ipl-logo

Porphyria's Lover Setting

1572 Words7 Pages

In life, nothing can be perfect. People try to catch the perfection, and always feel there is a missing part of life or their heart. People are never satisfied about what they have; no matter how successful they are or how luck they are. Even you get more but desire more. Sometimes, people try to fill the empty feeling in their heart without scruple, like the narrator in the poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning. Porphyria’s love is the narrator’s missing part; he tries to get her love by killing her. Their love is discouraged by their social status. Killing her and keeping her body however, is not a way to find the psychic completeness, even making him feel emptier. In the poem “Porphyria’s Lover”, Robert Browning uses symbolism, setting, …show more content…

The narrator describes the behavior of Porphyria after she entered 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 is a description of the arrival of Porphyria turns the room from the cold into a warm place. Such a description of his love to her is very deep. Porphyria in his heart is so important that once she entered the room he felt warm. In the warm room, there is an ambiguous atmosphere surrounds them. Additionally, the narrator states that “She put my arm about her waist, And made her smooth white shoulder bare, And all her yellow hair displaced,” (16-18). The narrator said the room was warm enough that Porphyria could take off her clothes. All of these setting makes the readers realize this is a romantic moment for the narrator and Porphyria. Suddenly, instead of having sex, the narrator killed Porphyria in the end. The contrast between setting and the denouement just like the conflict between their social …show more content…

The use of conflict and analogy helps the reader understand the action of the narrator after killed his lover. These literary devices shows the reader the conflict between the different social status; the conflict between the setting and the denouement and the conflict of the narrator and himself. All of these are because of love, which is the narrator’s missing pice. According to Lacan, “psychoanalysis alone recognizes this knot of imaginary servitude that love must always undo again, or serve.” (508) Love plays a significant role in human life. Go through the human life, love always be somone's missing piece. Lacan’s psychoanalytical theory of feeling broken and incomplete, and the journey to find the missing piece in life. In this poem, there are well

Show More
Related
560 Words | 3 Pages

In the poem Porphyria's Lover there is this man (narrator) who is in love with this woman so much and wants to marry her, but the woman doesn't feel the same way. The thesis I thought Connell (author for Most Dangerous Game) and Browning (author for porphyria's lover) were trying to convey is that even when someone acts nice and kind they can always have a dark hidden side. Connell and Browning both characterise Zaroff and Porphyria's lover as kind people at the beginning of the stories. In the Most Dangerous Game Connell has Zaroff characterised as a

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

As he looks at her Parris could feel cold sweat go down his back and he then was back in front of his empty dark house. Normally there were candles lit in the windows and Abigail and Betty were sound asleep why Tituba was getting dinner ready for him but not tonight. Parris walk throughout the house calling their names but no answer, as he enters Betty room he saw through her window the forest. In the middle of the forest was an orange glow where gray smoke came from. He then runs outside into the forest, scared they were stolen by something dark!

Read More
359 Words | 2 Pages

The song “Every Breath You Take” by The Police and the poem Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning both convey very similar and interesting stories. Both the poem and song have a theme that is centered around a man’s desire for a devout lover. For example, in “Every Breath You Take” the speaker says to his lover “you belong to me” (The Police 12) thus showing his need for commitment from her. In Porphyria's Lover the speaker tells the audience “she was mine, mine, fair” (Browning 36) also showing ownership over his love interest.

Read More
278 Words | 2 Pages

Death to Happiness While disappointment is a central idea in both pieces, each persona finds a resolve incongruent to the other. It seems the cause lies within the persona’s inability to appropriately expound upon their feelings or thoughts; after all, love isn’t a one way road. In “Porphyria 's Lover” the mood is immediately set by the sullen winds and tearing of elm-tops down for spite (Browning). The dreary, poor connotation encapsulates the current mood of the persona without his love present.

