Porphyria's Lover Flashcards
What are 8 quotes from Porphyria’s Lover?
- “The sullen wind was soon awake”
- “She shut the cold out”
- “Porphyria worshipped me”
- “And let the damp hair fall”
- “She was mine, mine, fair”
- “I am quite sure she felt no pain”
“Thus we sit together now”
- “And yet God has not said a word”
What is the analysis of “The sullen wind was soon awake”?
- The speaker opens the poem with these lines, which set the scene with the romantic imagery of the dark and stormy night.
- The speaker subtly personifies the wind as “sullen” and violent, and in doing so foreshadows how his own evident gloominess will later awaken into passionate violence against his lover, Porphyria.
What is the analysis of “She shut the cold out”?
- As porphyria enters, the cottage is described in a contrasting way to the weather outside, creating a false sense of safety within the cottage.
What is the analysis of “Porphyria worshipped me”?
- He views himself in a God like way and feels he now has her forever and will continuously be worshipped by her; he wanted the eternal feeling of euphoria he got when she was with him.
- The speaker’s choice of words suggests a desire for dominance. He wants to believe Porphyria is entirely his, body and soul. This foreshadows his later act of murder, he kills her to preserve the moment of her supposed adoration, ensuring that she will never leave or change.
- The intensity of “worship” reflects an obsessive love, one that goes beyond healthy affection into a disturbing need for possession. The speaker does not seem to recognise Porphyria as an individual; instead, she exists only to adore him, which justifies his actions in his mind.
What is the analysis of “And let the damp hair fall”?
- In the Victorian era, the accepted hairstyle for middle-upper-class women was pulled onto the crown of her head in public as a sign of modesty and restraint, as loosened or unbound hair was often associated with sensuality, intimacy, or even moral looseness.
- By “letting her damp hair fall,” Porphyria is engaging in an act of personal and physical intimacy, suggesting that she is comfortable and uninhibited in the speaker’s presence. This contrasts with the rigid social norms of the time. The speaker is troubled by strong feelings towards Porphyria and is aroused by her.
- The speaker is clearly fascinated, if not obsessed, with Porphyria’s hair. Throughout the poem, he refers to it multiple times, foreshadowing its significance later when he strangles her with it. The same hair that signifies Porphyria’s beauty and sensuality becomes the instrument of her death.
- This shift from something desirable to something deadly reflects the speaker’s possessive love and twisted logic. By strangling her with her own hair, he exerts ultimate control over her, ensuring she remains his forever.
What is the analysis of “She was mine, mine, fair”?
- The repetition of “mine” empathises the speaker’s need to assert ownership over Porphyria, suggesting an intense, almost desperate desire to claim her completely. This possessiveness reflects his controlling nature, he does not see Porphyria as an independent person but as an object to be owned.
- The doubling of “mine” can also imply reassurance; perhaps he is convincing himself that she belongs to him entirely. This line comes after he has strangled Porphyria, making it even more unsettling. He sees her death as a way to preserve her as his possession forever. In his twisted logic, he believes he has secured her devotion permanently, she can no longer leave, change, or reject him.
- The speaker’s possessiveness reflects Victorian anxieties about women’s independence and sexuality. Porphyria initially had control; she came to him, removed her outer clothing, and let her hair down, but in this moment, he reclaims that control permanently. His need to possess Porphyria echoes patriarchal fears of women having influence over their own desires.
What is the analysis of “I am quite sure she felt no pain”?
- The phrase “I am quite sure” suggests uncertainty rather than confidence. If he were truly certain, he wouldn’t need to convince himself. This self-reassurance could be a form of denial or justification, he doesn’t want to acknowledge the horror of what he’s done. Given that Porphyria has been strangled with her own hair, it’s highly unlikely that she felt no pain. This contradiction further exposes the speaker’s distorted perception of reality.
- The speaker presents the killing as an act of mercy or love, rather than violence. By claiming she felt no pain, he implies that his actions were gentle or even beneficial to her. This aligns with his earlier belief that Porphyria wanted to be his forever; he sees himself as fulfilling her desire rather than committing a brutal crime.
- The detached tone in this line suggests a lack of empathy. A normal reaction to murder would be guilt or remorse, but instead, the speaker focuses on minimising suffering. His calm, methodical reasoning is chilling, it shows how he rationalises violence in a way that aligns with his own desires.
- By claiming Porphyria felt no pain, he asserts full control over both her body and the narrative. He dictates how her final moments are remembered, erasing any possibility of struggle or suffering.
- This ties into the poem’s broader theme of possessive love; by killing her, he ensures she will remain his, unchanging and compliant.
What is the analysis of “Thus we sit together now”?
- The phrase “we sit together” suggests a false sense of intimacy. Porphyria is dead, yet the speaker speaks as if they are sharing a romantic moment. He treats her lifeless body as though she is still conscious, showing a complete break from reality, imagining that she is still with him, eternally obedient and silent, unable to contradict his perception of their “love.”
- The fact that he continues to sit with Porphyria’s corpse adds to the gothic and unsettling tone of the poem. There are disturbing undertones of necrophilia, as he not only kills her but also keeps her body close, implying an ongoing relationship even after death. This moment highlights his complete emotional and psychological detachment from reality.
