In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ another theme is obsession and possession. In the title ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, Porphyria owns the Lover, so he is her possession. The biggest example of possession was when the Lover says “That moment she was mine, mine”, this is after he killed Porphyria, and this shows us that possession has made him go insane over possession. Also when it says “I propped her head up as before. Only, this time my shoulder bore”, he is now in control and she is his possession. But the man has an obsession for Porphyria, we can tell because when she is not there he is depressed and upset and when she comes he is then happy, “When Porphyria glided in”, she is his angel. This is different to ‘My last Duchess’ because The Duchess is the Dukes possession, just look at the title “My Last Duchess”, he owns her, she is the Dukes possession.
The next theme I am going to discuss is Power, In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ the power switches from Porphyria to her lover. At first Porphyria is more powerful and more dominant, “She put my arm about her waist”, but the power changes to the Lover when he kills Porphyria, we can tell this because it changes to rhyming couplets, it says “That moment she was mine, mine”, this is the moment the power shifts and then it says “In one long yellow string I wound, three times her little throat around”, because Porphyria is now dead her Lover has now got the power in their relationship. Power gets the better of the men in these two poems, not just because the women die, but because the men think that they have done the right thing “And thus we sit together now, and all night long we have not stirred, And yet God has not said a word”, This shows, what finally happened to the man, he goes crazy. This also shows us what love, power, control, society and possession can do to a person.
I’m going to discuss Society within ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, it is probably what contributes the most to this poem. First of all, Porphyria is Upper class, we can tell this by what she is wearing “Withdrew her dripping cloak and shawl, and laid her spoiled gloves by”, her Lover is Lower class, we can tell this because he lives in a cottage “All the cottage warm”. Although Porphyria loves and worships her lover, they can not be together; she is not strong enough to leave her class for him, “Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavour, to set its struggling passion free from pride, and vainer ties dissever, and give herself to me forever”, this means She is too weak to follow her heart, to set her hearts passion free and be with me forever. At one moment he realises she worships him “Porphyria worshipped me”, he knows they can’t be together because of their different classes in society and wants to capture that moment, and the only way of doing that is by killing her.
Now I will discuss ‘My Last Duchess’, firstly woman. There is only one woman in this poem, she annoys her husband because she treats her husband the same as everybody else, “As if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundreds old name with anybody’s gift”, this shows us she is not appreciative and doesn’t think of her lover because this annoys him unlike Porphyria, she is selfless and thinks of her Lover, “Blaze up, and all the cottage warm; which done, she rose, and from her form withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl”, she made her Lover warm before she took of her dripping cloak shows that she is selfless. The woman in ‘my Last Duchess’ doesn’t behave like she is Upper class, we can see this when it says “The white mule she rode with round the terrace”, a mule is a mongrel animal and the Upper class should not be compared or seen with one. Both Woman In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were killed, but for different reasons, Porphyria was killed because her Lover wanted to capture the moment she worshipped him, but the woman in ‘My Last Duchess’ was killed in cold blood from the orders of the Duke because she was not acting as a Duchess should. In both ‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ the woman are upper class.
In ‘My Last Duchess’, the Duke has the power throughout the poem, you can tell this because it uses rhyming couplets, this shows he’s always in control, Unlike the lover in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, he is never in control until the moment he kills Porphyria “In one long yellow string I wound, three times her little throat around”. The Duke recognises that the duchess treats everyone the same including him but does not want to tell her because he does not lose control because she might argue with him, this easily frustrates him “E’en then would be some stooping, and I choose never to stoop”, this shows us he thinks a lot of himself and he is self centred. He also has power in the way he told someone to kill the duchess “I gave commands”, this shows that he is powerful, the lover from ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is not like this, he does not have the power to have Porphyria killed, he does it himself. In both ‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ an Upper class person has control and is more powerful.
Another Important theme in ‘My Last Duchess’ is possession. In the title ‘My Last Duchess’, the duchess was the duke’s possession before he got her killed, unlike ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, The Lover is Porphyria’s possession before he kills her. You can also tell that the Duchess is the Dukes possession, by he has the painting of her behind the curtains, this shows that he wants nobody to see her and that she is his. The Dukes possessions do not really matter to him, we can tell this when it says “This grew. I gave commands, then all smiles stopped together”, he killed the duchess, one of his possessions. The only Possession he really cared about was his name, “My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”, he cherishes his name and everyone else should.
Lastly, I am going to explain Society in ‘My Last Duchess’. Both people in this poem are Upper class. We can tell that the Duke is Upper class because he is the Duke, Duke are usually Rich and wealthy, this is how we can tell the duchess is Upper class because a proud and controlled Duke would not marry a Lower class person, because he does not stoop, “I choose never to stoop”, unlike the Upper class Porphyria, she is stooping down to her Lovers level, “stooping, made my cheek lie there”. Although, the duchess is Upper class she does not care to stoop from her level, “The white mule she rode with round the terrace”, mules are mongrel animals, they are not pure and pedigree and the duchess does not care what the other Upper class people think of her, unlike Porphyria, she will not stay with her love because of their difference in class. Finally, in ‘My Last Duchess’, the Duke is Upper class, the Duke needs to have a wife, to have a Duchess, “Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed at starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go together down, Sir.” this shows the he needs a Duchess, and he will marry her. The duke gets what he wants in Society, unlike the Lover, he can not be with Porphyria and can not do anything about it.
