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Essay Love and relationships .

Hi, can someone give me some feedback for this essay? My teacher says I lack clarity in my writing, and sometimes it can get unclear. Thank you!

The other poem: Farmer’s Bride
Plan: 1) Desire for physical intimacy. 2) Destructive love
PL – stream of consciousness, also his delusion causes destructive love. Also, instability due to delusion from desire. Desire -> Delusion -> unstable and destructive love
Farmer’s Bride – capturing of the “hare”, seen as innocent to the speaker’s controlling love.
In both Farmer’s Bride and Porphyria’s Lover, the poets illustrate the consequences of male desire, onto innocent women, sometimes this unrequited love can result in the sexual assault, in which the poor female has no option but to succumb to. This is achieved through: the speaker’s desire for physical intimacy and spiritual love; and the negative effects of this desire, they can become deluded and murder their lover.
Arguably, in Porphyria’s Lover, Browning illustrates the speaker’s spiritual desire for their lover, that the woman is trapped to give in to, which serves as an exemplification of the imbalance of power in a relationship, during the 1800s. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker’s sexual desire is mirrored through the weather: the “sullen wind” which “did its worst to vex the lake”, which is vividly contrasted to the “glid[ing] [of] Porphyria”, who “shut the cold out and the storm”. The pathetic fallacy, of the “sullen wind”, mirrors the speaker’s state of mind, incentivised by sexual desire which is the “wind”. This foreshadowing of what is soon to come, how this sexual desire results in destructive love, drums home Browning’s point, that sexual desire must be inhibited and controlled by men, to prevent negative effects on others. The juxtaposition of Porphyria, who is depicted through angelic imagery, illustrates her as supernatural, and thus perhaps apotheosized by the speaker. Therefore, Browning also warns his male listeners to not place women on pedestals, because destructive love and arise. The fact Porphyria “shut the cold out and the storm”, perhaps symbolically establishes her as fulfilling his uncontrolled desire, which is reinforced later in the poem, by the sacrifice of her life. This instability that arises because of the speaker’s desire, is emphasised throughout the rhyme scheme, where after every four lines, there is an irregular line. More explicitly, this semi-controlled rhyme scheme employed by the poet, emphasises the instability of the speaker. This irregular line contains this: the speaker “listened with heart fit to break”, this perhaps illustrates the speaker desires for this relationship to continue, and thus killing Porphyria allows him to be with her forever. This emphasises the speakers irrational desire to be with Porphyria, he desires not only physical intimacy, but spiritual love, he wants Porphyria to exist with him beyond the bounds of reality, which leads into the speaker’s delusion. Whilst Browning illustrates the irrational, spiritual desire, for perpetual love with his lover, dissimilarly, Mew illustrates the sexual love the speaker has for the innocent maid.
In Farmer’s Bride, sexual desire for the consummation of marriage, is illustrated through the speaker, in order to present the consequences of the disparity between women and men in patriarchal society. This is exemplified in the coercive side of the speaker, in which he relies on the “hare”, to fulfil his desire for physical intimacy. The speaker’s dehumanisation of the “maid”, as hare, illustrates the quintessential view on women, they are treated perhaps less than men in society, as even a lower form of specie. The “hare”, illustrates the maid as wild, and underserving to the speaker, who is fixated on the fulfilment of his desire. This language of a “hare” shifts to “leveret”, illustrating the increasing power of the speaker against the women. Alternatively, it illustrates the speaker as the responsible adult, and her as the child who needs the responsible adult to help her, this illustrates her as untrustworthy to make her own decisions. This further emphasises the poor treatment of women. Also, the language shifts from “I” to “we”, illustrating that this inhumane treatment of women is seen as normal and accepted in society. This further emphasises Mew’s point for societal reform, in which women and men are treated evenly in relationships.

