Porphyria's Lover

Question 1

What can you say about the title Porphyria’s Lover?

Answer 1

-Porphyria likely used for the Ancient Greek meaning purple, to signify high status and wealth
-other interpretations make reference to euthanasia or illicit affairs

Question 2

‘The sullen…

Answer 2

… wind was soon awake…down for spite…vex the lake’

• Pathetic fallacy
• Paints the speaker as irrational, fearing the weather attacks him
• Establishes imbalance and paranoia in the speaker

Question 3

‘When…

Answer 3

… glided in Porphyria’

• Dramatic shift from weather to angelic portrayal of subject
• emphasises mental imbalance in speaker

Question 4

‘That moment…

Answer 4

… she was mine, mine, fair,’

• possessive, almost patriarchal
• language of calculation and deceit, not of romance
• dehumanising

Question 5

‘In one long…

Answer 5

… yellow string I wound three times her little throat around’

• less humane, now doll like
• objectifying and infantilising

Question 6

‘Again laughed…

Answer 6

… the blue eyes without a stain’

• removal of sin? Language of madness
• intimidated by the laughing? Power imbalance in her ability to anger him beyond life

Question 7

‘The smiling…

Answer 7

… rosy little head’

• synecdote, where part of an object represents the whole
• objectifying, is her sexuality all that is acknowledged by him?

Question 8

Who wrote Porphyria’s Lover?

Answer 8

Robert Browning

Question 9

How is structure used in Porphyria’s Lover?

Answer 9

-Enjambement shows that it is continuous, with pause for breath, contrasting free breath-like Porphyria
- Caesura allows for the burial of the reality of the situation, e.g. ‘And strangled her. No pain felt she’