Porphyria's Lover And My Last Duchess

Robert Browning helps readers understand the plight of women. Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess really help to convey the idea that women had no power no matter what social class they were in. Likewise women were objectified under the harsh rules of the society in the Victorian Era. He proves his point even further by both poems ending with the woman dying because of their sexuality. Robert Browning helps you comprehend the plight of women by having Porphyria in a much superior social class than her lover and The Duchess marrying a man of the same social class.

Towards the end of Porphyria's Lover, Porphyria is presented as powerless and this helps the reader to understand the plight of women. 'She was mine, mine, fair, perfectly pure and good.' The repeat of the word 'mine' adds emphasis to the sentence and shows that lover is possessive. There has been a shift in status as Porphyria has all of the power and now she has been whittled down to nothing. The alliteration ‘Perfectly pure’ adds to the effect of the sentence, proving that Porphyria has been objectified and her lover has all the power now that she is gone. This a struggle for women because even
Robert Browning helps the reader to comprehend the plight of women by featuring it in his poems. ‘Looking as if she were alive.’ This quote brings a sinister atmosphere to the poem and tells you the account of what happened to the previous Duchess; she was killed. The duke has objectified his wife by killing her and hanging her in a painting on the wall. In the Victorian Era women were expected to be quiet and submissive but according to the poem she wasn't. This was a struggle for the duchess because the duke had to kill her because she was friendly to other men. This conveys that the duke was very possessive and jealous. Hence the fact that he chooses who sees her painting showing how much control he has over