Porphyria's Lover

In the early-19th century, middle- to upper-class women’s sexual autonomy was limited. Virginity was prized and women were often categorized as mothers, daughters, or sisters rather than lovers. Their goodness was considered the moral center of family life. Behavior was prized if it was nurturing, saintly, or childlike and condemned if it was passionate, either temperamentally or sexually. Those who had sexual relations outside of marriage were shunned or even completely ostracized. Unwed women who became pregnant often were condemned as wanton, disowned, and had to turn to a life of prostitution or hard labor, having fallen from social standing. Middle-class romantic matches were generally arranged by the parents of both parties, sometimes for financial gain over emotional feeling. The speaker’s focus on Porphyria’s innocence and purity would be in keeping with the conventional standards of the time, whereas Porphyria’s actions would have been seen as transgressive. Without a chaperone, she enters a man’s cottage. She physically comforts the speaker and proclaims her love, asserting herself. Today, this would be acceptable, but it would have been very surprising to Browning’s audience. In his construction of the narrative—as the reader winds up horrified by the violence of the lover—Browning might have been asserting a suggestion that women should not be penalized for sexual feelings or actions.