What is the analysis of “And yet God has not said a word”?
- The speaker expects some kind of divine retribution for his crime, but since nothing happens, he takes it as approval from God. This reinforces his delusion that his actions were justified; he believes he has done the right thing by preserving Porphyria in a perfect moment of love. The line reflects a dangerous self-righteousness, where he convinces himself that even God sees no fault in him.
- The speaker’s tone suggests that he sees himself as above moral judgment, if God does not intervene, then perhaps he had the right to act as he did. This ties into his obsession with control throughout the poem. Not only does he physically control Porphyria, but now he sees himself as almost godlike, deciding life and death without consequence. The line could also reflect mockery or defiance, as if he is challenging God, daring him to respond.
- The Victorian era was deeply concerned with questions of morality, faith, and divine justice. The lack of divine intervention in this moment could be a critique of the idea that God actively punishes wrongdoers. It might also suggest a world where morality is ambiguous, where people like the speaker can commit horrific acts and face no consequences, at least in their own minds.
What are the key structural elements within Porphyria’s Lover?
- The poem is written in chronological order, and the lack of stanzas suggests a passive unfurling of events, which the speaker views as only natural. This, combined with the first-person narrative, implies that the narrative is a stream of consciousness. This shows how the speaker is in disturbingly perfect control of his language as he embarks on an account of his murder of Porphyria.
- There is only one instance of Browning using the collective pronoun “we” - the two characters are always presented separately, with separate pronouns used to refer to them, such as “she” and “her”. This displays the disconnect between the couple in their relationship and only changes right at the end of the poem. This empathises that the relationship is very destructive and broken.
- The poem takes the form of a dramatic monologue, as there is one person relating a story - this was a common form that Browning would write in. The poem is written after the lover is dead, which is typical of his dramatic monologues.
- The poem is one of Browning’s earliest, arguably before he began to develop a concrete style. The natural form of the poem, mirroring speech, contrasts with the very ordered structure of the verse with the strict ABABB scheme. This works to represent the intentionality behind the speaker’s portrayed madness. The meter is often in iambic tetrameter, which is an unstressed syllable, then a stressed syllable, with four stressed beats in one line.
What is the context surrounding Porphyria’s Lover? - Relating to Victorian Views on Gender and Sexuality.
Victorian Views on Gender & Sexuality: Victorian society placed strict moral expectations on women, especially regarding sexuality and domestic roles.
Women were expected to be pure, passive, and obedient, while men were seen as dominant figures. Porphyria’s initial actions, coming to the speaker, removing her outer clothing, letting her hair down, suggest she has agency and sexual freedom, something controversial in Victorian culture. The speaker’s reaction, killing her to make her his forever, can be seen as a distorted response to female independence. He ensures that she remains silent, submissive, and frozen in time.
What is the context surrounding Porphyria’s Lover? - Relating to Mental Illness and Victorian Psychiatry.
During the 19th century, there was increasing interest in mental illness and criminal psychology. The speaker’s behaviour aligns with what modern readers might interpret as psychopathy or delusional disorder; he lacks remorse, shows an obsession with control, and distorts reality. The calm way he describes the murder suggests he doesn’t see it as a crime, but rather as an act of devotion, reflecting an unsettling Victorian fascination with insanity. The name Porphyria is intriguing because porphyria is a real medical condition that can cause madness, hallucinations, and sensitivity to light. Some critics speculate that Browning deliberately used this name to hint at illness, vulnerability, or supernatural elements, but this interpretation is debated.
How does Porphyria’s Lover relate to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 29?
In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 29 and Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover, both speakers have an unhealthy fixation on the object of their affection. In Sonnet 29, this is shown through the active verbs “twine” and “bud”, which imply that her love is smothering. Browning’s speaker is equally transfixed, and this is shown by the way in which he objectifies Porphyria in “her smooth white shoulder bare”. There is natural imagery used in Porphyria’s Lover in the pathetic fallacy used in “The sullen wind was soon awake”, and in Sonnet 29, Barrett Browning uses the extended metaphor of nature. Her love is symbolised by “the straggling green which hides the wood”.
How does Porphyria’s Lover relate to The Farmer’s Bride by Mew?
The speakers in both, The Farmer’s Bride by Mew and Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning are similarly characterised as possessive, objectifying males. Browning’s speaker fulfils this role because of his assumption of Porphyria’s feelings in “No pain felt she” and the repetition in “she was mine, mine”. Mew shapes a similar speaker by showing him presenting his wife as a small animal in “flying like a hare”, “like a mouse” and “shy as a leveret”. Given that the speaker is a farmer who takes advantage of animals to make a living, this implies that he is abusing his wife.
What are 3 quotes from critics regarding Porphyria’s Lover?
- ‘Standard reading’ of this poem is that Browning’s narrator is mentally unstable or ‘insane’ - Ross.
- ‘Male-dominated society’ - Richards.
- ‘Regarded as inferior intellectually, physically and emotionally’ - Richards (regarding women).
