Tone in Porphyria's Lover

The tone in Porphyria’s Lover is very mysterious and gloomy. When reading the poem, a person can’t help but realize the speaker is odd. It seems he doesn’t change his tone and if he were speaking it to an audience it would be monotone. Even when he explains the murder, the wording doesn’t change and his expression doesn’t change. This poem and the speaker are detached from what happened. There is a bit of happiness in the poem though but as soon as one thinks the poem will have a happy ending, it becomes depressing again. “Happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshipped me…The moment she was mine, mine, fair…I found a thing to do, and all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her” (Browning, lines 32-41). The speaker was oblivious to the fact that Porphyria felt no pain, “No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain” (Browning, lines 41-42). It’s selfish to think she didn’t feel any pain and it’s selfish to take one’s life to keep their love forever.