Porphyria's Lover Analysis

‘Porphyria’s lover’ by Robert Browning is the description of an intimate night-time meeting between a man, the lover and narrator, and a woman, Porphyria. The word Porphyria itself is a medical disorder which involves painful symptoms – this suggests that something painful will happen to the girl sometime in the poem. Within the first couple of lines Browning set the mood for the poem, ‘the sullen wind was soon awake, it tore the elm-tops down for spite,’ It’s a description of the elements battling it out in the dark of the night, which is perhaps a metaphor for a prior argument between lovers. The timing of the meeting, in the middle of the night, may suggest that this was a secret assignation, something that was always going to happen, like it was fate. At the start of this poem, Browning suggests that Porphyria was once blinded by her pride and vanity and rejected the lover; however he suggests that she gave in to her passions and pursued him. Porphyria then ‘shut the cold and the storm’ out as if the lover had been sitting in the cottage with doors and windows open, exposed to the weather, and she comes to close the doors and window. This imagery may represent a desire to stop

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arguing, to calm the storm. She then proceeds into the warm cottage and take off her sodden clothes, ‘withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl.’ She then speaks to her lover however he doesn’t respond so she leans in close to him and pulls his arms around her, spreading her hair over them both and murmuring endearments. At this point Browning switches from describing what is happening, to what the lover is thinking. He seems to judge Porphyria as weak, prevented by pride (its struggling passion free from pride…’) and vanity from joining him eternally. I believe that from how the lover describes/is thinking of Porphyria, that the lover once asked Porphyria to join him in marriage but was rejected, I believe that the lover believes that she was greatly influenced by his little wealth and low class – this is the main reason as to why they are not together. The reflective section continues where the lover reveals that ‘passion would sometimes prevail,’ this indicates that Porphyria, despite her rejection of the lover, was nonetheless driven by impulse to seek him out, ‘a sudden thought of one so pale for love of her.’ In the next couple lines the lover realized that Porphyria ‘worshipped’ him. Porphyria wanted to be with the lover however knew this wouldn’t be possible so she would rather die than live without the one she loves. The lover then had to decide whether he could/wanted to kill her and ‘debated what to do.’ The lover then decides what he wants to/has to do and reluctantly proceeds, ‘I found a thing to do.’ In this climax of the poem, the lover realizes he has come across a perfect moment, binds Porphyria’s golden hair into a rope, ‘three times her little throat around’ and strangled her. He assures the reader that she felt no pain, and then, opening the ‘bud’ of her eye, reveals laughing blue eyes ‘without a strain.’ In the final lines of the poem, the lover pulls Porphyria close to him (a mirror of her embrace in lines 15 to 21,) sees her as triumphant in claiming the lover and they sit together through the night, motionless, without any comment from the almighty, ‘and yet God has not said a word!’ Browning utilizes the murder by using vivid imagery, repetition, and bias to reinforce the speaker’s reason in murdering her beloved. He uses vivid imagery when describing the intensity of the love between Porphyria and her lover. He described in detail the woman undressing and placing the hand of her beloved around her waist. The author also describes in great detail the horrible weather that the woman had faced to get to the house of her loved one. This emphasizes how much the woman loves the man as she would come to him in a rainy and stormy night away from all the comforts in her life just to die with him. The author also uses great detail when describing how the main speaker views the woman. The words used to describe the woman portray the woman as an angelic figure. The way the woman is described it seems as if the speaker believes that she is a very beautiful woman. This shows how much the man loves the woman also. She looks like an angel from his eyes. In addition to vivid imagery the author also has a powerful use of repetition and foreshadowing in his poem. The foreshadowing is found mostly at the beginning of the poem. The setting of the poem is set at the beginning as a dark gloomy place. There is a major storm raging outside as the woman enters the hose of her beloved. Browning writes “The sullen wind was soon awake, it tore the elm-tops down for spite, and did its worse to vex the lake:” .This ominous setting installs in the reader a sense of dread and properly foreshadows the impending death. The morose setting properly precedes the inevitable tragedy that takes place later in the story. Just by reading the first few lines of the poem the reader can feel that something tragic has happened or will happen soon. Also the author’s frequent repetition of certain phrases emphasizes certain ideas. When the author says that “No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain” he emphasizes that the man is feeling bad about the crime he had just committed and is trying to convince himself that the women felt no pain upon death. All of this evidence clearly shows that the woman and man were in secretly in love against the will of their society and the woman made her beloved kill her because she could not bear to live without him. The poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning features a significant moment which further develops the central idea of the poem. Browning explores the darker side of love and passion that develops into jealousy, obsession and possessiveness. The poem is written from the perspective of Porphyria’s elusive lover. As the love and passion between them is made apparent the poem becomes more sinister. Finally the speaker, in a desperate attempt to control her, kills Porphyria using her hair to strangle her. Personally, I like how Robert Browning has used different techniques throughout the poem, I also believe that this is an example of true love – the man/lover is willing to kill his lover/Porphyria in order for them to be together forever.

Teacher Reviews

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Laura Gater

4th of Jul 2013

Some reasonably strong points on language and character but as this is an analysis of a poem, further references should have been made to form and structure and how they are used to shape meaning. 4 Stars

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