CONTEXT
PORPHYRIA’S LOVER
British Romantic Poetry
Browning wrote “Porphyria’s Lover” in 1836, at a time when Romanticism still
greatly influenced the British literary landscape. Two trends from the Romantic
era influenced Browning’s poem. First is the revival of lyric poetry spearheaded
by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge. Contrary to the elaborate
scenarios and elevated diction of neoclassical poetry, Romantic lyrics feature
first-person speakers who reflect on their experience in simple, natural language.
The second trend is a fascination with strange phenomena. Poems like
Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” along with novels like Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein, exemplify this interest in the supernatural. In dramatic
monologues like “Porphyria’s Lover,” Browning marries the lyric form and a
fascination with the bizarre by centering first-person speakers with abnormal
psychologies. He also playfully references Romantic tropes. The dark and stormy
night that opens the poem is one such trope. Another is the Romantic hero,
which is also known as the “Byronic hero” after Lord Byron, who often wrote
about gloomy men characterized by isolation, alienation, and misanthropy. The
speaker of Browning’s poem is a twisted version of a Romantic hero. Finally,
Porphyria’s name may be a cheeky reference to Porphyro, a character in John
Keats’s 1920 poem, “The Eve of St. Agnes.”
Women in Victorian England
Browning lived during the Victorian period, which was a time of massive
economic growth and societal change in England. As industrialization churned on
into the nineteenth century and people flocked from the country to the city,
British urban centers became crowded and subject to poverty and disease. Even
so, working-class people enjoyed expanded voting and labor rights and an
overall increase in their standards of living. Women both did and did not benefit
from these economic and social shifts, for even though many aspects of daily life
were changing, Victorian morality remained rigidly conservative and patriarchal.
Men—whether fathers, husbands, uncles, or brothers—continued to exert control
over women’s lives. As such, women’s mobility remained highly circumscribed
and mostly constrained to the domestic sphere. This constraint on women’s
agency reflected deep-rooted moral conventions that expected women to uphold
traditional values such as humility, purity, and service. When women failed to
uphold these values, they were liable to be punished, often through violence that
intended to bring women back under male control. Browning understood the
cruel dynamics of Victorian morality, and the numerous examples of violence
against women in his poems arguably aim to bring the cruelty to light.
THE LABORTARY
Ancien Regime (AO3: Context)
• The Kings court in France was an extremely competitive place.
• Men and Woman would compete for the attention and favor of the King
and other senior Royals and nobles.
• ‘The laboratory’ is a fictional work set in the ‘Ancien Regime.’
PORPHYRIA’S LOVER
British Romantic Poetry
Browning wrote “Porphyria’s Lover” in 1836, at a time when Romanticism still
greatly influenced the British literary landscape. Two trends from the Romantic
era influenced Browning’s poem. First is the revival of lyric poetry spearheaded
by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge. Contrary to the elaborate
scenarios and elevated diction of neoclassical poetry, Romantic lyrics feature
first-person speakers who reflect on their experience in simple, natural language.
The second trend is a fascination with strange phenomena. Poems like
Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” along with novels like Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein, exemplify this interest in the supernatural. In dramatic
monologues like “Porphyria’s Lover,” Browning marries the lyric form and a
fascination with the bizarre by centering first-person speakers with abnormal
psychologies. He also playfully references Romantic tropes. The dark and stormy
night that opens the poem is one such trope. Another is the Romantic hero,
which is also known as the “Byronic hero” after Lord Byron, who often wrote
about gloomy men characterized by isolation, alienation, and misanthropy. The
speaker of Browning’s poem is a twisted version of a Romantic hero. Finally,
Porphyria’s name may be a cheeky reference to Porphyro, a character in John
Keats’s 1920 poem, “The Eve of St. Agnes.”
Women in Victorian England
Browning lived during the Victorian period, which was a time of massive
economic growth and societal change in England. As industrialization churned on
into the nineteenth century and people flocked from the country to the city,
British urban centers became crowded and subject to poverty and disease. Even
so, working-class people enjoyed expanded voting and labor rights and an
overall increase in their standards of living. Women both did and did not benefit
from these economic and social shifts, for even though many aspects of daily life
were changing, Victorian morality remained rigidly conservative and patriarchal.
Men—whether fathers, husbands, uncles, or brothers—continued to exert control
over women’s lives. As such, women’s mobility remained highly circumscribed
and mostly constrained to the domestic sphere. This constraint on women’s
agency reflected deep-rooted moral conventions that expected women to uphold
traditional values such as humility, purity, and service. When women failed to
uphold these values, they were liable to be punished, often through violence that
intended to bring women back under male control. Browning understood the
cruel dynamics of Victorian morality, and the numerous examples of violence
against women in his poems arguably aim to bring the cruelty to light.
THE LABORTARY
Ancien Regime (AO3: Context)
• The Kings court in France was an extremely competitive place.
• Men and Woman would compete for the attention and favor of the King
and other senior Royals and nobles.
• ‘The laboratory’ is a fictional work set in the ‘Ancien Regime.’
