Porphyria's Lover Summary

Introduction

A poem by Robert Browning called "Porphyria's Lover" was first printed as "Porphyria" in the January 1836 issue of Monthly Repository. Later, it was reprinted by Browning with the new title "Madhouse Cells" in Dramatic Lyrics alongside "Johannes Agricola in Meditation."

As Browning's first poem to focus on abnormal psychology, "Porphyria's Lover" is also his first short dramatic monologue. The poem today is frequently anthologized and extensively researched, despite the fact that its initial publication went mostly unnoticed and garnered little critical attention in the nineteenth century.

Detailed Summary

The setting and tone are established in the first four lines. It was getting dark when the rain started. The speaker tries to convey a gloomy, depressed attitude, and by using the word "sullen," the reader can feel this mood. The speaker then humanises the wind by saying that it "was soon awake." When the wind finally awoke, it "tore the elm-tops down for spite."

The wind is characterized by the speaker as a hostile entity. It awakens and, out of spite, obliterates its surroundings. The wind, according to the speaker, was exerting every effort to disturb the lake. The rest of "Porphyria's Lover" is successfully set in tone and atmosphere by this description. There is no doubt that nature opposes both humanity and itself. As the speaker experiences the wrath of the wind on a wet night, the reader can start to identify with his or her anxious feelings.

The reader might read on to learn more about the speaker's emotions in the next lines. Having established the scene and the tone, the speaker now invites the reader inside his own head. As he hears the wind and rain outside of his door, he declares that his heart is "fit to break." Suddenly, the tone and mood change as he recalls how Porphyria "glided in" and "shut out the cold and the storm."

The speaker's heart must have been breaking because of her absence, according to this implication. She blocked out the cold when she entered because of this. The fire then "warms the entire cottage," she continues. What she did for his soul is likewise symbolised by the fire she stoked in actuality. His life is otherwise gloomy, yet her very presence brings warmth and sunshine.

The speaker's personal storms are mirrored in the wind and rain outside the cottage. In her absence, they have a significant impact on him. The other challenges of life, however, appear to vanish when Porphyria is nearby because of her warmth and light. Porphyria has offered herself to the speaker as the poem continues. She enters the house from the storm, makes a fire, gets up, and starts to take off her clothes.

As she takes off each item of clothes, the announcer gives a description of it. She takes off her shawl and coat first, followed by her gloves and hat. The reader can better grasp the storm's ferocity thanks to the description of her clothing. Porphyria's views towards the speaker are likewise made clear by this.

In order to reach him, she was prepared to fight the storm. Her decision to accompany him through the storm is made clear as she starts taking off her outer clothing. It is clear from these sentences that she is giving herself totally to him. He is called to by her as she sits down next to him. Although the call's meaning is unknown, the speaker claims that he did not respond to her.

This makes it clear to the reader how the speaker is struggling with how to react to Porphyria's offer. She doesn't seem discouraged at all. It seems like she is certain of his feelings for her. She snatches his arm and wraps it around her waist after he doesn't respond to her. She is expressing her willingness to give herself to him in a very explicit way. She bares her shoulder after he wraps his arm around her waist.

Porphyria keeps making overtures to the speaker. She grabs his face, stretches out her hair, and forces him to rest his cheek against it. The speaker finally expresses her love for him after Porphyria has used every seductive approach she could think of to get his attention. Her confession is referred regarded as a "murmuring" by the speaker, who then asserts that she is "too weak for all her heart's endeavour."

The speaker makes a point about the fact that she whispered her love to him rather than saying it out. He considers her declaration of love for him to be "weak" and her actual love to be "too weak...to release its struggling passion."

The speaker now lets the reader know for the first time why he is reluctant to respond to Porphyria. He asserts that her love is feeble and incapable of withstanding the odds stacked against her. For this reason, he asserts, her love for him is not powerful enough to set her free "from pride and vainer ties." This demonstrates that Porphyria and his being together would not be socially acceptable.

This may be the reason the storm is described in the opening of "Porphyria's Lover" by the speaker. Society is symbolised by the fury of the wind and the rain. The speaker recognises that Porphyria's desire is insufficient to overcome society constraints, and it is antagonistic towards the two lovers. Additionally, he attributes her lack of genuine love for him to her own arrogance and narcissism. He is aware that, despite her desire to "give herself to [him] forever," she would not do so even if she were to do so at this particular time.

