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... Porphyria sat beside her lover just like a child snuggles beside his mother. She could feel the same calm and repose that a child feels at the side of his mother. But from here starts the strange union of sense with feelings, of adoration with desires as she reaches out to her lover and finds him not responding to her, she at once realizes that he was going through the motions of that emotion which a child encounters when after getting noticed by his mother he wants to be pampered. She put my arm about her waist, And made her smooth white shoulder bare, Paradoxically, the warmth of Porphyria's love appears to the narrator to be so temporary that it incites his own predominant passion. Innocently seeking to comfort her afflicted lover, Porphyria forces him to embrace her and makes "her smooth white shoulder bare" (17).
Abruptly, Browning's scene of chilling weather interrupted by warm companionship becomes a picture of overt sexual expression amidst the cottage's roaring fire. The initial presentation of traditional domesticity, a comforting shelter from a raging storm, turns quickly now to unstoppable, passionate pace. These lines that follow are of one of the most critical nature as they are hinging on the two extremes of love and physicality. A little turn towards either could make a complete mess of the scene, a total collapse of the expression, and a break in the rhythm.
But this juncture shows us Browning in his full splendor. This is the point that distinguishes him. Like a seasoned doctor he carries out the dissection of the emotions, bringing forth the two elements of love and physicality in complete balance and striking fusion. Porphyrias action of putting her arms around his waist is indicative of the trust she had on him. But then the very next line is masterfully interwoven in this aura and presents a picture of conditioned yet subtle lure.
She bares her shoulder before her lover. Now the use of a bare shoulder is one of the most intelligent symbols to represent sensuousness as a bare shoulder has a very unique shape. It is smooth and white, and moreover it has a curving shape with soft flesh around it. Now such a physical image is enticing because it incorporates in itself strong feminine quality as the curves and soft smooth flesh speak of the untold story about the girl! Illicit sex out of wedlock presented a major concern for Victorian society; the famous Victorian "prudery" constituted only a backlash to what was in fact a popular obsession with the theme: the newspapers of the day reveled in stories about prostitutes and unwed mothers.
Here, however, in "Porphyria's Lover, " sex appears as something natural, acceptable, almost wholesome: Porphyria's girlishness and affection take prominence over any hints of immorality. The odyssey continues in this land of strong passion of love and we find the lines heightening in the physical imagery showing love in its full splendor. Porphyria made her lover lay his cheek on her bare shoulders and let her hair fall loosely around... This whole image speaks volumes about the balance in the motions of love that the two lovers had.
To add the final touches to this fine picture of perfect love Porphyria softly re-confesses her love for the young man. Here brilliantly the poet explains the feelings of the young lady as she expressed her love for her lover by using the word murmuring, Browning is hinting to the eventual femininity that underlines her heightened feelings. She is after all a girl whose vaulting passions are tamed down by her femininity. The poet speaks out the lovers mind here as well, saying that he perceived this softness in confession to be the cooing down of her feminine self in the face of opposition from pride, and vainer ties, instead of giving herself to him in the powerful flow of her emotions. But this at no point suggests that the lover had any grievance or doubt on her love for him.
Thus these lines points out the basic feminine psyche, that a girl is basically weak when it comes to facing the world but this in no way suggests that her passions are not strong enough. And moreover they also hint at the Victorian society's respect for hollow ideals like pride. Browning's poem cannot be seen merely as a character analysis of a nameless speaker; its events frame not only the speaker's apparent insanity but the primary source of his distorted emotions. The narrator's own "struggling passion" (23) impedes his ability to think and act in a way that society views appropriate; yet, paradoxically, it is society's limited notion of what is appropriate that kindles the ultimately fatal fire of his passionate endeavor.
The next few lines are splendid example of Brownings genius as the lover answers his own views about the femininity of her beloved, prevailing over her passion with the realization that her passion had prevailed at least that night as she came gliding through the rain and thunder with in and without to her lover. The whole notion of his beloved coming to him despite the unfavorable odds makes him feel proud of her and the way Browning conveys this notion also reminds the reader of the typical male psyche! Happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshiped me. The lover feels a strange sense of relief as if he has regained a sense of surety that he stills possess his possession so much typical of the male psyche.
Now we enter the point of debate where the love of the lover is rattled by the conflict that starts to grow in his heart. This line of Browning is so violent as it is filled with all the conflict, anguish, fear, disturbance, which one can imagine That moment she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good: The line is filled with a strange amalgam of relief, achievement, anguish, and fear. The first two words that moment have been very dexterously placed and they fulcrum ize the two extremes of anguish and relief as if something that is there and one feels so relaxed and then the very next moment the heart is gripped by the fear that will it be there the next moment. So fighting it out in the middle the lover finally resolves to eternalize that moment when she is there with him. Further more importantly, "When glided in Porphyria" (60), the narrator's weakened heart has already been broken many times if not once, both by soc...
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Research essay sample on Smooth White Shoulder Bare White Shoulder Bare Lover
