Porphyria's Lover Diction

Is Porphyria’s Lover a Monster?
“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning tells the story of a young woman that is strangled and killed by the man that she loves. The poem is set in the lover’s point of view. Browning challenges the reader to judge the speaker not as a simple monster, but as a person with much more complex emotions. By reading the speaker’s view the audience becomes captivated by him and searches the text for any redemptive qualities. Browning hides these qualities in the text using syntax, tone, and euphony versus cacophony.
After murdering his love, the speaker begins to question his actions he is unsure if killing his beloved was the right action. Browning’s use of syntax conveys complex emotions the speaker feels without blatantly describing the emotions.

By describing this scene in a metaphor Browning is able to impart emotions that could not be seen by plain words. “As a shut bud holds a bee” (43) expresses how he opened her eyes with trepidation expecting Porphyria to sting him for what he has done. Also, the word “bud” carries connotations that describe the beauty with which he sees dead Porphyria. The word causes the reader to imagine a delicate and still living thing. Therefore, it is possible to conceive that to the speaker Porphyria is still alive, just more willing to do as he says. Line forty-four suggests the speaker is abashed as if a child that is about to be caught doing something forbidden. The wariness the speaker felt when opening Porphyria’s eyes allows the reader to see that the speaker may not fully comprehend death’s finality. If the speaker did understand death he would not be leery of opening Porphyria’s eyes, for he would know that there can be no “bee” left to sting