Comparison between Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess.

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Poetry Essay

Comparison between Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess.

In Porphyria’s Lover, Browning sets the scene by describing the turbulent weather.  The vexatious wind blowing on the trees and the moody lake is a metaphor of the Lover’s mind in the poem.  It symbolises the violence and anger he has within himself.  The Lover is full of hatred inside.  The bad weather images is like an omen or a forewarning of what’s to come.  Maybe it’s also his insecurities and fears as well as anger – how he’s waiting for Porphyria, and fears she will not come.

There’s a sense of changing of scene after the first four lines describing the weather, which is like an outside circumstance.  Once Porphyria enters the cottage in which the lover lives, she ‘shut the cold out and the storm’ (Line 7).  From then on, the outside world is forgotten about.  We know that the lover lives in a cottage (Line 9), while Porphyria has just come from a ‘gay feast’.  This tells us their difference in rank, Porphyria is obviously of a high social rank than her lover.  The word Porphyria is the name of a precious jewel, this suggests that she is rich.  We have the sense of Porphyria, stepping down her rank when she makes the fire as this is the kind of job usually done by the servant :

‘ And kneeled and made the cheerless grate

  Blaze up, and all the cottage warm ’

Fire symbolises warmth and brightness but it could also mean destruction too.  So, like the bad weather outside, the fire is in a way like another warning of what is to happen.  It’s clever how Browning puts the words ‘Blaze up’ at the beginning of the line.  This makes the words sound like what’s happening i.e. the noise of the fire, the room brightened up by the fire.  The words Blaze up also sounds very dangerous too.  

When Porphyria enters, the Lover’s hatred towards her is blinded by her beauty.  He could be angry because she can’t marry him since there’s a social difference between their ranks.  Lines 11-13 describe Porphyria taking off her ‘dripping cloak and shawl’, her ‘soiled gloves’ and ‘her hat’.  This detail shows the beauty of Porphyria.  This slows down the scene and gives a sense of passing of time.  It’s almost as Porphyria is exposing herself in Line 11-13, she’s allowing her real skin to be seen, it’s a metaphor of herself, opening out to him, or letting everything out in the open.  The word ‘soiled’ used to describe her gloves is a strong word.  It emphasises Porphyria making the fire and making her gloves dirty.  These very sensuous and physical language describes the sexuality of their love.

Porphyria called her lover but there was no reply.  Then

‘she put my arm about her waist,

And made her smooth white shoulder bare’

These two lines feel very unnatural, it is like Porphyria has learnt this.  It is like a seduction.  Porphyria is telling the Lover to notice her, she’s offering herself.  Porphyria is ‘too weak’ and too proud to break her ‘vainer ties’ with the people of her rank but love breaks all boundaries and the desire she has for him sometimes overcomes that.  She left her party, she had ‘come through wind and rain’ to see him and when she murmured how she loved him, the Lover was surprised and overwhelmed with pride and pleasure that she ‘worshipped’ him.  The moment in which the lover witnesses the woman’s apparently wholehearted love – is also the moment that the Lover attempts to preserve by killing her.  He wanted to keep that moment forever.  On Line 36, the repetition of ‘mine’ has the purpose of letting the readers know how controlling he is.  He is obsessed with her.  Porphyria’s Lover wants her to remain ‘pure’ because he had about Porhyria’s independence, her liberty puts his masculine self-estimation at risk.  The readers probably think that he’s stroking her hair in Line 38 and 39 when on the next line they realise that he’s strangling her!  Most of the lines of the poem so far had been quite misty and ambiguous in a way but death when it comes is almost a matter of fact and mathematical.

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‘ Three times her little throat around,

  And strangled her…..’

The Lover chose strangulation as the method of murder probably because it ensures that all the important appearance of Porphyria will remain unblemished, her beauty will still remain.

The way in which she was strangled by her lover with her own hair is like she strangled herself – almost as a way of releasing herself.  

‘And strangled her.  No pain felt she;

 I am quite sure she felt no pain’

The Lover assures himself that he did not really hurt her, that Porphyria didn’t struggle, she wanted ...

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