In Porphyria’s lover, Browning illustrates the speaker’s delusion as consequence for this rambunctious desire, in order to illustrate that men’s power is seen as unjust in society. This is exemplified by the speaker’s “burning kiss”, this connotes a sense of passionate love. However, this burning affects the lover, who suffers from this kiss, and thus feels pain from this kiss, damaging her. This is further illustrated by the simile – “As a shut bud that holds a bee”. This metaphor also dehumanizes the lover - she is viewed as a lower specie - like Farmer’s bride. It also illustrates the feeling that the woman is trapped; she has fallen under the possession of the speaker. Also, Browning’s utilisation of the metaphor comparing the speaker to “a shut bud”, illustrates the speaker’s perspective: arguably he views himself as more powerful than the lover, and controlling the lover. This power the speaker craves further exemplifies his delusion – he wants total control over his lover, so she can be his forever (power allows him to do that). The delusion is further articulated in the fact that “no pain felt she”, which illustrates the speaker’s delusion, strangling someone will of course make them feel pain. This pain is emblematic of the speaker’s consequences of love, and he has this overly sanguine perspective that strangling his lover won’t cause any pain. He perhaps views this murder as a sexual climax for him, which is delusional (this was a common belief at the time period). Furthermore, the power is explicitly mentioned throughout the poem. At first, she is the initiator of the actions – she “made her smooth white shoulder lie bare”, which illustrates her domination over him. The sibilance of “smooth white shoulder”, illustrates a sinister atmosphere, that subtly foreshadows what is about to come. Arguably, the speaker feels humiliated, and thus retaliates, gaining his power back and “Only, this time my - [his] - shoulder bore”. The transformation from ‘she’ and ‘her’ to ‘my’, illustrates how power has shifted in this relationship, the man is in power. The speaker copying the actions of Porphyria arguably acts as vengeance, for the emasculation he endured from her. This illustrates Browning’s perspective on power: the inequality of power in relationships, coupled with the idea of masculinity and femininity, perhaps leads to destructive love, where the man desires power in the relationship, and the woman could face the same demise as Porphyria. At the poem’s denouement, it states that “God has not said a word!”, this rejoice the speaker feels due to this delusional murder of Porphyria, illustrates the speaker as delusional – God will of course punish him for this. The syndetic anaphora of “And” at the poem’s denouement, illustrates the speaker’s desire for being with Porphyria for eternity. The fact that they “sit together now” and they “have not stirred”, emphasises a state of eternity, that they will be together forever. This illustrates the speaker’s desire to be with the lover forever, which is delusional, considering he will be sent to hell for his murder, whilst innocent Porphyria will be sent to heaven, accentuated by the angelic imagery that Porphyria “glided” in. Whilst Browning depicts the speaker’s clear delusional perspective of love, which turns destructive, in contrast Mew portrays the speaker’s desire for instead sexual intimacy.
Lastly, in Farmer’s Bride, the depiction of the speaker’s desire for physical intimacy with his lover arguably illustrated by Mew, to present to the listener the need for societal reform. This is illustrated through the fulfilment of the speaker’s desire, in which he exclaims the “young brown down of her”, which he does to hope that there is someone else in the" house than we!”, when the “berries redden up at Christmas time”. Explicitly, the speaker desires consummation of the marriage, so that they can reproduce and have children. The exclamatory sentence “house than we!”, illustrates the vigorous feelings that the speaker desires to have children as well, and perhaps if this is not met, there will be coercive force to ensure it will occur. This undercurrent of coerciveness is illustrated by the imagery of “berries redden”, connoting a sense of violence. Mew’s employment of the berries as a façade for the underlying current of sexual desire and violence, illustrates the lack of help the maid can get, and thus is captured in the process; society just sees the façade of marriage and not the coercive relationship the maid is in. Also, the plosives confirm this “brown” “down”, further accentuates the deleterious force that will occur if the “hare” doesn’t bode to the speaker’s desire. All in all, this encapsulates the need for societal reform, so maids cannot be abused by the unpredictable feelings of men.