Porphyrias lover interpretations
Porphyria’s Lover
Context
Robert Browning (1812-1889) was a Victorian poet, who is particularly famous for his dramatic monologues in verse form. Browning was born in London, to a family who relished literature, and he grew up surrounded by books. He wrote his first book of poems before he was 12 – but destroyed them as an adult to make sure no-one could publish them!
Browning devoted himself to poetry, and initially had to live at home and be supported by his parents to do so. He married another poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was rather more popular and successful than him. They were able to live together on her inherited wealth.
Browning’s dramatic monologues are often narrated by very sinister characters, and the reader must piece together what the truth of the story is. My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover both fall into this category. Porphyria’s Lover was the first short dramatic monologue that Browning wrote, and was one of the first of his poems to feature a character with psychosis.
The woman in the poem is named after a disease called Porphyria. It is a rare type of disease, which can result in madness of some kind. This has led some people to interpret the poem as a metaphor for dealing with this disease. It was first identified a few years before the poem was written.
Subject matter
The poem is a narrative of a murder, told calmly and callously. On a stormy night the apparently depressed narrator is sitting alone in a cold and dark cottage. Out of the storm the girl he loves, Porphyria, arrives and makes up the fire. She sits beside him but he won’t speak. She tells him she loves him and rests her head on his shoulder, arranging his arm around her waist. He was "so pale/For love of her" and thought she didn’t love him.
He is delighted to discover that she loves him. In that perfect moment he decides to kill her, strangling her with her own hair. When she is dead he props her up on his shoulder in the same position as before. There
Context
Robert Browning (1812-1889) was a Victorian poet, who is particularly famous for his dramatic monologues in verse form. Browning was born in London, to a family who relished literature, and he grew up surrounded by books. He wrote his first book of poems before he was 12 – but destroyed them as an adult to make sure no-one could publish them!
Browning devoted himself to poetry, and initially had to live at home and be supported by his parents to do so. He married another poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was rather more popular and successful than him. They were able to live together on her inherited wealth.
Browning’s dramatic monologues are often narrated by very sinister characters, and the reader must piece together what the truth of the story is. My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover both fall into this category. Porphyria’s Lover was the first short dramatic monologue that Browning wrote, and was one of the first of his poems to feature a character with psychosis.
The woman in the poem is named after a disease called Porphyria. It is a rare type of disease, which can result in madness of some kind. This has led some people to interpret the poem as a metaphor for dealing with this disease. It was first identified a few years before the poem was written.
Subject matter
The poem is a narrative of a murder, told calmly and callously. On a stormy night the apparently depressed narrator is sitting alone in a cold and dark cottage. Out of the storm the girl he loves, Porphyria, arrives and makes up the fire. She sits beside him but he won’t speak. She tells him she loves him and rests her head on his shoulder, arranging his arm around her waist. He was "so pale/For love of her" and thought she didn’t love him.
He is delighted to discover that she loves him. In that perfect moment he decides to kill her, strangling her with her own hair. When she is dead he props her up on his shoulder in the same position as before. There