porphyria's lover - ao2
- Created by: valentina__calcagni
- Created on: 13-10-21 16:40
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- Porphyria's Lover
- 'That moment she was mine, mine fair'
- possession of women - rep of 'mine' suggested madness, 'fair' suggests almost his own right - in desperation to keep her submissive kills her
- almost childish in his objectification - irrationality
- we watch him grasp control over her
- 'I found a thing to do... I wound three times her little throat around. And strangled her'
- 'I found a thing' - premeditated? 'a thing' - removes any kind of remorse or brutality
- death is explicit but quick - no hesitation - focus shifts to him regaining his power
- 'her little throat' - role of the victim - powerless
- 'No pain felt she, I am quite sure she felt no pain'
- link to unreliable narrator - calmness makes us doubt
- poem tinged with clarity with sublime moments of madness - the regularity of the irregular rhyme scheme runs throughout the poem
- trying to reassure himself
- link to unreliable narrator - calmness makes us doubt
- 'The smiling rosy little head, so glad it had its upmost will'
- reinforces role of the victim and criminal psyche
- objectification
- another moment in which he justifies the murder - almost feels he has done a justice?
- KEY - suggestions he is actually a victim - killed her to avoid long, painful death and this was her 'utmost will'
- done her a favour? - put her in the place in which she is supposed to be in society
- link to delusion and irrationality suggested by title and throughout
- 'And yet God has not said a word'
- allusion to God - knows what he's done is wrong
- boasts his crime - proud - she was a 'fallen woman' - God said nothing as he has done a justice?
- 'I listened with heart fit to break when glided in Porphyria'
- poetic inversion of 'glided' - almost fantastical linking to ambiguity of this poem - blurred lines between dream and reality - criminal psyche
- 'glided' - gentle in contrast to unsettling weather
- 'heart fit to break' - links to his lack of dominance at this point - despite DM and end of the poem - his insecurities, and title suggest he is submissive - societal commentary
- irrational
- 'did its worst to vex the lake'
- personification - everything against him - victimised himself to justify crime or my reflect his sullen mood
- fs lover's actions
- personification - everything against him - victimised himself to justify crime or my reflect his sullen mood
- 'her smooth white shoulder bare...and, stooping, made my cheek lie there'
- 'white shoulder bare' - sensual, but also image of fragility, heightens her victimisation
- despite her fragility - he seems passive she seems in control - feeds his insecurity
- 'stooping' - his inferiority to her? feels submissive to her - commented how she returned home to him - industrial revolution
- links to class differences? cottage?
- 'That moment she was mine, mine fair'
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