“Porphyria’s Lover,” by Robert Browning, may read as a story about a deranged man killing his girlfriend for no reason, but there is much more to the story. When you pay attention to the details and read the poem line-by-line, you can read more into the story and start to draw your own conclusions. When I read this, I see a man who is conflicted about what to do about his affair with a woman who he loves quite dearly. As I read this poem over, I can start to see other aspects to the story and make up my own details that make sense to the storyline.
When you first start off reading “Porphyria’s Lover,” you are drawn a picture of this dark and stormy evening with this man waiting and listening to the storm. “I listened with heart fit to break,”(5) this along with the first few lines suggest that he is anxiously waiting for someone, most likely someone who is coming to meet him late because of pervious commitments, or as I like to assume, his affair. We are then introduced to Porphyria, who we know the narrator loves very deeply by how he describes how she brightens and warms the room. She shut the cold out and the storm/And kneeled and made the cheerless grate/Blaze up, and all the cottage warm”(7-9) this can also be a way to tell that this isn’t anything new to the couple and Porphyria is comfortable with added to the already built fire in the home.
We can also tell by the details he uses to describe how she removes her damp clothes and let’s her long hair fall to her side. Lines 14-22, Porphyria is given a very seductive and almost innocent demeanor. But we can also see that she is almost fighting for his attention, which is also a foreshadowing to her death later in the poem. And called me. When no voice replied/She put my arm about her waist/And made her smooth white shoulder bare. ” (15-17) These lines are a good example of how the narrator’s solemn mood can be connected to Porphyria’s death, and also show’s us how he is almost manipulating her to “worship” him. Line twenty-two is very important because it shows us the narrator’s logic in killing Porphyria. “Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavor. ” He is upset that she cannot be with him every day, and this line let’s us know that this is more than likely an affair. To set its struggling passion free. ” (23) He knows that Porphyria want to be with him both physically and sexually, but something is holding her back, something is making her weak. “But passion sometimes would prevail. ” (26) At this point in the poem, and my third or fourth time reading this, I almost thing there may be something more than just an affair.
Yes this is a very plausible idea, but why is he describing this as almost a disease? We already know that Porphyria is a disease, so could that mean something. “A sudden thought of one so pale. (28) This is where I stop and consider maybe Porphyria is actually sick, and very possibly dying. This could also explain why “But passion sometimes would prevail” is stated in this poem, because Porphyria the disease caused mental illnesses and personality changes. Now taking a look at lines thirty-six to sixty, we see the narrator become more mentally unstable and the death of his beloved. When I first read through this, I just thought that he wanted Porphyria all to himself and was tired of having to wait for her to come to him in this affair.
This is also where I realized there was an ABABB rhyme scheme going on in the poem. This type of rhyme scheme is usually most associated with the way we talk day by day, but I also view it as a way someone who is insane talks. Creating a rhyme in his speech pattern is almost psychopathic in a way. He also begins to narrate for Porphyria as well, making it seem that she worships him and almost wants to die to stay with him forever. “That moment she was mine, mine, fair. ” (36) Repeating mine twice gives it a selfish tone and makes him seem more unstable than before.
When he decides to strangle her with her own hair, we have learned that he truly believes that this is what needs to be done and even tries to convince himself that she didn’t feel any pain in lines forty-one to forty-two. From this point on, we have given these chilling details of how he sits there with her corpse and admires it. He is continually making Porphyria into something smaller and smaller, starting off talking about her as a whole person then making this body smaller, and pretty much just viewing her as a head.
I almost feel that this is a way to kind of deal with the situation, but I also think that he is looking at the part of Porphyria that he interacted with the most, where he finds the most beauty, her eyes. As I think more about the idea that perhaps Porphyria was sick and dying, the poem begins to make more sense. I can almost feel for the narrator and see where he thinks he is justified in killing his lover. He’s afraid of loosing her to this disease and wants to preserve her in as much beauty and love as he possibly can.
This can also explain why he thinks she felt no pain, because she was already in so much pain to begin with that strangling her with her own hair next to her lover was the most peaceful way for her to go, and also explains why he believes this is something that she would have wanted. I also look at the chilling details of the narrator holding onto her dead body as a mourning process. Many times when someone looses someone very close to them, they tend to hold onto the body as a way to hold on to their life, refusing to accept they are gone.
I think that he may have been upset that Porphyria was gone, and wanted to hold on to the memories of when she was healthy. With all this in mind, the last line takes on more of a significant meaning now than once before. “And thus we sit together now/And all night long we have not stirred/And yet God has not said a word! ” He believes what he did was morally correct and he isn’t at fault for Porphyria’s death. Yes, he is justifying what he did as correct, but he thinks that this was a better way for Porphyria to go, than to die a horrible death from whatever she was suffering from.
