Love and Lunacy: An Anonymous Lover

In a short tale of unsuspected murder, Robert Browning develops his main character’s persona in “Porphyria’s Lover” using techniques that keep the reader both engaged and slightly confused by the outcome. Browning uses the method of pathetic fallacy to reveal his character’s possible emotions, and as the poem continues his obsessive tendencies are exposed through his undeniable, yet inexplicable love for Porphyria.

While the poor weather, in the first four lines of the poem, continues to worsen, the reader is drawn into the poem by Browning’s use of language, rhythm and rhyme. It is soon realized that the weather is not simply the weather, but mirrors the emotions of Porphyria’s lover. Throughout the poem, only two lines are used as an exposition for the character’s true emotions and “[he] listened with a heart fit to break” (line 5, pg.1411) waiting for Porphyria to arrive. As soon as Porphyria makes her entrance, he seems to fall into a trance, as if there is nothing and no one left in this world except for her. Her mere presence warms the cottage, and shuts the cold outside of the home. As the weather progresses, so do the events between Porphyria and her lover, as the weather worsens, so does the situation inside the cottage. Porphyria’s lascivious behaviour leads her lover to the obvious shift in the feeling of the poem, from what seems like a passionate secret affair to a passionate murder scene. His obsession with Porphyria surfaces with his change in dialogue, from her loving him in line twenty one to worshipping him in line thirty three. Porphyria’s lover obviously has a psychotic disposition, and being in love drove him to madness.

At first, the reader empathizes with the lover, understanding his position in society. He lives alone outside the city, and awaits Porphyria, whose main pursuit is to escape the feasts that her high societal class requires her to attend. Until she arrives, the mood is drab and unsatisfactory; Porphyria is the only light and warmth for her lover. Then, with the flip of a switch, through subtle hints of an unbalanced individual, her lover murders her with her own beautiful hair. Unsure of what to do and how to react toward his feelings, he kills what makes him happy so he can be with her forever. He believes he has made her one wish heard, giving her exactly what she wants, and a life with him, free of her ties to class in the city. However, Porphyria never actually states her wish to leave her society for good, her lover assumes this is what she wants, and after strangling her assumes she felt not a pinch of pain. But, he will never really know; instead of addressing his own feelings, he speculates the feelings of Porphyria.

The lover’s mention of god in the last line of the poem, is nearly as shocking as the murder of Porphyria, simply because the line leaves a vast number of possibilities relating to the reference. God has not said a word, possibly because there is an absence of god in the lover’s life and mind, for an objection from god there must be a belief in god, and with a belief in god would possibly arise remorse for such a terrible action. Another possibility is that it was a willed action. God did not react because it is truly what Porphyria wanted, and what her lover had done is not viewed as a sin in gods’ eyes, because he willed it.