The Female Dominance in Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning

Robert Browning's poem “Porphyria's Lover” is one of those poems which can easily be interpreted in a number of ways. Even though it does not seem ambiguous at first, the reader may find himself puzzled every time s/he reads the poem. Browning never mentions the name of the main male character although he is the narrator; only Porphyria’s name is relevant. The poem may easily be considered morbid or even unrealistic because at the end the speaker strangles his loving Porphyria without giving any reason for his wrongdoing. Keeping in mind that the poem was written in the Victorian period when women were treated little better than slaves, it seems quite odd for the author of the poem to emphasize the female presence in the entire story. Porphyria is the character who controls the poem; she uses her weakness as a tool to manipulate the speaker. She is not an ordinary Victorian woman. Porphyria’s high social position shown by her clothes stresses her importance and is also derogatory towards the speaker who is presented as a person with nothing material to offer a woman. Porphyria shows her emotions so openly to the speaker and leads the reader to conclude that she really loves him, yet she hides when she comes to see her lover as if she has something to be embarrassed about