Porphyria's Lover – Robert Browning:

Question 1

Context:

Answer 1

Porphyria is a disease that can result in madness.

Question 2

Summary:

Answer 2

He strangles his lover with her own hair.

Question 3

Form:

Answer 3

Dramatic monologue – asymmetrical rhyme scheme and enjambment shows his instability. The regular rhyme reflects his calmness. Porphyria has no voice – the narrator projects his own thoughts and feelings onto her in life and death. Madness is concealed in his voice of reason.

Question 4

Structure:

Answer 4

Events in the poem mirror each other. In the first half Porphyria is active whilst the roles are reversed in the second half.

Question 5

Language of possession:

Answer 5

Wants her to belong to him forever – despite her higher social status and he wants her to become his object.

Question 6

Language of love and violence:

Answer 6

Reflects troubled and destructive nature of his love.

Question 7

Themes:

Answer 7

Madness – The speaker is delusional – his reliability is questionable.

Passivity – She seems passive during her murder – the narrator chose to not mention her struggles as he saw it as a perfect moment.

Sin – he comments that God hasn’t punished him – he’s either made a lucky escape or thinks he hasn’t committed a sin.

Question 8

Compare to:

Answer 8

The Farmer’s Bride, Sonnet 29, Neutral Tones, Eden Rock (love beyond death.)