The Diamond Necklace by Guy De Maupassant

 The Daimond Necklace by Guy De Maupassant

 

Introduction : 

"The Diamond Necklace" is one of Guy de Maupassant's most famous and acclaimed short stories, first published in 1884. It exemplifies Maupassant's mastery of the form, encapsulating great insight into human vanity, social class struggles, and the ironic turns that life can take in just ten pages. The story centers on Mathilde Loisel, a middle-class woman consumed by dreams of living a life of luxury and distinguishment beyond her modest means. 

When the opportunity arises to attend a high-society ball, Mathilde borrows what she believes is an exquisite diamond necklace to wear, only to subsequently lose it. The calamity that follows reveals the power of pretense and materialism to corrupt and destroy lives. Through crisp yet profound psychological realism, vivid imagery, and implicit social commentary, Maupassant creates an unforgettable exploration of the seductive dangers of human pride and unchecked aspirations.  

Summary of the Plot : 

The story opens by describing Mathilde's unhappiness with her lower-middle class existence as the wife of an office clerk, dreaming wistfully of the elegant lifestyle she believes she was destined for. When her husband procures invitations to an extravagant ball, Mathilde becomes fixated on obtaining an ornate dress and jewelry suitable for the occasion. After borrowing what appears to be an ostentatious diamond necklace from a wealthy friend, Mathilde has a taste of the aristocratic existence she longs for at the ball, only for it all to shatter when she returns home and discovers the necklace is missing.

Despite an extensive search and desperate attempts to find the missing diamonds, Mathilde and her husband cannot locate the necklace, so they take out loans to purchase a new one as a replacement. The tremendous debt plunges the couple into years of poverty and ceaseless labor to repay it. Only after a chance re-encounter with her wealthy friend does Mathilde finally learn that the original diamond necklace was merely a worthless fake, and all their suffering was for nothing. The revelation serves as a brutal dose of reality and humbling awakening regarding the emptiness of her materialistic fixations.    

Themes : 

1.Vanity and Pride

Mathilde's obsessive pursuit of the high life and lust for opulent material possessions beyond her means drives the entire story. Maupassant depicts her vanity as an all-consuming desire to play-act a level of aristocracy to which she has no legitimate claim, nearly destroying her through her own unchecked pride.

2.Social Class and Aspirations

Born in an era of extreme class stratification, Maupassant portrays Mathilde's angst as being rooted in the frustrations of belonging to the professional lower-middle class while yearning for the status trappings and lifestyle of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy above her station. She exemplifies the insecurities and covetous impulses that a rigid class hierarchy breeds.   

3. Irony and the Deceptive Nature of Appearances 

There is potent dramatic irony in Mathilde coveting what she believes is a priceless diamond necklace, only for it to turn out to be costume jewelry and her illusions of grandeur to be hollow facades. Maupassant uses her downfall to critique society's fixation on superficial symbols of wealth and status.

Symbolism and Imagery

The Diamond Necklace

As the central object driving the conflict, the necklace symbolizes both the alluring veneer of wealth and opulent status, but also the folly of being consumed by materialistic appearances. Mathilde's misunderstanding of its true nature symbolizes her own self-delusion.  

The Bourgeois Ball

Representing the dazzling aristocratic society that Mathilde yearns for, the ball is the setting that illuminates the vacuousness of her pretensions while briefly saying her desire for high society grandeur before her fall.  

Domestic Imagery 

Vivid domestic details early in the story like Mathilde's "worn chairs," the "three-day old cloth" on her table, and her encounters with the "Breton girl" who does housework highlight the humility of her circumstances that torment her bourgeois aspirations.

Quotes Explaining Key Ideas : 

"She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, loved, married by a man of wealth and distinction." 

This opening line immediately establishes Mathilde's sense of being ill-fated to a lower class existence by lack of familial connections or wealth.

"She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains."

Maupassant's portrayal of Mathilde's constant dissatisfaction with her modest living conditions encapsulates the torture of her perpetual aspiring vanity and pride.

"One evening her husband came home with an exultant air, holding a large envelope in his hand. 'Here's something for you,' he said."  

The dramatic irony begins here, as what Mathilde believes will be the gateway to high society through the ball invitation instead becomes the start of her downfall.

"She uttered a cry of delight. 'That's true. I never thought of it.'"

Mathilde's unreflective joy at borrowing the "diamond" necklace reveals both her lack of wisdom and vulnerability to superficial temptations of vanity.

"Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households."

In one of the story's most poignant quotes, Maupassant depicts in visceral terms the decade-long toll Mathilde's folly extracts on her beauty and feminine self-perception as one of society's unlucky strivers.

"What would have happened if she had never lost those jewels? Who knows? Who knows? How strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin or save!"

This rhetorical questioning on the precipice of the story's climax conveys the tragic irony awaiting and serves as a rumination on the randomness of fate, fortunes won or squandered by the most unforeseeable moments.     

"And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness. 'Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs!'"  

The story's ultimate revelation that the diamonds were mere cheap costume jewelry all along underscores the folly and deceptiveness at the heart of Mathilde's cravings for social prestige and appearance-based self-worth.  

Conclusion : 

With its mastery of poetic irony, psychological insights, and biting social commentary, "The Diamond Necklace" endures as one of the most acclaimed examples of Guy de Maupassant's literary skills in the short story form. Through Mathilde's enthrallment by superficial illusions of wealth and status, Maupassant constructs a sobering morality tale on the emptiness and dangers of living for mere vanity and outward appearances. 

Ultimately, the story is a striking depiction of cultural attitudes in 19th century France regarding aristocratic pretensions and the strict delineations of class. Mathilde's downfall and the ironic revelation of the necklace's true nature as a near-worthless bauble serves as a harsh rebuke to those who would sacrifice genuine selfhood, integrity and human dignity for the vapid trappings of unearned social standing.

 Maupassant makes the argument that such materialistic folly leads only to spiritual and financial ruination, illuminating the human capacity for self-destruction through obsession with illusion over reality. "The Diamond Necklace" thus endures as a powerful cautionary tale about society's unhealthy fixations on superficial emblems of status over more meaningful sources of contentment and self-worth. 

 

The Accursed House by Émile Gaboriau

Emile Gaboriau, best known for his remarkable detective stories, was born at Sanson in 1853, and died at Paris in 1873. He was for a time private secretary of Paul Feval, the novelist, and published a great variety of work. In 1866 appeared in the paper called "Le Pays" his first great detective story, "L'Affaire Lerouge," which the author dramatised in collaboration with Hostein in 1872. Like all of the great series, "L'Affaire Lerouge," "Monsieur Lecoq," "Les Esclaves de Paris," etc., are written in an easy flowing style, and are full of exciting moments.

Introduction : 

"The Accursed House" is a darkly comedic short story by French writer Emile Gaboriau, first published in 1891. It satirizes the pettiness of the French bourgeoisie and their materialistic obsession with wealth and status. Through an exaggerated farcical plot, Gaboriau exposes the greed, gossip, and paranoia that can fester in urban apartment buildings when societal norms are violated. 

The story centers on the chaos that ensues when a kindly but misunderstood landlord decides to lower the rents of his Parisian tenants by one-third out of a sense of social conscience. Instead of being grateful, the tenants are consumed by unfounded suspicions about his motivations, leading to widespread panic and the abandonment of the building. 

Gaboriau uses dramatic irony to highlight the tenants' absurd assumptions and inconsistent logic as they spiral into mass hysteria. With both satirical humor and biting social commentary, "The Accursed House" exposes the fragility of human reason in the face of ingrained class prejudices.

Plot Summary : 

The story opens by introducing the wealthy Vicomte de B______, the new and benevolent landlord of a well-to-do apartment building in Paris. Wishing to be a humble philanthropist and moderate the high rent charged by his miser uncle, the Vicomte instructs the concierge Bernard to inform all the tenants that he is lowering their rents by one-third. This unheard-of act is met with utter disbelief, dread, and confusion by Bernard, his family, and the tenants themselves. Rumors begin swirling about nefarious motives behind the rent reduction - a coming disaster, bankruptcy, or the landlord's criminal guilt.

Despite the Vicomte's reassurances, a climate of rampant suspicion and fear takes over as increasingly outlandish theories are concocted by the paranoid tenants, from the building being structurally unsound to the presence of counterfeiters or spies. Tales of ghosts and strange noises proliferate. One by one, the tenants all give notice to vacate, deserting the building in a mass exodus driven by unhinged speculation. Only the terrified concierge Bernard remains as the once-vibrant apartment sits hauntingly vacant, branded by the neighborhood as the "Accursed House."

Themes : 

Class Prejudices and Social Norms : 

The tenants cannot comprehend the Vicomte's simple kindness because it defies their ingrained prejudices about the behavior of wealthy aristocratic landlords. Their automatic assumption is that his motivations must be sinister since he is violating norms of landlord greed they have come to unquestioningly accept. Gaboriau satirizes the pettiness and suspicious nature of the Parisian bourgeois class.

Gossip, Paranoia and Mass Hysteria  :

The story demonstrates how quickly idle gossip can spiral into full-blown paranoia and group hysteria when people seek nefarious explanations for events outside societal conventions. Gaboriau depicts the absurd contagion of escalating fear and assumptions in the absence of facts once unsubstantiated rumors take hold in an echo chamber.

Reason vs. Irrationality : 

Gaboriau uses dramatic irony to contrast the landlord's simple, rational motivations with the increasingly deranged conspiracy theories and superstitions that take over the minds of the tenants. Their complete abandonment of reason highlights the fragility of human logic in the face of ingrained class assumptions.

Symbols and Literary Techniques : 

The Rents - The catalyzing decision to lower rents symbolizes the violation of an unspoken economic and social contract between tenant and landlord. It shatters the status quo the bourgeois tenants have come to blindly accept.

The Building - Once a symbol of urban domesticity, the apartment devolves into an "Accursed House" representing the absurd fears and supernatural suspicions of the tenants run amok. Its vacancy emphasizes their willful self-delusion.

Foreshadowing - Gaboriau uses foreshadowing through details like the "fever of fear" impacting the concierge and "lugubrious howlings" he hears at night to portray the mounting paranoia before the mass exodus.

Irony - Dramatic irony is employed when Bernard tells prospective tenants "things have happened!" that he is unable to understand or articulate, capturing the irrational but deeply held fears of the tenants. 

Satire - Gaboriau's exaggerated characters and over-the-top situations serve as satire, mocking the silly prejudices and hysterical groupthink of the Parisian middle-class.

Significant Quotes : 

"People who, for forty years had lived on the same floor, and never honored each other with so much as a tip of the hat, now clustered together and chatted eagerly."

This quote demonstrates how the violation of a social norm immediately causes a rift in the reserved decorum between tenants who previously co-existed peacefully. 

"An intelligent man, a man of good sense, would never deprive himself of good fat revenues, well secured, for the simple pleasure of depriving himself." 

This line articulates the deeply-held bourgeois prejudice that the wealthy landlord must be acting against his own economic interests due to ulterior, likely nefarious motives.

"Dust thickens upon the closed slats, grass grows in the court. No tenant ever presents himself now; and in the quarter, where stands this Accursed House, so funereal is its reputation that even the neighbouring houses on either side of it have also depreciated in value."

This closing description provides haunting visual imagery of the once-lively building now shunned and decrepit due to the unreasoning fears of the tenants who labelled it "Accursed."

Conclusion : 

Through satirical humor and insightful socioeconomic commentary, Emile Gaboriau's "The Accursed House" exposes the fragile boundaries between reason and rampant paranoia in the bourgeois social order. What begins as a simple act of kindness quickly devolves into a darkly comedic fiasco as ingrained class prejudices and assumptions cause the tenants to spin wildly irrational theories about their landlord's motivations. Gaboriau captures the contagion of idle gossip metastasizing into mass hysteria and superstition when societal conventions are disrupted. 

The farcical descent into irrationality reveals the petty biases simmering under the surface of the prim bourgeois facade. By so vividly portraying their descent into unfounded speculation and fear, Gaboriau satirizes human nature's tendency to quickly abandon logic for self-delusion and groupthink when social, cultural and economic "rules" are violated. Ultimately, "The Accursed House" stands as both a comedic romp and incisive social critique of the early stirrings of the suspicion, mania and mass irrationality that can take root when the bourgeois class feels its presumed prerogatives and prejudices are threatened.

"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy

 "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy

Introduction : 

Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" tells the story of a peasant named Pahom.  Pahom states that if he had enough land, he wouldn't fear the Devil. The Devil overhears this and decides to test him.  An opportunity for Pahom to acquire land arrives, and he takes it. In his quest to attain more and more land, Pahom visits the Bakshirs, whose chief agrees to sell him as much land as he can walk around in one day. The caveat: he must return to the exact point he started, or the sale is off. Pahom dies in the attempt. 

Summary : 

“How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy is a short story about the corrupting power of greed. At the beginning of the story, a woman comes from town to visit her younger sister in the country. They debate whether country life or city life is better; the younger sister says that in the country, there is no chance of husbands being tempted by the devil. Her husband, Pahom, agrees.

Pahom thinks more land brings security:

Morover, he reflects that peasants are too busy in their work to be tempted and that their only problem is that they don’t have enough land. He thinks that if he only had enough land, he would not fear the Devil: but the Devil, who is in the kitchen with him, hears this and decides to test him. Now Soon, a local landowner decides to sell her land, and Pahom and the other peasants of the Commune attempt to buy it together as communal land.

 When the Devil “sow[s] discord among them,” they instead break the land up and buy individual plots. At first, Pahom is delighted with his land, but as he gains more success, he becomes increasingly disgruntled when other peasants trespass on his land and his neighbors’ livestock wander in. Eventually, he begins to fine trespassers and sues a peasant named Simon whom he believes has cut down some of his trees. 

Simon is acquitted, as there is no evidence against him. The people of the commune greatly resent Pahom for his fines. Partially due to the trespassing peasants and livestock, Pahom feels that he is still “too cramped.” When a traveling peasant from beyond the Volga River informs Pahom that in that area, land is better and plentiful, Pahom investigates and eventually moves there with his family. 

With three times the land he had before, Pahom is initially content. But he does not have the right land to grow wheat, as he had before, and thus has to compete with other farmers and peasants to rent land and must cart the wheat he grows long distances. He begins to desire “freehold land” so that his land will all be together—and all his own. When Pahom hears that another landowner is in financial difficulty, he begins arrangements to buy his land for too cheap a price.

First chance at more land:

 However, before the deal is settled, a stranger comes to him and tells him that the Bashkirs, a group of people in a neighboring country, are selling their excellent land at extremely cheap prices, provided that the purchasers bring gifts. Moved by his greed, Pahom again goes to investigate. The Bashkir leaders are charmed by Pahom’s gifts to them, and they tell him that they will sell him however much land he wants for a thousand rubles.

Moving for "better" land:

 Pahom is skeptical of this unconventional offer, but the Bashkirs assure him that the deal is sound— however much land he can walk around in one day will be his. If he doesn’t make it back by sundown, however, the land and money will be forfeited. Pahom believes that he can walk thirty-five miles in a day. He decides he will make a circuit of this area and then can sell or rent some of the land to others and make a profit.

 While he is sleeping, he dreams that the Chief of the Bashkirs is laughing outside his tent. He moves closer and sees that the laughing man is not the Chief but the peasant who first came and told him of the Bashkirs, and then he sees that it is not the peasant but the Devil himself. Pahom dismisses the dream upon waking up. Pahom begins his circuit the next morning with the Bashkirs watching. At first it seems that he will be able to make it, but as the day wears on, he becomes less and less sure. 

The devil's tempting offer:

At one point, he sees a plot of land that he feels he must have and extends his circuit to include it. Finally, the day is drawing to a close and Pahom knows he will not make it back. Though exhausted, he begins to run, fearing the loss of his money, land, and dignity. There is plenty of land, but Pahom realizes that God may not let him have it. At the end of his run, as the sun is setting, he sees the Chief of the Bashkirs laughing. 

Pahom reaches his starting point but falls down and dies. His servant buries him, noting that in the end, the only land Pahom needed was six feet, from head to foot—for his grave. Summary An elder sister from the city visits her younger sister, the wife of a peasant farmer in the village. In the midst of their visit, the two of them get into an argument about whether the city or the peasant lifestyle is preferable.

 The elder sister suggests that city life boasts better clothes, good things to eat and drink, and various entertainments, such as the theater. The younger sister replies that though peasant life may be rough, she and her husband are free, will always have enough to eat, and are not tempted by the devil to indulge in such worldly pursuits. Pahom, the husband of the younger sister, enters the debate and suggests that the charm of the peasant life is that the peasant has no time to let nonsense settle in his head. 

The one drawback of peasant life, he declares, is that the peasant does not have enough land:

 “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” 

The devil, overhearing this boast, decides to give Pahom his wish, seducing him with the extra land that Pahom thinks will give him security. Pahom’s first opportunity to gain extra land comes when a lady in the village decides to sell her three hundred acres. His fellow peasants try to arrange the purchase for themselves as part of a commune, but the devil sows discord among them and individual peasants begin to buy land. 

Pahom obtains forty acres of his own. This pleases him initially, but soon neighboring peasants allow their cows to stray into his meadows and their horses among his corn, and he must seek justice from the district court. Not only does he fail to receive recompense for the damages but also he ruins his reputation among his former friends and neighbors; his extra land does not bring him security. Hearing a rumor about more and better farmland elsewhere, he decides to sell his land and move his family to a new location.

Greed leads to exhaustion:

There he obtains 125 acres and is ten times better off than he was before, and he is very pleased. However, he soon realizes that he could make a better profit with more land on which to sow wheat. He makes a deal to obtain thirteen hundred acres from a peasant in financial difficulty for one thousand rubles and has all but clinched it when he hears a rumor about the land of the Bashkirs. There, a tradesman tells him, a man can obtain land for less than a penny an acre, simply by making friends with the chiefs. 

Fueled by the desire for more, cheaper, and better land, Pahom seeks directions for the land of the Bashkirs and leaves on a journey to obtain the land that he thinks he needs. On arrival, he distributes gifts to the Bashkir leaders and finds them courteous and friendly. He explains his reasons for being there and, after some deliberation, they offer him whatever land he wants for one thousand rubles. 

Pahom is pleased but concerned; he wants boundaries, deeds, and “official sanction” to give him the assurance he needs that they or their children will never reverse their decision. The Bashkirs agree to this arrangement, and a deal is struck. Pahom can have all the land that he can walk around in a day for one thousand rubles. The one condition is that if he does not return on the same day to the spot at which he began, the money will be lost.

Only six feet needed:

 The night before his fateful walk, Pahom plans his strategy; he will try to encircle thirty-five miles of land and then sell the poorer land to peasants at a profit. When he awakes the next day, he is met by the man whom he thought was the chief of the Bashkirs, but whom he recognizes as the peasant who had come to his old home to tell him of lucrative land deals available elsewhere. He looks again, and realizes that he is speaking with the devil himself. He dismisses this meeting as merely a dream and goes about his walk.

 Pahom starts well, but he tries to encircle too much land, and by midday he realizes that he has tried to create too big a circuit. Though afraid of death, he knows that his only chance is to complete the circuit. 

“There is plenty of land,” he says to himself, “but will God let me live on it?” 

As the sun comes down, Pahom runs with all his remaining strength to the spot where he began. Reaching it, he sees the chief laughing and holding his sides; he remembers his dream and breathes his last breath. Pahom’s servant picks up the spade with which Pahom had been marking his land and digs a grave in which to bury him: 

“Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.”

Themes of the Story 

Greed and Ambition

• The core theme of the story is the insatiable human desire for more wealth, more land, more possessions. This is embodied by the peasant Pahom, who is consumed by greed and ambition.

• No matter how much land Pahom acquires, he is never satisfied and always wants to own more territory. His greed eventually leads to his downfall and demise.

• Tolstoy is making a critique of the human tendency towards avarice and the endless pursuit of material wealth, suggesting it is a futile and destructive path.

The Corrupting Nature of Wealth

• As Pahom gains more land and riches, he becomes arrogant, prideful and obsessed with status symbols like buildings and property rather than the simple peasant life.

•His wealth corrupts him morally and he loses sight of what is truly important - health, family, contentment with what one has. Money acts as a dangerous corruptor.

The Temporariness of Life

• Through Pahom's untimely death while trying to acquire yet more land, Tolstoy reminds us that our lives are fleeting and can end at any moment.

• No amount of possessions or wealth can prolong life or prevent death from reaching us all eventually. This reinforces the foolishness of worshiping material riches.

• The only "land" Pahom ends up with is a tiny plot for his grave - a stark dose of reality about the transient nature of existence.

Contentment and Moderation

• In contrast to Pahom's greed, the story holds up the Bashkir peasants as models of wisdom, living simply and being content with modest means.

• Tolstoy seems to valorize this moderate lifestyle, suggesting humans need relatively little land and possessions to be happy. Overreaching ambition only breeds misery.

• If Pahom had been content with his original peasant lot, he would have lived a satisfied, if unremarkable, life. But his greed led to tragedy.

Conclusion : 

In straightforward terms, Tolstoy's tale sends a clear moral message - that the excessive pursuit of wealth and property is a dangerous dead-end that will never bring true fulfillment. Rather, moderation, contentment with one's lot, and appreciation for the simple, important things in life like family and health should be humanity's guiding principles if we wish to avoid the self-destructive trappings of greed.

Porphyria's Lover BY ROBERT BROWNING

 Porphyria's Lover

BY ROBERT BROWNING

The rain set early in to-night,

       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 endeavour,

To set its struggling passion free

       From pride, and vainer ties dissever,

       And give herself to me for ever.

But passion sometimes would prevail,

       Nor could to-night'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 worshipped 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!

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!

Dramatic Monologue and Robert Browning : 

Monologue itself simply means a speech delivered by a single character, typically in a play or other dramatic work. It allows the character to express their thoughts, feelings, and motivations directly to the audience.

Dramatic monologue, however, takes this concept a step further. It's a specific form of poetry where a single speaker addresses a silent listener, revealing their inner world and motivations indirectly. The listener is often implied by the speaker's words and doesn't respond.

Here's where Robert Browning comes in. He's considered a master of the dramatic monologue. He used this form to create vivid portraits of complex characters from all walks of life. Through their monologues, we get a glimpse into their personalities, desires, and the situations they face.

Examples of Browning's Dramatic Monologues:

•  "My Last Duchess" - A Duke speaks to an emissary, hinting at the fate of his deceased wife and revealing his controlling nature.
•  "The Laboratory" - A woman, possibly a scientist, contemplates a dangerous experiment fueled by love and obsession.
•  "Porphyria's Lover" - A man describes smothering his beloved while she sleeps, believing he's preserving her beauty.
•  "Fra Lippo Lippi" - A Renaissance painter defends his art and lifestyle, blurring the lines between the sacred and the secular.

Introduction : 

"Porphyria's Lover" is a dramatic monologue written by Robert Browning in 1836. It depicts a scene of murder from the perspective of an unnamed male speaker who has killed his lover, Porphyria. The poem enters the mind of the murderer as he coolly recounts his disturbing crime in a shockingly casual and reasoned way. Through vivid imagery, abnormal psychological insights, and an unsettling tone of detachment, Browning crafts a gripping portrait of insanity and obsession. 

The poem's first-person narration makes the reader an accessory of sorts to the narrator's twisted justifications and horrifying actions. "Porphyria's Lover" exemplifies Browning's mastery of the dramatic monologue form and serves as a chilling study of madness and perverse devotion.

