This document provides a critical analysis of the Robert Browning poem "Porphyria's Lover" for a class assignment. It includes an overview of the poem, which describes a lover strangling his mistress Porphyria after she confesses her love for him. The document also discusses Browning's biography and themes in the poem such as love, sin, and madness. It concludes that while the lover believes his actions were justified, his conclusion actually reflects his own twisted nature.
2. Name :- Khushi R. Rathod
Roll No :-25
Enrollment No :- 5108230039
Semester :-1
Paper No :- 104
Paper Code :- 22395
Paper Name :- Literature of the Victorians
Topic :- Critical Study of Robert Browning Poem: ‘Porphyria’s Lover’
Submitted to :-Smt.S.B.Gardi,Department of English,MKBU
E-mail :-khushirathod1863@gmail.com
Personal Information
3. Table Of Contents
01 02
03 04
About the Robert
Browning
Introduction of
Porphyria's Lover
Overview &
Themes
Conclusion
5. ● Educated by his well-read father, learning Latin, Greek, and
French by the age of fourteen.
● Published his first major poem, Pauline, in 1833.
● Married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett in 1846.
● Moved to Italy, where they had a son, Robert "Pen" Browning,
in 1849.
● Published his most acclaimed work, The Ring and the Book, in
1868-1869.
● Died on the same day that his final volume of verse, Asolando:
Fancies and Facts, was published, in 1889.
6. Porphyria’s Lover :
● Written by Robert Browning.
● First Published : January
1836.
● "Porphyria's Lover" is
Browning's first ever short
dramatic monologue.
● The poem did not receive its
definitive title until 1863.
7. ● Stormy night, lover waiting anxiously for his ladylove, Porphyria.
● Porphyria arrives silently, bends down to make the fire blaze up.
● She takes off her wet cloak, hat, and gloves, revealing her long, damp
golden hair.
● She sits down by the lover's side and tells him she loves him
passionately, but is too weak to free herself from her false family
pride and loveless marriage ties to surrender herself to him
completely forever.
● Porphyria's lover is happy and proud to finally hear her confession of
love.
Overview :
8. ● He has a sudden thought and winds Porphyria's hair thrice round her
throat, strangulating her.
● He is sure she felt no pain, otherwise she would have cried.
● He opens her eyelids, unlooses the knot of hair round her neck, and
kisses her cheek passionately.
● He holds up her head, but now it drops on his shoulder. Her face seems
glad that all its wishes have been fulfilled.
● Throughout the night they- the dead and the living- sit together without
stirring.
● God is so stunned by the lover's murderous act that He does not speak.
9. Themes :
● Both the lovers want to preserve the moment of pure and
stigma-free love for ever.
● Out of insanity the lover strangles her beloved, Porphyria to
death thematically suggests the universalizing and
dominating passion of love.
1. Love :-
10. ● Murder is a sin by any means.
● The lover commits cold-blooded crime by
performing the murderous design. Also vanity that
the beloved harbours so long in her mind is a sin.
2. Sin :-
11. 3. Madness :
● In the second half of the poem, Browning offers more and more clues
to show that the speaker is not merely delusional or confused because
of his near-broken heart but that he is somehow quite mad.
● All this is presented, in a calm manner, even as the speaker describes
how he takes his lover’s hair and twists it around her neck until she is
dead.
● By not using disjointed language or crazy rhyme (the rhyme scheme
is rather irregular but follows a very orderly pattern), Browning
suggests that madness is a complex phenomenon that has more in
common with sanity than we think.
12. Conclusion :
The speaker believes his love for Porphyria
justified her murder and that God has forgiven
him. However, his conclusion is a reflection of
his own twisted and obsessive nature.
13. Reference :
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “About Robert Browning | Academy of
American Poets.” Poets.org, https://poets.org/poet/robert-browning. Accessed 8 November
2023.
Browning's, Robert, et al. “Porphyria's Lover | Summary, Analysis, Theme, Form - All About
English Literature.” All About English Literature -, 2 February 2021,
https://www.eng-literature.com/2021/02/porphyria-lover-summary-analysis.html.
Accessed 8 November 2023.