Read More
1572 Words | 7 Pages

Both of the protagonists endure massive shifts in character that are induced by violent acts. Their first act of murder is what begins this vicious cycle and with the introduction of heavy influences, their characters dramatically change for the worst. As the protagonists enter this endless spiral, they become trapped with no point

Read More
582 Words | 3 Pages

"(Téllez, 3) This story symbolizes a dilemma, based on the decision between murder or reputation and pride. In conclusion, it allows additional access to the theme of this story without ruining the

Read More
273 Words | 2 Pages

Love is often perceived as a pure and charming concept that brings ecstasy and euphoria; however, it can also torment someone into paranoia and irrationality. This is described in "The Raven", a poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe, that regards a man who is startled by a sound. As an attempt to rationalize the situation, he fortuitously lets in a raven that taunts him into a deranged state of mind. Poe portrays how love manipulates the narrator's cognition and actions through the usage of personification and allusion. Topic sentence: Evidence: For example, after being questioned, the raven only ever answers with "Nevermore" (Poe 48).

Read More
920 Words | 4 Pages

Through the words reflecting melancholy and sorrow, we can sense the narrator's self destruction due to the death of the woman he loved. As one examines the figurative language of the poem, one finds that its form and

Read More
1265 Words | 6 Pages

The narrators in the two pieces of literature showed different types of love. The narrator in “Gregory” showed his anger and hatred, but then his respect in his type of love, while the narrator in “Hyla Brook” showed a happy and soft feeling in their kind of love. Both narrators had memories of what they loved or who they loved when they were gone. Love can be expressed in several types of ways, but the memories people keep with them show how important the loved object was to them. This not only can be seen in “Hyla Brook” and “Gregory”, it can be seen in other pieces of literature and even in people’s

Read More
471 Words | 2 Pages

The demonstration of the narrator's imagination unconsciously leads his own thoughts to grow into a chaotic mess that ultimately ends in a death. By murdering, it’s his own way of finding peace. He is portrayed as being a sadist, sick man with an unnatural obsession for

Read More
603 Words | 3 Pages

// fix this Porphyria takes control as early as the title of the poem. The possessive nature of “Porphyria’s Lover” suggests her dominance over her lover, the narrator of the poem. She continues to hold the majority of the control when she returns home from a feast that she attends without her lover while he sits at home, an action most representative of a Victorian woman. Porphyria continues with a series of actions that further undermine the sexual stereotypes often representative of the Victorian era when she walks in the door to her lover and “shut out the cold and the storm / And kneeled and made the cheerless grate / Blaze up, and all the cottage warm” (Browning 7-9). Her implied power over natural phenomena foreshadows the power she eventually exerts over her lover.

Read More
601 Words | 3 Pages

The ominous weather represents the current state of emotions of the speaker. The use of sullen and spite insinuate that the speaker is unhappy about the relationship and plans to take their feelings on Porphyria. In those first five stanzas, Porphyria appears to be in control of her relationship which is unusual for Victorian times. When women generally did not have any power, especially over men. She shuts out “the cold” and makes a fire in the previously “cheerless grate” which in turn causes the tone to shift from being unhappy to slightly happier.

Read More
1632 Words | 7 Pages

Nonetheless these lines clearly reflect dishonesty, deceit, and violent harmful love. “Silhouettes” continue the familiar theme seen in the first two examples of despair. The reason for the narrator’s despair is love, or more precisely

Read More
1115 Words | 5 Pages

Most people would say that their parents are good parents, even if this is not entirely true. They have never known anything else, so how can they make this statement? Of course, many of these statements are true, and people appreciate their parents. However, even those who appreciate their parents can be blind to that fact that their parental figure shaped their lives in a negative way. In The Kite Runner, Baba was an overall bad parental figure for Amir, despite having his good moments.

Read More
832 Words | 4 Pages

Browning portrays the narrator as mentally unstable, an explanation for the abrupt killing of Porphyria. However, the murder was likely motivated by the narrator feeling threatened as a male within the power structure. A clear shift within the structure occurs when Porphyria sits down with her lover and speaks of her love for him. At this point, the Victorian gender norms are well-represented, and Porphyria’s lover takes advantage of this.

Read More

More about Porphyria's Lover Setting

Related Topics

Open Document