Porphyria's Lover-Theme

The man in the poem "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning, is a very possessive man who wants his lady to love him forever. When he realizes that she does in fact love him, he decides in that moment that the only thing to do is to kill her by strangling her with her own hair. "A thing to do, and all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her." (Lines 38, 39, 40, and 41, Browning) In his head it was the only way he could imagine that she would love him forever. The speaker makes clear that he is a very selfish man who does not want this lady to have any opportunity to love another man again. He also thinks that he is giving her what she wants and that is to be able to be with him forever. When he says "Porphyria's love: she guessed not how her darling one wish would be heard," (Lines 56 and 57, Browning) he meant that she wanted to be with him forever but she was unaware of how her dream would actually come about being true.