Most Dangerous Game And Porphyria's Lover

Not all obsessions are bad. Sometimes they are good. However, when they are bad they can be really awful. This is the case in The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, and Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning. The Most Dangerous Game is about a man who hunts humans. Porphyria’s Lover is a poem about a man who is deeply in love with a woman who cannot be with him, so he kills her. Richard Connell and Robert Browning use extremely descriptive characterization to convey a theme that obsession can have a negative outcome. In the short story The Most Dangerous Game Richard Connell uses extreme descriptive characterization to show the readers that Zaroff, the main character, has a major obsession with hunting that leads to murder. When Rainsford first arrives on Ship …show more content…
She loves him, and he loves her; however, for some reason, she cannot be with him forever. He worships Porphyria with a passion. She murmured that she “loved” him (Browning 21). And he thought to himself, “Happy and Proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshipped me; surprise made my heart swell and still it grew” (Browning 32-34). He is clearly characterized as being in love with Porphyria. Unfortunately, this love becomes an obsession. He says to himself, “That moment she was mine, mine, fair,/ Perfectly pure and good” (Browning 36-37). Naturally, he is very hurt by the fact he cannot have her, so he tries to figure out how to keep her. Suddenly he thinks to himself, “I found a thing to do, and all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three time her little throat around, and strangled her” (Browning 35-41). He kills her so he could be with her. The narrator is characterized as a psychopath who thinks that killing her and keeping her by his side is actually making her “one wish” come true (Browning 57). His obsession had made him become