Porphyrias Lover (Browning) Flashcards
Porphyrias lover context
In a stormy cottage setting, the unnamed speaker describes how Porphyria enters, bringing warmth and tenderness. She seems to be the dominant partner initially, physically comforting him. However, the dynamic quickly shifts when the speaker, in a moment of eerie calm, strangles her with her own hair. He believes that by killing her, he can preserve the moment when she “worshipped” him. The speaker shows no remorse, claiming she felt no pain and that “God has not said a word”—implying divine approval. The poem’s gothic tone, eerie calmness, and twisted logic expose the narrator’s madness and the perils of obsessive love and patriarchal control.
Comparison and Contrast with Mrs Sisyphus
Porphyrias lover
Comparison:
Critiques male obsession (Porphyrias lover with control, and Sisyphus with his work)
Power imbalance between men and women, both men dominate the relationships in their own ways (violence vs emotional distance)
Contrast:
In Porphyrias lover, the woman is silenced, unable to express agency/ opinion (ultimate act of male obsession), in Mrs Sisyphus, the woman is given a voice, offering female agency and critique over male actions.
Comparison and Contrast with Pygmalions Bride
Porphyrias lover
Comparison:
Both women treated as objects. With both men wanting a woman who can conform to his ideal
Contrast:
In Porphyrias lover, Porphyria is eternally silenced for showing erotic tendencies, in Pygmalions bride, Galaeta is able to escape from the clutches of Pygmalion through expression of sexual identity and erotic comeuppance
Comparison and Contrast with little red cap
Porphyrias lover
Comparison:
Both explore the troubles with the patriarchy and male obsession with posession
Contrast:
Little red cap is about female empowerment and heroism, she is able to escape, and kill the ‘wolf’ escaping from the male grasp, Porphyria is unable to escape from male posession and is ultimately killed
Comparison and Contrast with Mrs Midas
Porphyrias lover
Comparison:
Both explore Male hubris and destructive choices which ruin intimacy in relationships
Contrast:
Voice and control, Mrs Midas speaks out and leaves her husband, Porphyria is silenced and erased
what are the key quotations
Porphyrias lover
“The sullen wind was soon awake”
“Blushed Bright beneath my burning kiss”
“That moment she was mine, mine, fair/ perfectly pure and good”
“No pain felt she;/ I am quite sure she felt no pain”
“The sullen wind was soon to wake”
- pathetic fallacy -> storm mirrors the speakers’ internal conflict and anticipates violence. Nature is an externalisation of internal chaos
- this is juxtaposed with porphyrias entrance; highlighting her temporary restoration of peace, which he later destroys
(easy comparison with little red cap (forest is a symbol of threat and transformation) -> both texts use setting to mirror/ foreshadow the conflict to come)
“Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss”
Use of B-alliteration enhances the vivid imagery used
symbolic of imagined affection but also biological (after strangulation, blood returns to face)
The speaker believes that prophyrias vitality has not been compromised by his actions. He projects love and desire onto her corpse, she is a symbol of perfect, submissive love. This moment blurs the line between love and necrophilic fantasy
(link with pygmalions bride (she is able to escape through eroticism))
“That moment she was mine, mine, fair/ perfectly pure and good”
Use of repetition (mine) to emphasise male posessiveness, he equates murder to preserving purity, critiquing the toxic ideal of a perfect, submissive woman
This psychotic nature emphasised by the repetition is enhanced through the use of plosive alliteration, emphasising the destructive nature of male obsession.
Comparison with Mrs Sisyphus and pygmalions bride (possession and obsession)
“No pain felt she;/I am quite sure she felt no pain”
Chiasmus reflecting underlying nervousness and anxiety, he is trying to rationalise his act, and convince himself he has done the right thing (inner conflict)
Compare with Mrs Midas; also uses repetition to convince herself of an impossible situation
