Critical Analysis Of Porphyria's Lover

The definition of feminism is the ‘advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes’ , literature offers the chance to explore these rights by showing the challenges and complications within society. Robert Browning’s poem, porphyria’s lover, is typically about the relationship between a middle/higher class woman and a working class man, and the power and dominance of men over women. The reader is first introduced to the unnamed speaker who is sitting alone in his house on a stormy night, this storm is banished when Porphyria enters his house. As the poem develops the man realises the love that Porphyria has for him, in this “perfect” moment he kills her with ‘all her hair In one long yellow string’ . The unnamed narrator then proceeds to position Porphyria as if she

After reading into the traditional feminist theory, there are many aspects that relate to the context of the poem. The woman in many case has four different sets of characteristics, these are ‘the dissatisfied shrew’ ,’the immortal or dangerous seductress’ , ‘the unworldly, self-sacrificing angel’ and ‘cute but essentially helpless’ . In Browning’s poem there are many instances where Porphyria is described using these characteristics. Porphyria is described as the ‘unworldly self-sacrificing angel’ throughout the text as a whole, ‘made the cheerless grate Blaze up, and all the cottage warm’ , ‘yellow hair’ and smiling little rosy head’ . The narrator emphasises on her beauty as a symbol of his love for her, however she is just described by her appearance which shows that males of that era chose women based on their looks rather than the ability to look after them. The name of the narrator’s lover, Porphyria, was the name for a rare disease founded in 1841 a few years