The two characters, Tom Hauptman from Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (The Time-Traveler), and the speaker in Robert Browning's poem, "Porphyria's Lover", may easily be compared and contrasted. Once the reader can understand the two characters, it becomes evident that they are similar, yet easily contrastable. Tom and the speaker are similar in the way each feels towards their wife or lover, and in the way that external forces are able to keep the pairs of lover's apart. Yet, the two characters differ in terms of individual sanity and problem solving skills.
             The depictions of the two characters, Tom and the speaker, are similar in the emotion each feels towards his significant other. Both Tom and the speaker sense deep eternal love for their loved ones. Tom's wife of many years, Mary, is his soul mate. His character is revealed to the reader as a man who worships his wife, which is quite apparent when he states "[God] died of malaria in a stinking little town in a stinking little banana republic called Pasala, and his name was Mary" (Robinson 38). In this quote, Tom compares
             Mary to God, who Tom considers to be an all powerful and mighty being, as he is a minister.
             The speaker in "Porphyria's Lover" illustrates his eternal love for his lover within the poem; "When glided in Porphyria straight" (6) is an excerpt from the poem which illustrates the speakers' love for Porphyria as he describes her as 'gliding', showing the reader he views her angelically. In line seven, the speaker announces that Porphyria "shut out the cold and the storm," indicating that he views the cold and the storm as two separate entities. The cold, in this case, symbolizes the coldness of his feelings or heart when his lover is not by his side, and as soon as she enters the room, that coldness vanishes. Another instance where the speaker indicates his feelings for P...