Porphyria only left a "gay feast" to brave the storm and come visit him. This sheds light on what her "vainer ties" would entail. Porphyria had just returned from a fancy party, whereas the speaker was living by himself in a tiny hut that appeared hardly able to survive the rain and wind.

The implication is that she is wealthy and he is not. Perhaps for this reason, society is hostile to their relationship. The reader may surmise that she "murmured" her affection for him since society would despise her higher socioeconomic level and her love for him. Because of this, the speaker asserts that she would not be ready to renounce her vanity or her "vainer ties" in order to truly be his eternally.

But for now, it seems like he has her all to himself. Because she couldn't bear the idea of him being by himself and sick with love for her, she left a posh party. This affection he has for her, the speaker says, is "all in vain." Their devotion was not in vain, as evidenced by Porphyria's acts this evening. However, the speaker has made it apparent to the listener that he has little faith in the power of her love to stand up to society expectations.

When the speaker looks up into her eyes at this time, he can see that she is proud and joyful. He understands that she views him in great regard despite their disparities in money and social position. Because of this, he asserts, "at last I knew Porphyria worshipped me." The speaker was not sure whether Porphyria loved him or not before this time.

He is shocked to learn this information, and it "made [his] heart swell." Then he starts debating what to do. She had come to him and made herself available. He can tell that she truly loves him. But he questions whether it is powerful enough to confront society. He has not yet responded to her or taken any action to accept her offer.

Readers anticipate the author to either accept or reject Porphyria's love, but not to kill her. The speaker has her all to himself for a little period of time. In her eyes, which he can see while holding her in his arms, he can see true love for him. In order to retain her forever, he fears he may lose her.

He snatches her hair & wraps it round her throat till she is dead rather than expressing his love for her or rejecting it. He twice says that she "felt no pain," which reveals that he has ironic concern for her. The speaker, who had been a destitute, loveless man, has now abruptly changed into a psychotic killer.

The reader gets a better sense of how severe the speaker's mental disorder is. Since he had been after her for such a long time and when she finally confessed her love to him, he killed her out of fear of losing her. He believes that now that he has killed her, he finally has her as his own because she is unable to leave him.

His actions at this stage include opening and closing her eyelids, laughing at her blue eyes (or possibly claiming that they were laughing at him), untying the hair around her neck, kissing her cheek, and leaning her body against him. The speaker begins to terrify the reader all of a sudden.

The speaker now treats Porphyria like an inanimate thing. Even though she is gone, he continues to adore her "rosy little head." Then he portrays her as having the same desires as his. The speaker claims that even though she is dead and cannot express desires, staying with him forever was her "utmost will."

He says that because he killed her, he took rid of everything she loathed and gave her himself instead. The speaker is obviously insane. He has lost the reader's confidence in his perspective. However, the speaker feels that he has sparked Porphyria's strongest desire to murder her. He thinks she would have wanted to see the rest of her worldly worries go and be with him forever.

He, therefore, asserts that all she disdained "at once is fled" and exults in the fact that he was "gained instead." Thus, the speaker thinks that by ending her life, he did her a favour. He removed all of her worries and gave her himself instead. The reader is now conscious of the speaker's lack of credibility, though.

The reader can no longer have faith in the speaker because he killed the woman who loved him and then objectified her by playing with her body. It is obvious that the speaker is not, and possibly never has been, sane. This prompts the reader to doubt everything the speaker has said up to this point in the poem.

These phrases show that, in his delusion, the speaker thinks he has provided Porphyria the one thing she coveted above all else. His assertion that this was her "one wish" to live with him forever. He begins by saying, "She guessed not how/ Her darling one wish would be heard," and then goes on to explain that by killing Porphyria, he was able to fulfil her wish. He keeps saying that he has been sitting with her dead all night in his illusion.

He declares at the conclusion of "Porphyria's Lover" that "God has not said a word!" With this assertion, the speaker comes to the conclusion that killing her was the proper decision. He has been lying next to her dead all night, and since he has not received any communication from God, he believes that he has acted appropriately.