest of all English writers. One notable poem written when she was just fourteen was called The Battle of Marathon: A poem.

In her book Recollections, Browning describes what poetry means to herself. She explained that it “became a distinct object with me; an object to read, think, and live for” (Preston xii). Browning was described as a strong woman-poet who had little to no training. She came from the “Italian hills into a prim English feminine household, and inevitably assuming there that attitude of superiority to

Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” is a perfect representation of the status of women during the Victorian Era; women were treated as objects not people. They were property of men, not individuals. In this poem, the speaker, Porphyria’s lover, murders Porphyria and does not only think it was okay to do so, but he also thinks what he has done is noble. In the lines shown above, the speaker begins to realize that Porphyria loves him. Not only does she love him, but she “worships” him. This further pushes the idea that, because he is a man and she a women, he is so superior to her that he is a god. It is not actually her love that he wants, it is the power that he gets from earning her love and making her his subject. His heart does not swell because of the joy in discovering that she loves him; it swells because of this sense of pride he now feels. In the next line, he debates what to do to preserve her “love” forever. In line 36, the speaker comments on how, in that moment, Porphyria was pure and innocent, as Victorian women should be, and suddenly thinks of how to keep her that way. The speaker wants to hold on to the image of her like this forever; so he decides to kill her. The narrator then strangles Porphyria. When describing the act of strangling her, the narrator describes her throat as “little.” Here he is once again showing his dominance over her. However, the most important thing is that he uses her hair, of all things, to strangle her. At the time, hair was a

Elizabeth Barret Browning was born in 1806 in England. She lived the first twenty-six years of her life on her family’s estate, Hope’s End, in Herefordshire, England. Being from a wealthy family who made a fortune in Jamaica, she lived in luxury riding horses, making house calls, and hosting get-togethers with family friends. With a large private library, she spent much of her time reading classic literature and learning different languages. This somewhat carefree life was greatly affected when her mother died in 1826,

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Victorian Era. She was born on March 6, 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. Barrett had a big family, she was the oldest out of 12 children. Her parents, Mary Graham Clarke and Edward Barrett, educated their children at home. The family made their money off of Jamaican sugar plantations and depended on slave labor. Barrett began her love for reading and writing poetry at a very young age. She began reading the classic poetry written by William Shakespeare and John Milton. At the age of 12, she wrote her first book of poetry. When Barrett was 14 years old, she suffered a spinal injury while riding her pony. The doctors diagnosed her with a skeletal

Browning’s upper, middle class childhood was known for being extremely happy. She was born in 1806 in Durham, England, during the Romantic Movement, which held a wide appreciation for the natural world along with the mystic and supernatural. (Poets.org) Browning was the oldest of 12 siblings. Unlike her siblings, Browning completely immersed herself in books and the study of languages. During an interview later in her career, she was quoted as saying, “Books and dreams were what I lived in and domestic life only seemed to buzz gently around, like bees about the grass,” (“Elizabeth Barrett Browning”). Beginning her poetry career at the age four, she started to compose verses. At the age of six she sold her father “some lines on virtue with great care” for 10 shillings (“Elizabeth Barrett Browning”). During her tenth year, Elizabeth wrote four books which were completely made of rhyming couplets. This book, The Battle of Marathon, was published privately for only her family to have and appreciate (“Elizabeth Barrett Browning”). Browning also taught herself how to read

The word ‘love’ possesses such complexity and magnitude that people commonly have a hard time defining it effectively without oversimplifying. Given the true intensity of feeling, jealousy is often said to be synonymous with being in love and the real impact love can have on a person can be unpredictable. Considering this, The Cambridge Dictionary defines a ‘crime of passion’ as a crime committed because of very strong emotional feelings, especially in connection with a sexual relationship. The poems “Porphyria’s Lover” and “The Laboratory” by Robert Browning, although significantly different, essentially share the theme of love and jealousy. In both poems, readers are introduced to the darker side of romance through male and female speakers so overwhelmed with emotion, they turn to murder as a means of expression. Using dramatic monologue, Browning brilliantly explores the profound effect love can have on its victims and the psychological elements leading to a crime of passion.

The two Robert Browning poems, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were written in the infamous Victorian Era whereas the two Shakespearean Sonnets were written in the Elizabethan Era. The styles of the poems differ in accordance to the difference of the time in which they were written. Pre-Romantic Era poems moved away from the idealistic concept of love towards a more realistic consideration of it, taking into account the social

During the nineteenth century people were under a strict patriarchal rule, especially the women. In those times, women were seen as ornaments “a momentary toy of passion” to the society and properties to be traded within marriage, therefore, Victorian moralists repressed female sexuality. As a result, for a woman to admit she even had sexual desires was considered sinful, let alone acting on those desires - like Porphyria did - was borderline criminal. Moreover, when Porphyria “glided in” she “untied her hat and let her damp hair fall”. Victorian moralists referred to female fornicators as ‘fallen’ women. Additionally, committing adultery was also a sin as it went against one of the Ten Commandments “Thou shall not commit adultery”, therefore, Porphyria ‘letting her hair fall’ could symbolise the boundaries she had willingly chosen to overstep by coming to meet her lover.

Browning wrote a volume of Byronic verse, titled, Incondita, at the age of twelve. He later destroyed it. In 1828, he enrolled at the University of London, but soon left, wanting to study and read at his own pace. In 1833, Browning anonymously published his first major published work, “Pauline,” and in 1840 he published “Sordello,” Browning published a series of eight pamphlets titled, Bells and Pomegranates from 1841 to 1845. Although, this work did not win critical esteem or popularity, it did gain the admiration of Elizabeth Barrett, who was a respected and popular poet in her own right. In 1844 she praised Browning in one of her works and received a grateful letter from him in response. They met in 1845, fell madly in love, and ignoring the disapproval of her father eloped to Italy in 1846. Their departure took place as planned on the morning of Sunday, 20, September, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, their maid Elizabeth Wilson, and their dog Flush, stepped ashore from the Southampton boat at Le Havre. They left behind them a very angry man (Karlin 169). In fact, Mr. Barrett returned Elizabeth’s letters unopened for the rest of her life. Her health improved in Italy and she gave birth to a son in 1849, Robert Wiedermann Barrett Browning. Perhaps, her best-known work, Sonnets to the Portuguese , a volume of poems to her husband was written during their years in Italy. She became ill in 1861, and after only fifteen glorious years together, she died

A Comparison of the Dramatic Monologues of Porphyria's Lover and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning