Murder and Madness: Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning!

A tale of madness and murder! A tale with so many possiblities as to interpretation, it will obsess you!

Yes!  Another blog post inspired by two people: Poet Robert Browning who is dead many years and Margarita Georgieva who is very much alive!
Therefore I will be grateful to Mr. Browning and enthusiastically thank Margarita once again!

One important note: porphyria is a disease but it was not identified as such when the poem was written.

My rant:
Robert Browning wrote one particular poem that I find haunting! It is not only a work of dark beauty, it is also a puzzlement, you turn it one way in your search to unlock its awful secrets and just when you think you’ve solved it, you discover another explanation for its meaning, all of them valid.

Some background:
Porphyria’s Lover is a poem that was first published as "Porphyria" in the January 1836 issue of Monthly Repository.

A possible inspiration for the poem is John Wilson's "Extracts from Gosschen's Diary", which is based on a lurid account of a murder published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1818. Browning's friend and fellow poet Bryan Procter acknowledged basing his 1820 "Marcian Colonna" on it, but added a new detail; after the murder, the killer sits up all night with his victim.

You will see that in this poem as well!
Excited? Well, here we go:

Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning:

The rain set early in tonight,

The sullen wind was soon awake,

It tore the elm-tops down for spite,

And did its worst to vex the lake:

I listened with heart fit to break.

When glided in Porphyria; straight

She shut the cold out and the storm,

And kneeled and made the cheerless grate

Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;

Which done, she rose, and from her form

Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,

And laid her soiled gloves by, untied

Her hat and let the damp hair fall,

And, last, she sat down by my side

And called me. When no voice replied,

She put my arm about her waist,

And made her smooth white shoulder bare,

And all her yellow hair displaced,

And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,

And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,

Murmuring how she loved me — she

Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor,

To set its struggling passion free

From pride, and vainer ties dissever,

And give herself to me forever.

But passion sometimes would prevail,

Nor could tonight's gay feast restrain

A sudden thought of one so pale

For love of her, and all in vain:

So, she was come through wind and rain.

Be sure I looked up at her eyes

Happy and proud; at last I knew

Porphyria worshiped me: surprise

Made my heart swell, and still it grew

While I debated what to do.

That moment she was mine, mine, fair,

Perfectly pure and good: I found

A thing to do, and all her hair

In one long yellow string I wound

Three times her little throat around,

And strangled her. No pain felt she;

I am quite sure she felt no pain.

As a shut bud that holds a bee,

I warily oped her lids: again

Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.

And I untightened next the tress

About her neck; her cheek once more

Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:

I propped her head up as before,

Only, this time my shoulder bore

Her head, which droops upon it still:

The smiling rosy little head,

So glad it has its utmost will,

That all it scorned at once is fled,

And I, its love, am gained instead!

Porphyra’s love: she guessed not how

Her darling one wish would be heard.

And thus we sit together now,

And all night long we have not stirred,

And yet God has not said a word!

I don’t know about you but I find the poem dark and deeply disturbing.

The themes I see are madness and murder, the death by strangulation of a beautiful young girl by her deranged lover.

The gist:
There is a storm raging and Porphyria comes into the room where there isn’t even a fire.
Her lover has been sitting there, what in the cold? And if so why?
She sits down next to him and speaks to him although he doesn’t answer her, I see her as then trying to play up to him a bit by putting his arm about her waist.
She bares her shoulder; she then snuggles up to him so that his cheek is on her hair.
He knows she is his and just at that moment he strangles her, carefully assuring the reader that she felt no pain and that she smiled.

R for rationalization, I say!

He goes on to tell us she never cried out! Hard to I think when one is being strangled.
He further tells us she felt no pain but then qualifies it. "I am quite sure she felt no pain."
I imagine him possibly also thinking: “At least I hope she had no pain...”
He’s killed her, she’s dead so what does he do?
He opens her blue eyes and is pleased ‘they don’t look ‘strained.’ He then spreads her hair about her neck and gives her a ‘burning kiss’ (?!)

Charming!

He then goes on to tell us he props her head up and lets it rest on his shoulder.
And if this isn’t weird enough he lets us know that he sits with her corpse.
But it’s all okay apparently because ‘...God has not said a word!’

Please read:

I warily oped her lids: again
Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.
And I untightened next the tress
About her neck; her cheek once more
Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:
I propped her head up as before,
Only, this time my shoulder bore
Her head, which droops upon it still:
The smiling rosy little head,
So glad it has its utmost will,
That all it scorned at once is fled,
And I, its love, am gained instead!
Porphyria's love: she guessed not how
Her darling one wish would be heard.
And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!

I mean I like to think of myself being as religious as the next person but what does Porphyria’s lover think, does he really believe God would have made his displeasure known by telling him?

It may be of some interest to know that in Browning’s My Last Duchess a woman is also killed by the man who loves her.

Pardon my glibness but I wonder what Elizabeth Barrett Browning thought of these works.

I do agree that there are many valid interpretations; I however feel that Browning was writing about a madman who rationalized the murder of his lover.

He does this powerfully having us witness all of it through the murderer’s eyes. I find that very moving indeed to see what Porphyria’s lover saw, from his own point of view.

I also then see a deliberate choice by Browning to call the poem, Porhyria's LOVER as it is her lover who extinguished her life, motivated by his own mad reasoning.

So in essence, Bronwning, I think, has us witness the murder of a beautiful young girl who might have only chosen to love the wrong man. A man who after killing her is still so drawn to her, so obsessed by her that he sits with her corpse by his side, unable or unwilling to let her go!
One wonders just when he does let her go.

I do not see an end to this poem either, but a terrible continuation because somehow in my writer’s imagination I see him sitting there still, in a cold, darkened room for there is no longer a fire—chilled but happy to be near his long-dead Porphyria.

But along with this I hear the sound of a battering ram. I hear too the wood splitting apart as the door is being broken down and the terrible secret of Porphyria’s Lover is about to be revealed!

(the end)! 

THE SCOOP ON FRANKENSTEIN AND THE VAMPYRE AND THAT WILD TIME IN SWITZERLAND!

Four madly beautiful young and gifted people spend an unforgettable time together at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland. They get into all sorts of stuff: drinking and cavorting and guess what during all that imbibing and frolicing two literary masterpieces get penned!

But the really interesting thing is they were penned by the two ‘dark horses’ who were there!

I mean everyone expected great writing from Lord Byron and Percy Shelley not Shelley’s 19 year old fiancé, Mary Wollstonecraft nor Byron’s personal physician, John Polidori!


No one including Mary or Polidori expected it either!


The somewhat eccentric but brilliant British Director, Ken Russell made a gem of a film for us in 1986. Like a rare exotic fruit this intoxicating film exposes for our discernment this remarkable time!



Lord Byron with his physician John Polidori along with Percy Shelly and Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley’s fiancé and her half sister Clare Claremont (madly in love with Bryon btw) spend an amazing time at Bryon's summer residence the villa which we get to see!


About those masterpieces: The Vampyre is actually a short story.

It is considered to be the first story successfully to fuse the disparate elements of vampirism into a coherent literacy genre.
- Christopher Frayling.


The story is about Lord Ruthven who no one knows is a vampire! Pretty interesting  considering Lord Byron was once described by Lady Caroline Lamb as 'mad bad and dangerous to know!'

Perhaps Polidori was inspired to write such a tale!


As for Frankenstein the iconic horror story about the creature that arose from a crazy quilt of dead tissue  and a few well-placed electrical charges is worth considering in light of the fact that there were actually experiments being conducted at the time by those who believed such things were possible!


Mary certainly would have known that and been interested. I think it both fascinated and troubled her and I think what came out of all of that was a vivid nightmare, a great and fantastic nightmare that she shared with the world!




Now about the film, Gothic:

The film allows us a glimpse into the creative process. We get a look at four unique human beings—three of whom were great writers.


As for Clare she was in love with Byron who was not the sort our mothers tend to approve of. She went on (not depicted in this film) to bear a child for him that tragically died. A daughter that Bryon wound up keeping her from seeing!


But I digress. Suffice it to say I feel Gothic is terrific because it captures something memorable--we get a look-in at mad genius and romanticism gone wild!


Gothic is gothic in every way. It is for us as Byron was to Lady Lamb: mad, bad and dangerous to know!


So come on! Take a walk on the wild side, watch Gothic and experience something unforgettable!

Twilight and Jane Eyre--closer than you think!

Take two handsome Edwards! Add to that forbidden love and sexual tension and you have two block busters: Jane Eyre and Twilight.

I am making the case that there is a kinship between Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

For your consideration, I present first: Jane Eyre.
Edward Rocherster, darkly brooding tortured man has a mad wife locked away in a tower.
She is his nemesis: the sad, pathetic creature who is holding him back from the wedded bliss he could have with the young governess he has fallen in love with.

"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you--especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame..."
--Edward Rochester

That got me where I lived as a teen! Still does, and besides--what more heart-wrenching scene can there be than the wedding scene?

It's a lovely wedding and we're happy for these two, but then the lunatic wife's brother storms into the church to declare an imediment to the marriage!

Rochester takes the wedding party to the tower to introduce his mad wife at last. It is an unforgettable moment.

We understand his dilema. Her family never told him that their daughter was mad, he was used in the worst way.

Jane flees--frightened and confused, which only adds to Edward's misery.
But alas she can find no peace for her longing is great.

So what do we have? We have enough sexual tension and unfulfilled desire to make us chew ice cubes!

Okay?!

Twilight: Edward Cullen, dark and handsome, brooding and tortured too—loving Bella despite himself.

He too has a dark secret. But it is not locked away in a tower, it’s in his veins!
For it is his sad destiny that he is one of the undead--a vampire!

Bella, awkward and clumsy, is newly arrived in town. When she sees Edward she is smitten by him. But he appears to hate her, avoiding her at every opportunity.

We feel for her!

But then we find out that he didn't want to hurt her, he was fearful of his vampiric hunger!

