A Comparative Study of Browning's Porphyria's Lover and My Last Duchess

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disturbance, a very unbalanced state of mind. Browning mixes this emotion with that of romance and passion, images of rain, wind, and the lake. So at the very beginning, the reader can tell of the narrator's confusion. This very confusion is what is constant throughout the poem. When Porphyria enters, the narrator is only watching, he doesn't say a single word. He now describes her movement. The placement of punctuations in the poem allows the reader a little bit of anxiety. So we're still confused as to what the narrator is thinking. Because his narrative gives us an account of what he sees, the physical movement about his cottage, Porphyria's features, and her actions. At this point, the reader knows not what the narrator plans on doing. Further the narrator slowly takes on a defensive mode, like he is about to do something to her. Exactly when he says,

"Murmuring how she loved me -- she Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor, To set its struggling passion free From pride, and ...

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narrator?

The narrator goes on to say that yes, she has come through wind and rain and for that he is proud; this act according to the narrator is proof of the regard she has for him. Again, note the words used.

Happy and proud;
at last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me

All of this tells us how deluded the narrator could be. What one can also see is the passion that resides in him. Although he's going to harm her, we know of the quality or the nature of love he has for her. And this comes off as a very effective method of narration. The narrator is able to hold the reader on to his side throughout the poem. We feel for Porphyria, nonetheless we are almost excusing the narrator's ...

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