Porphyria And Duchess

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Crystal S. Tory Essay October 25, 2010 English IV Block 2 “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” In the two poems, “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” there was a tragic ending in both. Both poems consist of a woman killed by the hands of her lover. The men in both poems were both jealous-hearted, but they did not have the same motives for killing their woman. Both men did not want to share their woman’s love; they wanted it all for themselves. They say, “Love can be dangerous in the wrong hands.” In the poem, “My Last Duchess”, that statement is a fact. All that the woman ever did was smiled at the things that made her happy, but her husband felt as if she gave him the same attention as she would a stranger. He wanted to feel special and since she could not give him that extra attention that was needed, he decided to have her killed. He also took upon himself to tell the father of his new wife, what had happened to his last wife. He basically was informing the father that if his daughter does the same as his last wife then she would be killed as well. I cannot determine if the killing that took place in “Porphyria’s Lover”, was the right or wrong thing to do, but I know it was the wrong thing to do in “My Last Duchess”, because the woman did not know of his unhappiness. In “Porphyria’s Lover”, it seemed right, because she was promised to a man that she did not love; she would have been unhappy throughout the rest of her life. On the other hand it seemed wrong, because it was like if he couldn’t have her then no one else could. Porphyria told her lover that she would love him forever, and he made sure of that. With single-minded determination, he wrapped her hair around her throat three times and strangled her until she was a
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