Monday, June 29, 2009

Robert Browning

At first glance, I immediately realized that Porphyia was killed by her lover. The second reading allowed me to notice details about her lover. Porphyia was in love with this man and as he said "Porphyria worshipped me"(line 33, 663). Porphyria was also struggling to set her passion free for him and "wanted to give herself to me forever"(663) he says. In order to answer her dying request(no pun intended), he says "..I found A thing to do, and all her hair In one long yellow string I wound Three times her little throat around, and strangled her."(663) How could someone being the recipient of worship do such a thing? This poem gives me the reason to believe that he has no regard for her life. However, his excuse for doing such is this "Porphyria's love: she guess not how Her darling one wish would be heard." He felt that by killing her, he was granting her need of "wanting to give herself" to him.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 6, 2009 at 7:20 PM

    Letisha,
    I've found there to be many interpretations of Browning's very controversial poem. I did not think that the speaker killed his lover to provide her with what she requested. Instead, I felt that the speaker killed his lover obviously because he was slightly estranged, but also because he feared her love because what it could do to hurt him, so he chose to freeze their moment of love by murdering her. This way he could always remember her as "worship[ing]" him. So by killing her, he took away her ability to hurt him.

    Also, I felt you could have written a lot more on your interpretations of this poem. Maybe by quoting more or analyzing these quotes more in depth, your blog would seem less of a summary.

    Thanks!
    -Alex

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  2. Jonathan.GlanceJuly 6, 2009 at 7:56 PM

    Tisha,

    I agree with Alex that your post tends to read more like a summary of Browning's poem than an in depth analysis of it. You offer some remarks and observations, but not much in the way of interpretation of specific textual evidence.

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  3. WinnieJuly 11, 2009 at 4:39 PM

    Tisha,
    I also agreed with Alex that Porphyria was not killed to fulfill a wish, but to keep there relationship a secret. I believe that she could have been a relative,a married woman,or he could have had another mistress. There was feelings for her, but with her reaction, he felt that the relationship must end. I also think that he was a little insane because after killing her he laid with her body instead of disposing it.This is shown in line 49&50. "I propped her head up as before, only, this time my shoulder bore".

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  4. Alvin HuffJuly 18, 2009 at 7:44 PM

    The only idea I want to add is a notion about the quote you provided Tisha. Your quote "she worshipped me" provides for the alternative did she really worship him or was he imagining it all. While she may have loved him, she was slightly crazy and interpretated her love as worship.

    This is just an example of alternative thinking about the quotations you provided. You have the quotes which can assist you in your analysis but you just have to carry it the rest of the way but really analyzing them.

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  5. JenniferJuly 18, 2009 at 8:44 PM

    Tisha, I think he was selfish and killed her for his own selfish reasons. Love will make you do some crazy things as we all know!

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