Monday, June 27, 2011
Robert Browning:Porphyria's Lover
When I finished reading this I was completely shocked. Why would the man kill an innocent woman? What was the purpose of this poem? From analyzing the poem, I believe its main theme is centered around obsession and control over something that he knows he has no control over. The beginning of the poem starts out with the woman dead already and the speaker is flashing back how he killed her. "She put my arm about her waist, and made her smooth white shoulder bare, and all her yellow hair displaced." The speaker describes the woman as "too weak, for als her heart's endeavor, to set its struggling passion free." This shows the vulnerability of the woman. "To set its struggling passion free From pride, and vainer ties dissever, and give herself to me." This quote shows that he is trying to control her by taking her innocence away from her. I interpret this as an obsession for a love that may not be present between them anymore. "Be sure I looked up at her eyes Happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshipped me." I believe this quote shows that the man has past is point of no return on planning to kill her. When he finally kills her, he probably felt a sense of superiority and power and macho for actually killing someone he dearly loved. He probably rather to have her to himself or kill her. That may be the reason why he killed her, since he could not have her anymore.
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I was also shocked by this--although the decision seemed to be spur of the moment. I didn't look at it as superiority but as a way to preserve her love and the moment. It was very controlling and obsessive to take that route. I do think he must have loved her deeply. After all, he sits with her for the rest of the evening.... What I didn't understand was what meaning he got from the fact that he wasn't immediately punished for his actions. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I couldn't believe this poem either. The guy must have had some mental issues and control issues. I don't know how you could jsut kill a women and the part I thought was the worse was that he sat with her dead body a for some time after he killed her. That is just so corrupt, it shows that it obviously didn't phase him at all.
ReplyDeleteThis poem only adds evidence to something I came to believe a long time ago: people were just as weird and sick centuries ago as they are now. The only difference between then and now is that now we have more people and more weird stories and more ways to get those stories into the public eye.
ReplyDeleteMarie,
ReplyDeleteMuch better analysis here, with some good comments on Browning's shocking dramatic monologue. You provide some good insights into the speaker's thought processes.
Indeed the act that he committed was very gross. My thoughts were the love of his life was about to die and he thought that by giving her the wish she asked for he was not committing a horrible act. Even when he kept her body beside him all night he thought he was preserving a special time that no one could take from. It was morbid !!!!!!
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