Summary : 

The poem opens by setting a storm scene, as Porphyria enters the cottage and starts a fire to warm her estranged lover. In disturbing detail, the narrator describes Porphyria's actions of undressing and letting down her hair in an intimate moment. He grows increasingly obsessive, wishing the moment of her blushing with love for him could last forever. In a shockingly casual line, he reveals "When no voice replied" he strangled Porphyria with her hair to preserve that perfect moment.

He then positions her body to recreate the earlier peaceful scene, staring at her corpse in deluded admiration. The narrator rationalizes his crime by claiming now her soul and body are perfectly unified in an eternal union of love. The monologue ends with him imagining God has forgiven his actions and this frozen moment with Porphyria's body is closer to heaven than any church worship could provide.

Structure and Rhyme : 

The poem consists of six sections of varying line lengths connected by an ABABB rhyme scheme. This consistent rhyming creates a songlike, incantatory rhythm that juxtaposes eerily with the disturbing content and images.

The sections vary from 8 lines to 28 lines in length, mirroring the narrator's fractured mental state and the building intensity as his deranged plans unfold. After the longest 28 line section chronicling the murder, the final section is only 4 lines, reflecting a sense of frightening clarity and finality.

"Porphyria's Lover" is a poem about love, violence, and control. The speaker kills his lover, Porphyria, even though she seems to be returning his love. Here's a breakdown of the main ideas:

•  Love and Control:
  
  
  
  
  The speaker sees love as completely controlling someone. He kills Porphyria to keep her pure and good in his eyes, even though she's a strong-willed woman at the beginning of the poem.

•    Sexuality and Morality: 
• The poem hints at sexual desire. The speaker thinks killing Porphyria keeps her innocent because it stops her from anything sexual that might be considered sinful.

•   Hypocrisy: 

• The speaker believes God approves of his crime because he stays silent. This silence might expose the hypocrisy of society at the time, which focused on appearing good instead of actually being good. The readers might have been both interested in the poem's violence and secretly approved of Porphyria being punished for her sexuality.

 Symbols in "Porphyria's Lover":

•  Cheerless Grate: The fireplace represents warmth, comfort, and home. When Porphyria lights a fire, it shows she's trying to make the place welcoming.

•  Soiled Gloves: These gloves aren't just dirty and wet, they also hint that the speaker thinks Porphyria has done something wrong, maybe even something sexual.

•  Yellow Hair: The speaker is really focused on Porphyria's hair. It can represent her beauty and danger to him. In the end, he uses her hair to strangle her, taking away her power.

•  Gay Feast: Porphyria left a fun party to be with the speaker. This shows she cares about him a lot, but also that she gave up something nice.

  Pale: The speaker describes himself as pale, which can mean he's sick from love, or it can be a symbol of strong desire, like in many love poems.

•   Blush: After killing Porphyria, the speaker sees a blush on her face. He thinks this means she's still beautiful and pure, like he wanted. But it could also be a sign of death.

Conclusion : 

Through the unsettling dramatic monologue form, Browning gives chilling psychological insights into the mind of "Porphyria's Lover"'s deranged narrator. His eerily understated and casual depiction of strangulation and corpse absorption creates a tension between the narrator's apparent rationality and his complete detachment from moral sanity.

By leaving the setting, backstory, and respective social classes of Porphyria and her lover ambiguous, Browning universalizes the tale as an exploration of the darkest human potential for madness and obsession overtaking reason and love. We the readers become implicated in bearing witness to and attempting to understand these disturbed depths of the human psyche.

With haunting symbolic details like the storm, hair, and fire, Browning crafts a richly atmospheric study of insanity and perverse devotion gone horrifically awry. The poem's sing-song rhythms and melodic language make the narrator's calm, terrifying rationalizations all the more disquieting and memorable. "Porphyria's Lover" leaves an indelible impression as one of Browning's most psychologically probing and chillingly enigmatic poetic tales.