Porphyria's Lover
Question: The study of the Victorian era involved developing a greater appreciation of previous social and literary contexts. Discuss this statement with close study to the texts you’ve studied in class.
The study of the Victorian era has informed my appreciation of previous social and literary contexts, as it reveals that texts do not exist in a vacuum, instead they are composed within very specific social, cultural and political contexts and as such their composers use the texts to both reflect and subvert the dominant values of the time. The Victorian era, ranging from 1837 until 1901,was a phase that put a particular emphasis of being refinement, propriety, politeness and sexual prudishness and texts composed during this era reflect such …show more content…
Constructed in the Victorian era, this text explores ideas involving the social paradigm of the context, essentially conveying the consequences of challenging strict class structures placed on individuals through portraying the disastrous effect of upper and lower class interaction. The text’s title, “Porphyria’s Lover”, which alludes to a disease highlights that the persona is being infected by Porphyria to point where it makes him sick, suggesting that inter-class relationships are abnormal and unhealthy. Porphyria is implied to be of higher social status than the persona through the diction in “When in glided in Porphyria” where the word glided gives the sense that she has the higher class elegance. Browning reinforces the persona’s obsession with owning Porphyria as a commodity through the repetition of “mine” in “That moment she was mine, mine, fair” which highlights the compulsive and acquisitive nature of the lover, reiterating the Victorian society’s obsession with the aesthetic qualities of an individual and objectifying women, further showing how texts are shaped by their context. The periphrasis as seen in “No pain she felt; I am quite sure she felt no pain” reinforces how the lover becomes so dominant over the his female counterpart to the extent where he thinks he knows what she feels, highlighting male dominance within
The study of the Victorian era has informed my appreciation of previous social and literary contexts, as it reveals that texts do not exist in a vacuum, instead they are composed within very specific social, cultural and political contexts and as such their composers use the texts to both reflect and subvert the dominant values of the time. The Victorian era, ranging from 1837 until 1901,was a phase that put a particular emphasis of being refinement, propriety, politeness and sexual prudishness and texts composed during this era reflect such …show more content…
Constructed in the Victorian era, this text explores ideas involving the social paradigm of the context, essentially conveying the consequences of challenging strict class structures placed on individuals through portraying the disastrous effect of upper and lower class interaction. The text’s title, “Porphyria’s Lover”, which alludes to a disease highlights that the persona is being infected by Porphyria to point where it makes him sick, suggesting that inter-class relationships are abnormal and unhealthy. Porphyria is implied to be of higher social status than the persona through the diction in “When in glided in Porphyria” where the word glided gives the sense that she has the higher class elegance. Browning reinforces the persona’s obsession with owning Porphyria as a commodity through the repetition of “mine” in “That moment she was mine, mine, fair” which highlights the compulsive and acquisitive nature of the lover, reiterating the Victorian society’s obsession with the aesthetic qualities of an individual and objectifying women, further showing how texts are shaped by their context. The periphrasis as seen in “No pain she felt; I am quite sure she felt no pain” reinforces how the lover becomes so dominant over the his female counterpart to the extent where he thinks he knows what she feels, highlighting male dominance within