Violence towards a woman who was once desired and wor-shipped by men appears to be a recurring motif in Browning’s po-ems. “Porphyria’s lover” is one of the earliest dramatic mono-logues by Robert Browning in which he explores the mind of an insane male lover. Browning reveals the changing thoughts and feelings as well as the emotional disorder of his speaker. The reader often perceives a gap between what the speaker says and what he actually reveals. The poem depends upon the reader’s abil-ity to make inferences as well as to analyze the speaker’s attitude towards Porphyria since he does not give any background informa-tion. It is also possible to argue that the withdrawal of the author from the text, or his refusal to give you moral guidance after plac-ing a difficult question or situation before you, he must believe one of three things; that no guidance is needed because the case is ob-vious, or that no guidance is possible because you must see the truth yourself, or that it does not really matter if you come up with the same answer he does. In Porphyria’s lover we can sense Browning’s interest in psychological analysis, he liked to take ab-normal behavior or unconventional characters and analyze them.Over View Within this poem there are two main characters, the villainous man and the proud woman. The lover describes how he waited for Porphyria to visit him during a stormy night, which probably pro-jects his inner state of mind. He sees a “sullen wind” which I feel is directly derived from his own sense of gloom and self-pity. Por-phyria comes in with a certain power in the first few lines, she warms the place with her presence and by kneeling down, she “made the cheerless grate blaze up, and all the cottage warm”. Por-phyria initiates the first move with power and seduction, it seems that she knows the place very well. She takes off her cloak, whic...
