This is a very interesting issue to consider in relation
to this great poem and I think the subject of gender is very important in discussing the
full complexities of this poem. However, at the same time, I have always read this poem
to be first and foremost a study of madness in its most chilling nature. Browning, the
master of dramatic monologues, in this poem gives us an insight into the mind of a
maddened killer and how he justifies his crime. Facing the prospect of losing his lover,
the speaker wonders "what to do" until he realises what his actions must be. As they
embrace, he realises that he has gained her
completely:
That moment she was mine, mine,
fair,
Perfectly pure and good: 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. No pain felt
she;
I am quite sure she felt no
pain.
We see the distorted
view that the speaker of the world as he realises that in his mind, the only way to trap
this moment and to possess her completely is to kill her. The way he tries to convince
himself that Porphyria felt no pain when she killed her, and the repetition he uses
makes us doubt his words as he presents us with his skewed and dangerously violent world
view which leads him to kill that which he loves to "gain" her forver and to stop the
course of time and her inevitable parting.
Thus, whilst
this poem is definitely about sex and violence and the domination of one man's will over
another, let us not forget that centrally it is a study of madness, and these other
aspects of the poem must be considered in the light of this central
focus.
No comments:
Post a Comment