The two get to know one another, he saves her life--they fall more deeply in love.

 "Besides…the more time I spend with you, the more human emotions seem comprehensible to me. I’m discovering that I can sympathize with Heathcliff in ways I didn’t think possible before."

— Edward Cullen

See?! Heathcliff, from Wuthering Heights, penned 150 years ago by Emily Bronte!

She is needed, she fills up his life, her feelings for him are so great that she is willing to become a vampire!

Stephanie Meyers on Jane Eyre:

''I read it when I was nine,'' says Meyer, ''and I've reread it literally hundreds of times. I do think that there are elements of Edward (Cullen) in Edward Rochester and elements of Bella in Jane. Jane was someone I was close to as a child — we were good friends! I think in some ways she was more real to me than any other fictional character…”

And you know what? I can see it too. Not only in the brooding Edwards but in Bella and Jane.

Each is shy and retiring—each has arrived in a strange place. Each knows lonelieness and isolation and each wants desperately that brooding intense man they have fallen in love with.

Jane does not understand Edward Rochester’s unhappiness and at first she thinks him uncaring.

Bella too doesn’t understand Edward Cullen’s behavior and thinks he hates her at first when in fact it has nothing to do with that!

Jane Eyre is a romance in the gothic tradition.

Twilight is a romance in the new gothic tradition.

Each has captured the imagination of a wide audience.

Both are great romances and romance is romance.

A quesetion: why do we love our heroes to be tortured?
Answer: because it makes the story that much more involving, that much more gripping.

We care about Jane and Edward as we care about Bella and Edward.

And why is that? It is because we have well-drawn characters facing tremendous conflicts.

Added to that, we have a great love story! No! Make that two great love stories!

Carrie (1976)

This is a masterpiece of horror and pathos written by none other than Stephen King.

It tells the story of Carrie White, a shy friendless girl who suffers brutally at the hands of bullies.

Carrie is played by Cissy Spacek who is superb. Her mother is played brilliantly by Piper Laurie.

Carrie and her mother, an overly religious nutcase, live alone--cut off from the world it seems. This is a deliberate choice on the part of the mother as she is able to exert more control over Carrie.

There is a complication though. When Carrie gets upset she finds she has the ability to move things with her mind (telekinesis).

Her mother considers it to be a gift of the devil and calls Carrie a witch.

The bullying at school is relentless. Her teacher finally has had enough and is determined to see that Carrie's persecutors are punished and punished severely.

When their leader is banned from the prom, she cooks up a pretty horrific plot to get back at Carrie.

The scene at the prom is probably the most famous or infamous segments in the film.

Here you go: the prom and the aftermath!


I think this is one of the most effective scenes in a horror film (or any film) ever.





And I couldn't leave you without this scene toward the end, when Carrie's mother decides what Carrie's fate should be:





The film was directed by Brian de Palma and is an absolute classic, pass the popcorn!

The Exorcist!

Number three in date order and not scare order: the Exorcist!



Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty it tells the story of a young girl and her actress mother. The mother begins to notice some peculiar behavoral changes in her daughter.

When things turn really nasty and there is no avoiding her little girl is possessed, as incredible as it seems, the mother contacts a priest to ask about an exorcism.

However, she soon finds the Church is not that quick to respond. First, they will carefully weigh the need for such a thing.

What follows is the heart of the film which is far more horrific than the bits leading up to it.

We see Regan change horrifically as the possession becomes total. There is no going back. She is possessed by demons.

At last Father Karras and Father Merrin, an experienced exorcist arrive to perform the ritual.

The depiction of evil is horrifying as Father Karras finds his own personal life is used by the forces of evil to try to weaken his resolve. But he is undeterred.

Then, as the two priests are performing the exorcism, with the eldery priest leading it, I found myself saying with them: "the power of Christ compels you...!"

Talk about getting swept into a film! I was there, in it with them!

You have to relax after this film, it is that powerful.


Sitting in a theater and not your own home, is how the film should really be viewed--with no distractions whatsoever.

This film is as powerful as the novel was. This is serious stuff.

Church attendance by the way zoomed as a result of this film, so pollsters say and I believe it.

Author James Garcia, Jr., author of the horror novel, Dance on Fire,  recently reminded me of the power of the film. I did indeed think back to it and remembered how I felt when I first viewed it. It was heavy going for me! 

I viewed it again and found it still was! Hence, its inclusion in my list, thanks James!


It is a film you will never, ever forget. The utter evil that the film addresses is frightening, hair-raising stuff.

If there is such a thing as possession, who among us is safe? What do we do? How do we ensure that we will not be affected?

I am not a fundamentalist, however, I feel and am greatly affected by the power of this film whenever I see it because I experience something that affects and disturbs me.

The film is a classic and deservedly so.

Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair are great as the mother and daughter. There are also powerful performances by Max Von Sydow, Jason Miller and Lee J. Cobb that make this film the masterpiece that it is.

The direction is superb with William Friedkin directing.

next week: Carrie (1976)