Strange Similarities found in Porphyria's Lover and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and the Nature of Evil

Earlier today I attended my English 212 class in a state of tiredness and mild narcolepsy due to the chemistry class I had just escaped from.  As discussions began on the poem of the day, "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning I started to feel a sense of deja vu.  Because I had not read the poem already, it wasn't until the plot had become clear that I realized it was eerily similar to the story line of a piece from Jhonen Vasquez's comic, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

In Browning's poem, Porphyria is a young woman who braves a rain storm to pay a "special" visit to the man she is attracted to.  As she enters his dark room, soaking wet, she greets him and builds a fire to warm the place up.  As the man gives no answer to her from his bed, she sits beside him and tries to be loving.  Now this poem is told through the perspective of the man, and as their scene reaches a point where he believes it is perfect, he wonders what to do.

".................At last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me:   surprise
made my heart swell, and still it grew
while I debated what to do. 
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good...."

What he ends up doing is strangling the poor girl with her own hair.
Robert Browning was trying to show us his ideas on the nature of evil, mostly that it always holds a smidge of insanity to a level where it constantly needs to be in control of almost everything around it.  The man goes on to try and justify and even rationalize the murder he has committed saying this is what she wanted, and always holding onto the idea that she is his forever.  He turns her love into an object and thus, not wanting to ever lose this object to time or any other man that could come into Porphyria's life, he kills her, which in his mind preserves her perfection and love.

Now in Jhonen Vasquez's comic, Johnny is not necessarily evil--all the time.  He creates a relationship with Devi, a girl who works at the bookstore Johnny (a.k.a.Nny) frequently goes to.  She finally asks him out on a date and we meet them when they come back to Nny's house.  The date apparently goes well and the two make a very good couple.  As they're about to kiss, Nny loses his nerve though and escapes to another room where the two doughboys (cardboard cut-outs that seemingly talk to Nny) are and they begin pestering him about how fleeting and pretentious love is.  Devi walks in on him and Nny decides to kill her.  Why?  Because apparently the idea of their relationship's eventual decay is too much for Nny and he wants to freeze their relationship at the point they reached.  Nny also makes a comment that there were others before Devi; this may or may not also be a similarity to Browning's man as we did discuss that it seemed as if he had killed before.  Back to Nny and Devi, though.  Nny does not kill Devi, instead, he get's his butt (and face, and stomach) beaten horribly by her, even having his face smashed into a mirror...brutal.

But whether the similarities in these two pieces is coincidental or intentional, I do not know.  Maybe Mr. Vasquez is a fan of Robert Browning...I know I am now.  But it always gives me a pleasant feeling to find that there are actually very interesting and surprising stories and pieces that were written so long ago.  The subject of the nature of Evil is always interesting, especially when we start making characters to be the embodiment or worker of evil.  Many always place the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, etc. as the center or source of Evil--this I believe is due to the wide-spread influence of the Judeo-Christian perspectives.  Vasquez actually makes a point to contradict this view in his comic when Johnny dies and is eventually sent to hell.  Satan, or Senor Diablo as he likes to be called, isn't really that evil.  He seems to basically fill the position of managing Hell as the people who go there are there because that's where they want to be.  In fact, Hell is created according to their own thoughts, and in consequence ends up being just like the real world, only more annoying.  Though in the comic world, Heaven was no better.  Basically, you go there if you are perfectly content to do nothing except sit around all day, enjoying the feeling of not needing, wanting, or caring to do anything.  This is further demonstrated as everyone could actually do anything they want, and upon hearing this Johnny begins blowing up people's heads only for them to regrow again.

Wow.  I really got off topic, didn't I?

Uh...anyway, so....eh.....NATURE OF EVIL AND STUFF!!!


the end.

The Rising Cost of Laziness

Ahh, college--that home away from home; the nest place of our learning and our future....it really sucks how expensive you are! In this retched economy we all have our struggles as students, trying to find or maintain a job. And many of us are taking out loans--I'm not, because I'm cool like that--but I understand that many people have to. They take out loans to pay for the precious school that will lead them into a brighter future...and then they dig a hole around themselves.

I'm sorry to say that there are some people who are just going about things wrong, and then they make excuses to their friends who miss them in class and are all like, "Where is he? He just missed out on the teacher giving out free candy!" Free candy of course serving as a balanced meal for any savvy college student. But I'm digressing, what I mean to address is this friend of mine who is always missing class, always late for tests, and always struggling to pull things together at the last minute. Now we all procrastinate sometimes, maybe even a majority of the time, but we're still able to get our money's worth out of college in the end. What makes me very sad and pissed at the same time is the fact that my friend is building two ditches for himself: one for his financial future by taking out all these loans for school that he'll eventually have to pay back; and two from his lack of attendance and overall performance as far as we can see in college. He's smart and talented and has an array of friends ready to support him. So, if you see this, you know who you are, don't get angry or discouraged because we just want you to succeed and do good so you can go be a teacher and pass on your horrible habits to the kids of tomorrow. We're at the end of our 7th week in school, SO GET YOUR BUTT IN GEAR...please.

It just doesn't make sense to take out loans for school and then not go to school, so massive hoards of people reading this, make your money count!

That is all I have to say for the moment....you can leave now.