Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” is an interesting poem. The poem follows the dramatic monologue of a man who feels unsatisfied within the relationship. He complains that his lover, Porphyria, does not “give herself” wholly to him. He decides to fix this by strangling her to death.

I feel as if this poem could be interpreted as a response to “Victorian sensationalism” (Although the poem was published a year or 2 before the Victorian Era officially started so it’s probably not a valid description) This poem was written in a period where the people romanticized what was extreme, or sensational. This was a period where dying of tuberculosis, crushing your ribs with torturous corsets, living in rooms painted radioactive green, was in style.

So the poem sort of poses a question of what is too far. If strangling someone to death and then romanticizing the act of strangling someone to death isn’t too far, then something has gone wrong. If it is too far, then something has also gone wrong.