"Porphyria's Lover" is written in dramatic monologue, a format Robert Browning popularized and in which he excelled. Unlike some of Browning's monologues that don't have an actual plot but are musings of a character, this poem has a story arc. In the beginning, the setting is described: It is a dark and stormy night. The inciting incident is when Porphyria glides in. She removes her wet clothing, lets down her wet hair, builds up the...
"Porphyria's Lover" is written in dramatic monologue, a format Robert Browning popularized and in which he excelled. Unlike some of Browning's monologues that don't have an actual plot but are musings of a character, this poem has a story arc. In the beginning, the setting is described: It is a dark and stormy night. The inciting incident is when Porphyria glides in. She removes her wet clothing, lets down her wet hair, builds up the fire, and then sits down next to him. She sensually bares her shoulder, puts the narrator's arm around her waist, and pulls his cheek down to rest on her. She whispers she loves him. Evidently the narrator has been thinking jealous thoughts about her--presuming she had been unfaithful to him. We do not know if these doubts he has about her are true or whether they are the imaginings of his twisted mind. Instead of being content in the love she is showing him now, his heart swells with pride at the fact that she worships him. He debates what to do. In the climax of the story, he finds "a thing to do": He winds her hair around her neck and strangles her. In the denouement, he unties the hair and kisses the lips of the corpse. He then sits with the corpse, with her head on his shoulder like his had been on hers. They sit that way together until morning as he imagines she is happy that now she has him to herself forever. The final words, "And yet God has not said a word," suggest the theme: That the narrator is a psychopath who cannot hear his own conscience despite the atrocious act of murder he has just committed.
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