1. How does the poet describe the setting of the poem? (the weather, atmosphere) 2. What effect does Porphyria have on the atmosphere in the cottage? 3. Why can’t Porphyria give herself to the narrator completely? 4. What does the narrator realise and how does this make him feel? 5. What does the narrator do and why? 6. What happens at the end of the poem? (Think about the lover’s frame of mind?)
An Investigation into Porphyria's Murder
Remember: • This poem is a dramatic monologue. • A dramatic monologue is a poem in which someone tells a story from his or her perspective. • Dramatic monologues can sometimes tell biased or incomplete stories.
Copy the tables below into your exercise books and fill them in using the P.E.E method.
TABLE ONE: THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
| |POINT |EVIDENCE |EXPLANATION |
|Where did the crime take place? | | | |
|What time of year was it? | | | |
|What did the victim look like? | | | |
|(give at least two points) | | | |
|How was the victim killed? | | | |
|What did the murderer do to her | | | |
|body? | | | |
TABLE TWO: THE MOTIVATIONS
| |POINT |EVIDENCE |EXPLANATION |
|How did Porphyria change the | | | |
|atmosphere in the cottage? | | | |
|Why can’t Porphyria stay with her | | | |
|lover forever? | | | |
|Why does her lover kill her? | | | |
|Why does her lover re-arrange her | | | |
|body? | | | |
‘Mariana’ – Lord Alfred Tennyson
Make sure the following are marked or annotated onto your copy of the poem. 1. Highlight (in a colour) all the words associated with nature. 2. Highlight (in a different colour) all the words that describe the atmosphere of the setting. 3. Highlight any examples of onomatopoeia. 3. Highlight and annotate the similes and metaphors. 4. Highlight all the static verbs. 5. Highlight any images of pathetic fallacy (is the treatment of inanimate objects as if they had human feelings – usually describing the weather or larger concepts, where as personification can be applied to objects.) 6. Highlight any phrases that are repeated throughout the poem 7. Underline examples of alliteration. 8. Highlight the vivid images created in the poem. 9. Mark on the rhyme scheme.
PEE Paragraphs;
1. How does the poet create a chilling and ominous atmosphere in 2nd last stanza? 2. How is Mariana’s loneliness portrayed in the poem? 3. What is the effect of repeating the lines “I am aweary”? 4. How does the poet use colour to create atmosphere?
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