Jason Groth
Ms. Wilson
English IV B
22nd May 2013
Victorian
Period
The Victorian Era was a time of overwhelming growth, prosperity,
and progress in England (Holt 878). Individuals had questions to whether or not
if they should question traditional values and questioned the most if all things should move forward and
change? (Holt 878). Browning experimented with different styles of literature
to challenge the traditions of most English poetry (Holt 907). Robert Browning
used dramatic monologue, pathetic fallacies, and sexual undertones to expose
his readers to the unthinkable minds of his speakers.
“Porphyria’s Lover” opens up with pathetic fallacy. Pathetic
fallacy is “giving nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings”
(Dictionary.com). Browning includes this technique to give the speaker a
natural tone to the setting of the poem. This is proven by, “The rain set early
in tonight, / The sullen wind was soon awake, / It tore the elm tops down for
spite, / And did its worst to vex the lake: / I listened with heart fit to
break” (ll. 1-5). These lines set the mood of the poem by setting up the gloomy
and dark poem as it foreshadows Porphyria’s death at the climax of the poem.
The imagery of the storm shows destructiveness and its violence as for the
attitude of Porphyria’s lover.
The
title that Browning has chosen for this poem is for importance of the meaning
of Porphyria. Porphyria is a type of disease. This disease has many symptoms
and they include, “[P]ersonality
changes or mental disorders, cramping, vomiting and chest pain. When skin is
exposed to sunlight the individual may have increased hair growth, blisters and
swelling of the skin” (WebMD). Based on the symptoms of Porphyria we can assume
that she has it in the poem because she has pale white, “… [a] sudden thought
of one so pale…” (ll. 28). We also know that she could have this disease
because of her long blonde hair that ended her life, “… [i]n one long yellow
string I wound / Three times her little throat around…” (ll. 39-40). Her lover
has Porphyria disease too because of his personality changes or mental
disorders. We know this because it, “[m]ade my heart swell,
and still it grew / While I debated what to do. / That moment she was mine,
mine, fair / Perfectly pure and good: I found / A thing to do, and all her hair
/ In one long yellow string
I wound / Three times her little throat around, / And strangled her” (ll.
34-41). This change in the story could have made Porphyria’s lover start his
mental disorders causing him to kill Porphyria.
The use of sexual undertones is easily shown throughout
Porphyria’s Lover to show the feeling of love the two individuals share with
one another. This is shown by, “[s]he put my arm about her waist, / And made
her smooth white shoulder bare…” (ll. 16-17). This quote shows the trust the
two have for each other because during this era it was consider inappropriate
for women to show their body. Porphyria seems to be very comfortable with her
lover because she is able to trust her lover, but it is her being comfortable
that ends up causing her death. “And all her yellow hair displaced, / And,
stooping, made my cheek lie there, / And spread, o’er all, her yellow hair, […]
In one long yellow string I wound / Three times her little throat around, / And
strangled her” (ll. 18-20, 39-41). This relaxed vibe she gets with her lover
takes fair advantage over her and kills her.
The
dramatic monologue that Browning has put into Porphyria’s Lover is to get the
view of the lover’s perspective and understand exactly what happened the night
Porphyria was killed (Holt 990). Dramatic Monologue is when, “a poetic form in
which a single character, addressing a silent auditor at a critical moment, reveals himselfor herself and the dramatic situation”
(Dictionary.com). Browning also used social commentary to show that the two lovers
can never be together because of the social class difference between the two. “Murmuring
how she loved me—she / Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavor, / To set its
struggling passion free / From pride, and vainer ties dissever, / And give herself to me forever” (ll.
21-25). The lover being in a lower
social class than Porphyria the reader can get the sense that no matter how
much their love for each other is unimaginable, they could never be together
(Wilson).
While
reading through Porphyria’s Lover, the narrator of the poem must be unreliable.
Since the poem is in dramatic monologue, the lover must be telling the story
because Porphyria is dead at the end of the poem. “…No pain felt she; / I am
quite sure she felt no pain” (ll. 41-42). The lover says this after he strangled
Porphyria because he claims that he did this murder was for the best for their
lives. “And thus we sit together now, / And all night long
we have not stirred, / And yet God has not said a word” (ll. 58-60). What he
says here further backs up his claim that Porphyria’s murder was justified.
Near the end of the poem, there is no sign of the lover feeling guilty of what
he has done. When God has not answered to his murder the reader can assume that
this was a wish by God and that their love for each other was soon to be done
because of the social difference between the two.
Robert Browning’s,
“Porphyria’s Lover” uses dramatic monologue, sexual undertones, and pathetic
fallacies to help the reader become exposed to the darker side of the Victorian
Era. The use of these techniques help show the evil side of love and the evil
side of a man who used murder to help him not become caught with a woman in a
different social class. Browning used “Porphyria’s Lover” to help the reader become
‘scientific interested in evil’ to explore the complexity of human motivation
(Holt 878).
Works Cited
"Holt McDougal Online." Holt
McDougal Online. N.p., n.d. Web.
27 May 2013.
