Porphyria's Lover
A poem in which the speakers personality is gradually revealed. I will be writing about how Robert Browning shows through the content and the language of the poem, aspects of the character which gradually emerge through the use of
The weather at the beginning of the poem seems to be a hint towards the mood of the main character, the weather is described as
'The rain set early in to night
The sullen wind was soon awake'
This is Browning saying that the person who sits inside of his cottage waiting for Porphyria suddenly has these emotions flair up, he has become upset and 'sullen'. This also reflects the mood of the poem at the beginning as well as showing the mood of the character. Browning continues to use the weather for the effect of conveying the mood of the protagonist with,
'It tore the elm-tops down for spite,'
This seems to make the lover angry now that Porphyria has not turned up to see him. 'tore' and 'down for spite' seem to reflect his anger. This is the feelings of the lover being revealed at the beginning he seems upset that Porphyria is not there for him, but it also reveals how he expects Porphyria to be there for him even in this horrible weather, it seems selfish. Browning yet again uses the weather to describe the moods of lover
'And did its worst to vex the lake:'
Which is making the wind personified as a person who is upset and is trying to worry the lake over something relatively small, but too the lover it is something big to him because the one he loves has not turned up. The lover says
'I listened with heart fix to break.'
Which shows he is now upset that Porphyria has not turned up for him and it also shows that he loves her very much. It now also brings forward the fact that Browning has chosen to write it in the form of a dramatic monologue which is only from the perspective of the lover so we only get his feelings towards Porphyria and we do not find out what her feelings toward him are.
We are first introduced to Porphyria when the lover is sitting there getting more and more upset because his love has not turned up and then unexpectedly he says,
'When glided in Porphyria; straight'
The words Browning has used such as 'glided' and 'straight' show how elegant she seems it also mentions that she is from a upper class and the lover is from a poor class as he is sitting inside a cottage. 'glided' and 'straight' is also used to show the lovers increasingly apparent obsession with her as he is noticing every little thing like things such as how she walks and stands. The presence of Porphyria to the lover is a warming one as he says,
'She shut the cold out and the storm'
Which is him saying the appearance of Porphyria has now taken away any feelings of anger and upset inside the lover believing she will not turn up. By this point we know as readers to the poem that the lover seems to obsess over her as the weather reflects his mood because the lover thinks Porphyria will not turn up even though the weather is dreadful and it seems almost selfish of the lover to expect this. Also the sudden appearance of Porphyria has warmed the cottage for him ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
'She shut the cold out and the storm'
Which is him saying the appearance of Porphyria has now taken away any feelings of anger and upset inside the lover believing she will not turn up. By this point we know as readers to the poem that the lover seems to obsess over her as the weather reflects his mood because the lover thinks Porphyria will not turn up even though the weather is dreadful and it seems almost selfish of the lover to expect this. Also the sudden appearance of Porphyria has warmed the cottage for him with,
'And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;'
'Blaze up' almost seems to reflect the sudden change from a sullen mood at the beginning of the poem to the appearance of Porphyria suddenly changing his emotions to become happier. Another problem arises with the lover and it also shows his personality more, he sits there noticing the things Porphyria does such as,
'Which done, she rose, and from her form
Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl'
We get the impression that the lover is becoming confused and perhaps more upset to why Porphyria is doing all this yet not going to the man and acknowledging him at first. This is a dramatic monologue so it is likely to be bias as it is from only one point of view, but we can see that Porphyria is doing this for the man, making the cottage warmer for him because it shows she cares about him and in fact that she loves him. This is different for the lover as he says,
'Her hat and let the damp hair fall,
And, last, she sat down by my side'
The lover is saying here that she has now finished whatever she is doing and has finally sat down by the man. The lover however is blind as he cannot see that Porphyria does the things before hand to make things a little bit more comfortable for the man. He seems angry at the fact that she sat down next to him "last" this is made clear when it says in the poem,
'And called me. When no voice replied,'
This clearly shows the mood of the lover because Porphyria came to him last. He seems upset over something that would appear trivial to us and maybe this is perhaps due to him being so obsessed with her. Porphyria continues to show her affections and love towards the man when the lover describes Porphyria,
'She put my arm about her waist,
And made her smooth white shoulder bare,'
This also shows that Porphyria does love him and the lover can't stop her from taking his arms because he loves her a lot as well and also obsesses over her. This can be seen to be quite innocent but it also hints that there will be a event later on the poem that the man will become even more obsessive and do something bad.
