How does Robert Browning express the feeling on madness and violence in the poems ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘The Laboratory’?
I have currently been studying two poems named ‘porphyrias Lover’ and ‘The laboratory’. Both of these poems by Robert Browning extremely express the emotions madness and violence in some way or another, in this essay I am going to point out just a few of the writing techniques used. Robert Browning wrote both of these poems which means there has to be some similarities in both poems for instance they both use a technique called ‘dramatic monologue’. In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ he kills her because he doesn’t know if he can trust the lady “While I stand and debate what to do” This is a direct quote showing that he doesn’t not know whether he should go through with what he is about to do, also in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ the weather outside the humble cottage in which the man lives, the weather out side is Described as ‘horrible’ “The wind tore down the elm tops in spite” this quote I have used because it is reflecting the typical gothic genre which is suited to the era which Is set in the Victorian era. The weather mentioned in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is also used to set a bad mood for the rest of the poem which eventually in the end does actually end in death. To counter act the disappointment of the weather outside he warms up the cottage then by describing such comforts as the fireplace and other household things he describes that fire place in detail with the vibrant colours and the warmth being emitted from it, he claims the environment is ‘cosy’. The poems stands out and is one of a kind for this particular era because at this time sexually active women were detested by the Victorians they were thought to be very sleazy and also they thought that any sexual actions between man and women should only be done after marriage this quote “I wound three times around her little throat, and strangled her” this makes us think that the character is rather insane or has a strange way of expressing his emotions this also implies that he is not only a crackpot he does it with the own woman’s hair so that could also be classed a ironic that such beauty could come to such a downfall. The words he say’s in the quote may not be coming out of his mouth, he may be thinking them mentally, as if to describe them to a person this thought could mean that the character could be mentally troubled.
