Previous Next

Love as a Matter of Complete Submission

The speaker of Browning’s poem frames love as a matter of complete submission. The main reason the speaker feels torn up is that he wants Porphyria to give herself over to him entirely, but her personal circumstances dictate that she can’t. Despite “murmuring how she loved me” (line 21), she was ultimately “too weak, for all her heart’s endeavour, / To set its struggling passion free . . . And give herself to me for ever” (lines 21–25). Though Porphyria can’t seem to manage it of her own accord, the speaker believes that she herself longs to submit to him completely. This belief helps explain the turning point that occurs about halfway through the poem, when Porphyria gives the speaker a look that he interprets as worshipful (lines 31–35):

     Be sure I looked up at her eyes
            Happy and proud; at last I knew
     Porphyria worshipped me; surprise
            Made my heart swell, and still it grew
            While I debated what to do.

It isn’t entirely clear whether it’s Porphyria’s eyes that are “happy and proud,” or if the speaker’s describing his own experience of receiving her gaze. But either way, this moment convinces the speaker that “Porphyria worshipped me,” and that she was somehow ready to give herself over to him. So, he strangles her, thereby fulfilling the highest aim of “Porphyria’s love” (line 56)—which is to say, her “darling one wish” (line 57) to submit herself totally and stay with him forever.    

The Perverse Enticement of Total Control

Although the speaker justifies his actions as a matter of fulfilling Porphyria’s “darling one wish” (line 57) for complete submission, he’s also driven by the perverse enticement of total control. In claiming that his actions were meant primarily to benefit Porphyria, the speaker fails to acknowledge his own desire for possession. This desire becomes clear in the logic that leads to the moment of strangulation. After Porphyria looks at him with “eyes / Happy and proud,” the speaker concludes, “Porphyria worshipped me” (lines 31–33). This interpretation of Porphyria’s gaze convinces the speaker that “she was mine, mine” (line 36). The repetition of “mine” here strongly implies that what the speaker has wanted all along is for Porphyria not simply to love him, but to belong to him. This interpretation helps explain why, immediately after laying claim to Porphyria, the speaker murders her. Furthermore, after strangling Porphyria, the speaker spends many lines detailing how he played with her corpse like a life-sized doll (lines 43–52):

     As a shut bud that holds a bee,
            I warily oped her lids: again
            Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.
     And I untightened next the tress
            About her neck; her cheek once more
     Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:
            I propped her head up as before,
            Only, this time my shoulder bore
     Her head, which droops upon it still:
            The smiling rosy little head

The speaker clearly relishes the control he now has over Porphyria’s corpse. His perverse enjoyment suggests that he killed Porphyria not to fulfill her wish for complete submission, but to fulfill his own wish for total control.

The Danger of Conventional Morality

The shocking events of Browning’s poem showcase the danger that was implicit in the conventional morality of his day. Indeed, the speaker’s desire for total control over Porphyria could be interpreted as a perverse reflection of the patriarchal conservatism that characterized the Victorian social order. This social order dictated that men—whether fathers, husbands, uncles, or brothers—should have control over women’s lives, since women were not equipped to manage their own affairs. Women therefore had limited agency, and though some remarkable women managed to find avenues for political and artistic expression, most were relegated to the domestic sphere. Within such a patriarchal order, the speaker’s desire for total control over Porphyria would appear to be justified. Porphyria is a woman who seems unable to fully give herself over to any man, which contravenes the social order and thereby authorizes the speaker to take control. Yet the brutal violence that erupts in Browning’s poem troubles such a conclusion. By shocking the reader with Porphyria’s murder, Browning demonstrates the danger of rigid moral conventions that evidently harm women’s well-being. That is, he’s pointing out the absurdity of a moral order whose deeper logic could be used to rationalize murder.

Previous section Setting Next section Motifs

Take a Study Break