Critical Analysis of “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning

The short poem, “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning is one of his finest works that portrays the motions of love and hate, as well as passion and control. The thrilling love story is about a man who is greatly obsessed with his lover named Porphyria and all he really wants his to keep her all to himself. But the only way he feels he can keep her is by killing her. Browning’s poem shows the theme of love, social classes, and power. The short poem starts off with the speaker describing the setting as gloomy and dark. It has been raining throughout the night which puts the speaker into a depressing mood. This description helps the audience understand the overall tone for the rest of the poem. In the next couple of lines, the reader gets an insight of what the speaker is feeling at the moment. While the storm rages outside of the cottage, he starts to depict his own feelings and explains how he is “heartbroken.”

All of a sudden, the tone and mood change as soon as Porphyria walks in. “When glided in the porphyria; straight she shut the cold out and the storm, and kneeled and made the cheerless grate blaze up and all the cottage warm…” (Lines 6-9) Whatever he was feeling before in suddenly gone. Now, the reader quickly understands why he was so heartbroken; because of her absence. The fire that she built to warm the cottage also represents what she does to his soul whenever she is around. The readers start to understand the amount of love he has for Porphyria and how she holds a very special place in his heart. As we go further in the story, we get to know more about Porphyria’s character. Porphyria starts to undress herself which symbolizes her revealing her feelings toward the speaker. She then starts to confess her feelings to him and how much she loves him.

The reader starts to notice that she is not holding herself back from confessing her true feelings and is completely offering herself to him. One might even say that she is truly in “love”. “…she too weak, for all her heart’s endeavor, to set its struggling passion free from pride, and vainer ties dissever, and give herself to me forever.” (lines 21-25) We slowly see what seemed like love shift to the pressure of giving into what society thinks about them being together. The speaker asserts that her love for him is too weak to stand against through all the societal pressures of them being together. Even though she confessed the way she felt about him, he still felt as if she was not fully committed to him which made him even more skeptical. In the Victorian era, society was divided into three parts: upper class, middle class, and the working class.

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The upper class was seen to be in a powerful position and was not allowed to be associated with the lower class or else they would be judged. Besides from being judged, most individuals were made to think that societal gains are what really matter in a relationship. In this case, Porphyria was ready to fight against all these societal norms. This reminds me a lot of the short story, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” because of how the king of bohemia could not be with a woman he once loved because she was in a lower class. I believe the reason why most individuals marry within the same social class is because they want to avoid the pressures and judgement that come from society. The speaker knew this moment of pure bliss he felt would not last, for it is only a matter of time before society gets in the way of their love. “Be sure I looked up at her eyes happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshipped me…” (135)

Despite the differences they have with wealth and class, she sees him much higher than all that. Now the speaker knows that she is being genuine, and he cannot stop but blush at the idea of her truly being in love with him. Within the next couple of lines, the reader starts to notice something off with the speaker. “I found a thing to do, and all he hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her.” (Lines 37-41) This became a shocker for the audience because the first thing that comes to mind is that he would either accept Porphyria’s love or reject it. The reader starts to get the idea that the speaker is deeply disturbed and might even be suffering with a mental illness. The speaker tries to assure the audience that she died painlessly. “…in the eyes of Porphyria and the duchess, neither of whom will recognize the speakers as they desire, and this makes the determined to punish the female object and control her gaze by possessing her.” (Efird, 2010) In this article, there is a comparison between two of Robert Browning’s works; “Porphyria’s Lover” and My Last Duchess”.

The author states that in both poems, the male figure is obsessive over the woman and is dismayed that she does not feel the same way as he does. Both have decided the best way to punish the woman is by killing them. Even though I agree with the authors point of view of Porphyria’s Lover, I also believe that the reason why he chose to kill her is because he wanted to treasure that moment forever. For that moment, her feelings were genuine toward him and he knew it. The only way she would not leave him is if he kills her. Soon after, the speaker props her head back against his shoulder and acts as if nothing has happened. He completely admires her even though she is dead. Not only does he convince himself that he did the right thing, he also tries to persuade the audience that this is what she truly wanted. Everything she once worried about was simply gone; he gave himself to her instead. Evidently, the reader can no longer trust in the speaker because he is simply delusional. As we approach the end of the poem, the speaker believes that Porphyria’s wish after all did come true. He describes how he has been spending the rest of the night with her dead corpse. At last, the two can be together forever without any disturbances from anyone.

“The narrator actually believes that The Creator refuses to punish him because he has saved his own soul, as well as Porphyria’s, by dispatching one of hell’s voracious minions.” (Burduck, 2002) In this article, the author believes that the reason why the speaker killed Porphyria is because he was sure that she was a vampire. He mentions how Browning’s poem includes some procedures to abolish vampires. One of the “methods” that was used to slay vampires is by killing them with a part of its own body. Which in this case, he used her long blonde hair to choke her. Although this is an interesting argument for this situation, I would have to disagree. I believe that the reason he killed her is because he wanted to be in full control of her actions and every move. At the end, he mentions that “God has not said a word.” (Line 60) The speaker clearly believes that he did absolutely nothing wrong and that is why God has not punished him for it. The short poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning is truly an emotional rollercoaster. This short poem portrays love, social classes, and power. Browning’s poem emphasizes the Victorian era of social classes. Back then it was seen shameful to be seen with someone who was from a lower class. What seemed to be a scandalous love story, ended up in tragedy.