Porphyria Descriptive Essays

At first the active character is the woman, Porphyria, while the . The imagery in this poem is very descriptive, with "smooth white .

When Porphyria is dead he uses similes that describe her as if she was still alive. Line 33 states that Porphyria worshiped the lover.

important difference of all is the difference in love Porphyria’s . But end result is the same, both women die.

They are completely alone in his cottage, which isolates Porphyria and the speaker from the rest of society and the possibly contempt of their relationship. By portraying the sexual affair between Porphyria and her lover as normal, Browning makes the reader consider the relationship between sex and violence.

He sees Porphyria as a work of art, a canvass onto which he can imprint his ideas and (when she is dead) create his ideal partner. The Lover is a mysterious, un-named character whom we know nothing about other than what he does to Porphyria.

Browning thus depicts the narrator as so wrought by inner conflict that he compensates for the acute pangs of loneliness and isolation he feels by self-destructively narrowing his world to Porphyria. The morality of individual rights – whether a person should act in accordance with his or her desires even to the point of harming others – is question...

When Porphyria entered the cottage, she “withdrew [her] dripping cloak and shawl, / and laid her soiled gloves by” (lines 11-12). This is noticed when Porphyria attempts to speak to her lover and “no voice relpl[ies]” (line 15).

In this respect, the reference to her eyes, which were “without a stain”, is perhaps his warped perception that Porphyria “worshipped” him; after all, ‘the eyes are a window to the soul’. The imagery arguably possibly portrays Porphyria as an angelic entity.

The lover believes that he was right in his decision in killing Porphyria and justifies his actions as they were performed with the pure intention God has not said or done anything. The unnamed lover transforms from being passive to controlling towards the end of the poem when he brutally murders Porphyria to ensure that Porphyria would only belong ...

Porphyria and is happy and confident about what he has done ‘And thus . Porphyrias Lover is about a man obsessing over Porphyria, who is .

In "My Last Duchess" she dies because she did not give the Duke the admiration he desired, but when in "Porphyria's lover" Porphyria made her love for her lover clear, he kills her anyway. The Duke on one hand feels that he can only possess the Duchess in a painting because he can control who looks upon her, where as Porphyria's lover wants to captu...

Finally, the employment of the clever use of irony serves in proving the persona’s inner madness, as what he thinks and does is contrary to what Porphyria has done earlier prior to her death. The repeated use of the word shows his aggressively selfish personality, because he completely... ... middle of paper ... ...the horrific incident of his murde...

Robert Browning refers to women socialising without their partners in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, line twenty-seven states “Nor could tonight’s gay feast restrain” to which Porphyria seems to have attended on her own because the poem suggests that Porphyria came from the feast and through a storm to join him, “When glided in Porphyria; straight she shut th...

Englewood Cliffs: Salem, 1982. Porphyria speaks to him, "murmuring how she loved [him]" while the lover silently watches, becoming the mastered object to be petted and "loved."

show real love to Porphyria but is still quite possessive over her. The man in the poem is sharing Porphyria with her husband.

However, the speaker then experiences the sudden realisation later in the poem that Porphyria worshiped him. This is a very strong emotional word which goes past simple passion and suggests he believes that he is the only thing Porphyria really cares about.

This is particularly menacing, as for the whole duration of the poem, Porphyria has been dead, and the reader only becomes aware of this towards the end of the poem, when the narrator switches to the present tense. Browning also uses pathetic fallacy to describe the tumultuous storm, which again dramatically foreshadows what will happen in the poem:...

He sits inside the house and describes the outside world in a way that makes it appear very threatening to him (‘the sullen … lake’) porphyria then enters and makes the fire and cheers up the cottage. In My Last Duchess the duke treats both women (his last duchess and the counts daughter) as objects -meaning both things and aims- and the same is see...

In contrast the narrator in ` Porphyria’s Lover ` kills Porphyria because he is jealous of her. This is similar to ` Porphyria’s Lover, ` because like in ` Porphyria’s Lover ` the narrator is obsessed with Porphyria, but because the narrator loves her so much.

Both poems are linked through the murder of Porphyria and the Duchess. The poem describes a night they spent together and the murder of Porphyria.

Directly after that caesura, the narrator has doubts over whether Porphyria died feeling any pain – ‘No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain’. The narrator then jumps to using the neuter tense to describe Porphyria – “so glad it has its utmost will”.

On the contrary as the lover himself admitted Porphyria worshipped him. Browning responds to the conflict between morality and aesthetics- an issue which dominated the Victorian society.

Love, as a theme of poetry can be approached in a variety of forms and these two poems allow the reader to see what a romantic, or sinister, effect on a person love can have. Porphyria’s lover was extremely insecure and was afraid that, although Porphyria was “Perfectly pure and good”, she would leave him.

To him, Porphyria is above all else and changes the atmosphere almost automatically. When glided in Porphyria; straight she shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled down and made the cheerless grate Blaze up and make the whole cottage warm.

Both poems are very successful in portraying desperate situations but focus on different points. Tennyson is very effective in showing a switch in power and the thought process of the central character.

That moment she was mine,’ again he seems to be elevating himself above everything, and claiming that he was now in control of Porphyria, he thought he could do whatever he wanted to her. There had been little phrases all the way through the poem to suggest that the speaker wasn’t completely sane, ‘Porphyria worshiped me,’ this shows us that he sees...

The poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning, is a dramatic monologue of a man who is so obsessed with Porphyria that he decides to keep her for himself. “Mine, mine” – repetition that emphasises the emotional triumph and possessiveness for Porphyria, his Obsession.

Where once she merely ‘murmur[ed]’ (21), now her blue eyes ‘laugh… without a stain’ (45);instead of the somewhat marmoreal ‘smooth white shoulder bare’ (17), we now have a cheek ‘blushed bright beneath [a] burning kiss’ (48); and in the space of nine lines the ‘shut bud’ (43) has developed into a ‘smiling rosy little head’ (52), as if Porphyria is a...

The speaker is realising Porphyria has just as much love for him and wants the moment to last forever. He then tried to convince himself that what he had done was what Porphyria wanted.

both clearly express admiration and wonder. "Porphyria's Lover" and "The Flea," are not similar to the other poems or each other they do not speak of love kindly if at all.