Critical Analysis of Porphyria’s Lover

Michelle Padgett English 102 Ms. Riggs 3 March 2013 Critical Analysis of Porphyrias Lover by Robert toasting Robert Browning wrote Porphyrias Lover in the 1830s. The expresser is Porphyrias have it awayr and he speaks in a very dire t single. The poem never divulges the dickens characters real names. The sense of humour is grim and despondent throughout the whole poem. The speaker in the poem shows through many ways that Porphyria yearned for her death, through the spontaneity of her murder, his solemn demeanor, her sickly symptoms, and the smile that was on her face when she was killed.The mood is very dismal and melancholy. It begins with a description of a storm approaching. This rounds the overall tone of the poem. The rain set early in tonight,/ The sullen wind was soon awake,/ It tore the elm-tops down for spite,/ And did its worst to vex the lake(698). The speaker seems to be in a solemn mood because he is troubled with what he is about to do. He is preparing himself for the horrific crime he must commit. When Porphyria sits beside him, he does not respond to her when she speaks to him. And, last, she sat down by my side/ And called me. When no voice replied, /She put my arm about her waist(699). The speaker hints that something is wrong with Porphyria. He states that she has passion for him, but is too weak to evince it, even though she has done so before. Murmuring how she loved meshe/ Too weak, for all her hearts endeavor,/ To set its struggling passion free(699). disease is evident in Porphyria when her lover claims that she is pale and his love for her was all in vain(699). A sudden thought of one so pale(699). His love for her was futile and hopeless because of her failing health and he knew they would not be unneurotic for much longer. The speaker was not yet decided upon what he cute to do with their situation. Porphyria worshiped me surprise/ Made my heart swell, and still it grew/ While I debated what to do(699). The act of taking her life was spontaneous, a spur of the moment decision. fifty-fifty though her death was inevitable, he had not known the means to which her demise would be carried out. I found/ A thing to do, and all her hair/ In one long yellow string I wound/ Three times her little throat around,(699). The invent found indicates that he did not envision out her death beforehand. After he kills her, he convinces himself that she felt no ail. This proves that he did not do it out of anger or revenge. No pain felt she/ I am quite sure she felt no pain(699). The lover warily opened her eyes and he saw no blame in them, only happiness. He described her savory eyes as laughing which reveals what she feels in the last moments of her life. I warily oped her lids again/ Laughed the blue eyes without a stain(699). He then unwound her tresses from around her neck and gave her a burning kiss filled with all the love he had for her (699). He sits with Porphyrias head resting on his shoulder while she stil l smile. The smiling rosy little head,/ So glad it had its utmost entrust(699). Porphyrias will was to die, but to not know when or how she would. This makes the spontaneity of the act all the more than understandable. The speaker calls it her darling one wish making it all the more important and special (700).The speaker was not able to let her go, even after her death. He must and has indeed chosen to sit within the body politic of the painful emotion that his act of granting her last wish burdened him with(Best). His act of love burdens and renders him unable to relinquish his love just yet. And thus we sat together now,/ And all night long we have not stirred(700). Porphyrias death was so just that God has not said a word (700). His actions were ethically right and not one God from any religion would disagree and punish him for it.Robert Browns Porphyrias Lover is very construe in its meaning. The speaker is seen as a madman, when really, he is a man faced with a task that h e must grant unto his love. Brown sets up the play as gloomy when he writes that a storm if fast approaching and the wind is blowing so hard that the trees are bending. The lover finds it hard to speak to Porphyria because he is faced with a horrific situation. Her murder was made with a split decision and carried out with great remorse. He even remarks upon her pale face, hinting that she is sick.After her death, she has a smile on her face and her eyes are laughing. This is a telltale sign that she wished for her own painless death to escape a gruesome one down the road. His love for was so great that even the Gods could not object to him killing her. Works Cited Best, J. T. Porphyrias Lover Vastly Misunderstood Poetry. The Victorian Web. N. p. 8 June 2007. Web. 6 March 2013. Browning, Robert. Porphyrias Lover. 1836. Compact Literature Reading, Reacting, Writing. 8th ed. Ed. Kirszner and Mandell. Boston, MA Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013. 698-700. Print. Padgett