Porphyria's Lover Flashcards
Robert Browning
What does it show?
“The rain set early in to-night, the sullen wind was soon awake”
Pathetic fallacy is used to establish a dark and disturbed tone, reflecting the disturbed speaker - the wind is also personified showing how nature is even miserable
Links to Romanticism
What does it show?
“Glided in Porphyria”
Has supernatural connotations, the speaker doesn’t view her as a human
Porphyria is also a blood disease causing hallucinations which add to the madness
AO4: has links to La Belle and the Knight and how the Knight had a dream/hallucinated due to his illness about pale kings/prince’s and warriors - also supernatural links “faery’s child”
What does it show?
“When no voice replied, she put my arm around her waist”
He does not reply to her showing his inability to deal with her as she is she is not the expected female figure in society. She is the active one out of the two of them - reason as to why he later kills her
What does it show?
“Give herself to me for ever”
Temporal deixis demonstrates the speakers desires to play god - he wants ultimate control
What does it show?
“Porphyria worshipped me”
Has religious connotations to demonstrate the power imbalance of her and the speaker (lovers hubris)
What does it show?
“Mine, mine”
The repetition of the possessive pronoun shows the speakers controlling nature
Has links to My Last Duchess: “This is my last Duchess painted on the wall”. Also links to other romanticism poets, John Keats: “I placed her on my pacing steed”/”I closed her eyes” (all showing characteristics of a controlling narrator)
What does it show?
“Passion…prevail…perfectly pure”
Plosive alliteration - this foreshadows the danger and violence that is to be committed later in the poem - creates tension within the reader
What does it show?
“Yellow hair”/”long yellow string”
Uses ‘yellow’ instead of blonde which shows how the speaker views Porphyria purely as an object - he has no care or true value of her
A symbol of all women in Elizabethan England
What does it show?
“No pain…she felt no pain”
Creates a God-like sense, makes the reader question whether the speaker views himself to have as much power as God. He thinks he is doing a good thing, the repetition shows his delusion
What does it show?
“Burning kiss”
The ‘burning’ has connotations of hell and the devil, society at the time being extremely protestant. Suggests that she is being punished for loving him, emphasises intensity
What does it show?
“Smiling rosy little head”
She has come alive to him now that she is dead - he never appreciated him in life but does now; parallels of My Last Duchess
What does it show?
“We sit together now”
The collective pronoun suggests that they are only united as a couple after her death when he is able to take full control of her
What does it show?
“God has not said a word!”
Speaker has played God - links back to earlier references in the poem. Seen as blasphemy to claim that he has gotten away with it
