Action and the Modern Times

Porphyria's Stupefied Senses

Abstract

Why did Porphyria, of Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover, come straight from a storm, labored to improve the conditions in the cottage, and gave in to her lover’s whims while he lay inside, all the while, quite comfortably? What made her do nothing, as per the narrator of the poem, in response to being strangled? Why did she act like the puppet of a puppeteer and not like a person of will when being killed? As bizarre is her lover’s wish to love her unnaturally perpetually i.e. by murdering her, it is just as bizarre that Porphyria lets go of her life with the ease reported by the narrator.

Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover may be narrated by the lover, but the actions of Porphyria speak for themselves and tell us of her struggle between the outer world and her inner self. Her actions, or lack thereof, can be taken as a microcosm for the modern woman living in a patriarchal world, where their existence, much like Porphyria’s—after whom the poem is named but much of the critical work present on it revolves around the lover—has been treated as secondary and whose realities also come to a halt in response to the gaze of the Other all too often. In the Madhouse Cell, Porphyria was an equal participant, and should be looked at that way.