Everyone has a deviant side to them. Sigmund Freud explains there are three parts to the mind: the id, ego, and superego. The ego is the conscious, the superego is the conscience and the id is the deviance in people. By using Sigmund Freud’s method of psychology while reading “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning, you see how someone who cannot control their id acts. In this poem, Browning uses setting, symbolism and irony to portray that the id takes over the super ego.
The settings in this poem reflect the two strongest emotions of the characters: passion, and violence. “The sullen wind was soon awake,” the wind represents violence (2). Wind blows things around and destroys things and in this poem the violence is the speaker strangling Porphyria. “…and all the cottage warm,” the warmth reflects passion (9). The cottage was warm and warmth is associated with passion because passion creates heat. Porphyria and her lover are passionate about each other. These emotions are more powerful and more closely associated to the id which is eventually why the id takes over the superego.
Porphyria’s Lover takes place on a stormy and windy night. The weather is an example of foreshadowing. This is a literary device poems and stories use when something bad is going to happen. Despite the weather Porphyria comes to her lover showing she would rather be with him then with her family. Going to her lover without her family knowing is an example of her id yearning to free her from the constraints of her family and her supere.
The poem “Porphyria's Lover” is a dramatic monologue spoken in first person from the perspective of the narrator. By choosing this style of narration Browning can portray how human psychology, specifically the consciousness...
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...ossible for his superego to gain back control.
In this poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert browning you see a man who seems perfectly normal turn into an insane man in a poem about murder. Porphyria comes to her lover to have a good night with her loved one, but in a horrible way she loses her life. With setting, irony and symbolism you see clearly how the superego was taken over by the id. Porphyria’s biggest weakness turns out to be her locks of “love.”
Works cited
Browning, Robert. “Porphyria’s Lover.” Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, writing. Ed
Laurie Kirzner and Stephen Mandell. Boston: wadworth. 2013 446-447. Print.
Freud, Sigmund. “TheEgo and the Id” The Standard Edition of the complete Psychological works of Sigmund Freud. Ed James Stachey. Trans. James Strac hey. London: Hogarth press, 1961. 1-19. Print.
poem was 'not to blame' or that the male was 'not to blame'. In effect
Since the protagonist leads the story as a narrator, the loneliness of the narrator is depicted through internal and external conflicts that arise by situations and the feelings of being alone. The first person point of view allows readers to be immersed in her situation easily. For instance, no one gives her love after she gets measles first which further get extended to Porphyria. The narrator’s father does
Though he is indeed a cynic, Catullus seems to express in general a love of life and an eagerness to experience it. He feels the futility of being human, yet he longs to be human, to feel all the joys and pains of being alive. Ultimately he sees love and life as wondrous, beautiful things. In few other poems is this view expressed as well as in poem 5. An idealized picture of furtive love, poem 5 presents a young, budding romance between Catullus and the infamous Lesbia. It is has many common characteristics of new love: it is rebellious in its attitude toward those who disapprove, urgent in its perception of time, charming and innocent in its request for kisses.
Contemporary Psychology, 36, 575-577. Freud, S. (1961). The Species of the World. The Complete Works of Sigmund Freud. London: The Hogarths.
Freud, Sigmund. From Civilization and Its Discontents. 1929. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Lawall. [8th edition, vol.2,1984]:1696-1699.
Someone once said that true love is only an illusion and can never be achieved. This is evidently shown through many elements of the poem by John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes.” Much of this poem is about the imagination and how it can blind people and make them oblivious to the true events that are occurring. We the readers can see this very easily through the portrayal of one of the main characters Madeline. The second main character Porphyro tries to authenticate her quest for a dream experience however ends up taking advantage of her while she thinks she is still dreaming. The poem does endorse how the power of Madeline’s visionary imagination can influence her and the others around her, but also that happenings outside of the dream can cause the person in the dream to be taken advantage of with out the dreamers knowledge. The truth is that Porphyro knows exactly what he is doing and instead of doing things in a honorable way, he decides to proceed in a dishonorable way and totally violates her visionary imagination.