The lover is portrayed by Browning to be someone who is poor this is helped with the cottage and also it seemingly being out in the middle of the country and not the city where the upper classes would have homes. Porphyria is portrayed to be someone as from a upper class this is helped with the word choice such as 'glided' and 'straight' and also the layers she seems to be wearing to get through the bad weather. There is also another thing that shows she is from a upper class, and this is her hair and what is described for the look of it,
'And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair'
This shows that great care has gone into the hair definitely something that would not be seen in the working class females of the Victorian times. So It suggests that Porphyria is in fact from a upper class. The hair also seems to be something that the lover is attracted to because he mentions how it lays and the colour of it on more than one occasion, but later it will lead him to do something that shows his psychological state of mind. The lover also notices that Porphyria can't be with this man forever because she is not strong enough to be able to leave behind her life of luxury and wealth, this is shown with the lover saying,
'Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, and vainer ties dissever,'
She is too weak to leave behind her upper class lifestyle because of the scandal it would cause. She does love the man very much as this is shown with 'struggling passion' showing it is in her but she cannot love him enough to live with him. The lover is very much aware of this and he knows in the end she will leave to marry another man and this is what makes him obsessive over Porphyria. The lover does realise that Porphyria does also love him very much. The lover is with Porphyria and he,
'looked up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me: surprise'
This is the lover saying he was unsure of what Porphyria's emotions towards him were but as he 'looked up at her eyes' he suddenly realises that Porphyria has come through the dreadful storm and left a feast to be with the man. Also the word 'worshiped' me is a exaggeration that highlights the bias of the lover as he believes Porphyria loves him so much that she almost worships him. The personality of the lover is shown here to be someone who is completely obsessed with her and almost wants to be in control of her all the time.
The poem takes a darker turn when the lover says,
'Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.'
The lover is overcome with emotions but there is a change seen in the character as 'debated' what to do seems very menacing for someone who loves Porphyria so much. This again is showing his obsession with Porphyria, we now really don't know what he is going to do next as it seems that his obsession with Porphyria has almost turned him mad. At this point of the poem the personality of the character has turned more mysterious and menacing, we're never really sure what he wants to do. The turning point of the poem is,
'A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,'
We now realise that the lover has in fact gone completely mad with his love and obsession for Porphyria. He does this because he believes it is 'pure' and 'good' and also because he knows that Porphyria cannot be with the man forever so he believes this is the best way to do it. Browning has in fact made a character that seems innocent at the start but turns completely evil and insane nearing the end. This is also to point out that love is not always a good thing that it can lead to bad things. It then goes on to describe the horrific murder of Porphyria in graphic detail,
'And strangled her. No pain felt she;'
This is in fact a complete lie, the lover has turned completely insane and deluded himself into thinking that Porphyria felt 'No pain' but this cannot be true because the lover has 'strangled' her which is a horrific way to be murdered. The lover is doing this because he trying to convince himself that she felt nothing,
'I am quite sure she felt no pain'
Also Browning puts a effective simile in that describes the way how her eyes are after being murdered,
'As a shut bud that holds a bee'
And also the lover yet again deludes himself into thinking that she felt no pain as he says,
'I warily opened her lids: again
Laughed the blue eyes without a stain'
The lover has turned insane enough that he almost starts believing that this is what Porphyria wanted to happen, but we know that there is no mention from the lover that this is what she wanted. The lover has now gained his one wish, Porphyria will now be with him forever. Browning is exploring a psychological element of this poem through the form of the lover, he shows the lover to be sullen and upset at the beginning but during the course of the poem we then see gradual obssesion over Porphyria building up to a climax which results in her being killed. It is also proof that violence always escalates.
The lover is now believed to be completely insane due to killing the woman that he loved so passionately. This is because of the obsession that can be seen bubbling underneath the man and this suddenly becoming more and more apparent. The lover has also deluded himself into thinking that this is what she wanted,
'Her darling one wish would be heard.
And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!'
The word 'darling' shows that he still almost believes her to be alive and that she is loving him right now, but he does not know and fully understand the harsh reality that she is in fact not because he murdered her. The repetition of the word 'And' is interesting as it almost shows that the lover is rushing through to emphasise that he has in fact turned completely insane by the end of the poem. And a another very interesting thing he says like 'God has not said a word!' shows that the lover believes that the murder of Porphryia is good because God has not done anything to punish the man and this poem is set in a time where people were very religious and believed that if you did anything bad God will punish you, but this man has proved them wrong, by having a affair, turning selfish and obsessed and killing a innocent woman.
