Porphyria's Lover By Robert Browning

Love is an untamed force that when left unchecked can have deadly consequences. In the dramatic monologue “Porphyria’s Lover”, Robert Browning reveals the speaker’s eerily calm yet obsessive attitude through the use of vivid imagery, repetitive structure, and form to convey the course of events that lead him to murder his beloved in an attempt to relish in an infinite moment with her. Overall, these devices depict a man that is driven to insanity by his obsessive love for Porphyria. Browning highlights that love must not be a struggle for power. In the typical fashion of a dramatic monologue, it is through the speaker that the reader learns what has happened as the speaker attempts to justify his actions. The reader witnesses the speaker’s progression towards insanity as the monologue moves along, from sitting in the cold and dark awaiting her arrival to his desire to ultimately possess her. It is in the first four lines in which the scene is set. As the speaker sits alone in a cottage by a lake, a storm wages outside reflective of the inner torment the speaker is experiencing.
From as early as the title of the poem of the poem “Porphyria’s Lover”, the obsessive nature of the speaker is suggested. We never learn his name because he only describes himself through his relationship with Porphyria. However, even after she confesses her love to him, it isn’t enough for him. She is married, therefore, he has no claim over her. In the speaker’s delusion caused by his inability to control the circumstances that prevent them from being together lead him, he begins to see her as an object. Moments before he strangles her, he repeats “mine, mine”. The repetition of this phrase emphasizes how important it is for him to feel like she belongs to him. It’s then that he decides that it is only to hold onto her is by killing