The death of the female beloved is the only way deemed possible by the insecure, possessive male to seize her undivided attention. This beloved woman represents the "reflector and guarantor of male identity. Hence, the male anxiety about the woman's independence for her liberty puts his masculine self-estimation at risk" (Maxwell 29). The jealous and controlling males in Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess" possess a fervent desire to fix and monopolize their unconstrained female beloveds. Due to a fear of death, both speakers attempt to achieve control and deny object loss; by turning their lovers (once subjects) into objects, they ultimately attain the role of masterful subject.
Love is the ubiquitous force that drives all people in life. If people did not want, give, or receive love, they would never experience life because it is the force that completes a person. Although it often seems absent, people constantly strive for this ever-present force as a means of acceptance. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an influential poet who describes the necessity of love in her book of poems Sonnets from the Portuguese. In her poems, she writes about love based on her relationship with her husband – a relationship shared by a pure, passionate love. Browning centers her life and happiness around her husband and her love for him. This life and pure happiness is dependent on their love, and she expresses this outpouring and reliance of her love through her poetry. She uses imaginative literary devices to strengthen her argument for the necessity of love in one’s life. The necessity of love is a major theme in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43” and “Sonnet 29.”
Starting with the earlier of the two, “Porphyria’s Lover” is a poem written at the end of the 1830s during the Victorian Period in England. How it is categorized with the rest of Browning’s poems, Dramatic Romances, tell us that nothing good will result of any love that is to occur in the poem. Porphyria is introduced as the dominant partner with agency, while her lover is reticent and inactive. When the lover suddenly inverses the roles, it appears as if he is achieving some sort of revenge because this woman has manipulated him. Yet the entire time, we only see Porphyria through the eyes of the lover. The speaker uses Porphyria to rationalize his own shortcomings and recasts her as a reflection of himself to help compensate for his weaknesses. The fact that he retains his voice and Porphyria lacks hers puts him in the assertive position. Why is it that such a passionate woman is unable to get a response from the man that she loves? Why is the narrator of this poem unable to respond to his lover when she calls out his name? Is the narrator unable to deal with her intense love for him? Is this why he murders her, is he murdering the entire concept of desire and love?
Freud, Sigmund. The Ego and the Id. The Freud Reader. Ed. Peter Gay. New York:
The speaker is a deranged man who will stop at nothing to keep his dear Porphyria. Although the introduction refers to the weather, it also does an effective job in describing the speaker. In this case, it is nighttime, and the thunder is roaring. The speaker starts by saying: "The rain set early in tonight,/The sullen wind was soon awake,/ It tore the elm-tops down for spite,/ And did its worst to vex the lake(Barnet 567):" This description gives the reader the first glimpse of what is yet to come. These turbulent words help give the poem a gloomy feeling.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 's "Sonnet XLIII" speaks of her love for her husband, Richard Browning, with rich and deeply insightful comparisons to many different intangible forms. These forms—from the soul to the afterlife—intensify the extent of her love, and because of this, upon first reading the sonnet, it is easy to be impressed and utterly overwhelmed by the descriptors of her love. However, when looking past this first reading, the sonnet is in fact quite ungraspable for readers, such as myself, who have not experienced what Browning has for her husband. As a result, the visual imagery, although descriptive, is difficult to visualize, because
‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ are both poems by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. In this essay I will compare these two poems to find similarities and differences.
Love is the ubiquitous force that drives all people in life. If people did not want, give, or receive love, they would never experience life because it is the force that completes a person. People rely on this seemingly absent force although it is ever-present. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an influential poet who describes the necessity of love in her poems from her book Sonnets from the Portuguese. She writes about love based on her relationship with her husband. Her life is dependent on him, and she expresses this same reliance of love in her poetry. She uses literary devices to strengthen her argument for the necessity of love. The necessity of love is a major theme in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 14,” “Sonnet 43,” and “Sonnet 29.”
Plaths Poetry can be understood through the psychoanalytic model. The motifs of oral fixation, sadomasochism and the desire to return to primary narcissism are consistent throughout Plaths Poetry. Overall these motifs represent the desire to return to the state of primary narcissism and to be reunited with the incestuous love object.