Porphyria's Lover Passivity Quotes

The speaker's passivity at the beginning of the poem is pretty extreme. His only response to the storm is to "listen," even though listening makes his heart break.

Porphyria, on the other hand, has more agency and activity than the speaker can handle – she's able to make the fireplace "blaze up," apparently without even lighting a match! She's the opposite of passive.

The speaker can't even be bothered to answer Porphyria when she calls to him. And he doesn't even say, "I didn't answer" – he just notes, "no voice replied."

The speaker is so passive and apathetic that he just lets Porphyria move his arms around like a doll.

By the second half of the poem, the tables have turned: now Porphyria is the passive one (because she's dead), and the speaker moves her body around as though she were a doll.

The speaker refers to Porphyria just as a "head" – an object, something that can't have a "will" of its own at all.