Robert Browning-Porphyria's Lover

Robert Browning Porphyria's Lover is a tale of a man who kills his lover and rationalizes his actions of his deed through a empathetic and romantic monologue. Browning, a great artist and writer used dramatic monologue to engage and capture his readers (p.660). His technique involved using character's instead of himself  to relay in his work, Robert Browning exploited topics of murder, sex, morality, indecent behavior and passion (p.661), through this form of writing. In Porphyria's Lover, Browning covers the topics of sex, passion and murder. In the first six lines he set's the stage for the reader; "The rain set early in to-night;/The sullen wind was soon awake,/It tore the elm tops down for spite." Already, Browning gives a hint of the type of encounter the stormy and dreary night will preclude. It almost feels as if the story starts out as a bad "horror" film. Porphyria enters the cottage and calls to her lover and gets no answer, in lines 15-19, Porphyria sexually advances her lover; "And made her smooth white should bare/And all her yellow hair displaced/And stooping made my cheek lie there" (p.662) The lines indicate that the lover is pleased with this sensitivity from Porphyria. "Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour/To set its struggling passion free" (p. 663) suggests that Porphyria cannot accomplish her task of enticing her lover. This however, does not make the lover sad or lose interest. Instead he remarks with pride; "A sudden thought of one so pale/For love of her, an all in vain" (p.663). In lines 35-43 the poem takes a drastic turn. The lover kills Porphyria by strangling her with her own hair; "In one long yellow string I wound/Three times her little throat around/And strangled her..." (p.663).  Again, the action does not suggest anger, but emotional empathetic love. The actions of the lover become a eery as he opens her eye lids once he kills her to look into her eyes; "I warily oped her lids again/Laughed the blue eyes without a stain" (p.663) The second line suggests that Porphyria was glad with his decision to end her life, for her eyes were smiling. The poem ends with the lover holding Porphyria, "And all night long we have not stirred" (p. 663).

The feeling of Euthanasia enters my mind when examining Porphyria's Lover. The images indicates that the lover knew he was going to kill Porphyria, however, he didn't know how. The act seemed premeditated. Robert Browning explored the issue of assisted death, with a romantic rationale as its reason. Porphyria was ill. She obviously wanted to make love before dying. The lover does not assist her with her last wish, but does put her out of her misery. I left myself with thoughts on my own health and what I would want in my last days. Luckily, technology has advanced far enough that a simple order of DNR is all I would have to think about.