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Why doesn't the narrator in "Porphyria's Lover" respond to his lover's call? What does this suggest about him?
Quick answer:
To me, the narrator seems insecure, like a child who has been spanked and is trying to get back at his parent. The first paragraph of the story refers to "darkness visible" which is a line from Milton's poem - "Paradise Lost."
Porphyria's lover awaits her arrival on a rainy night, and he feels as though his heart is "fit to break"; perhaps he fears that she will not come or that she does not love him. It might even be that the weather has delayed her coming and that her lateness has made him believe that she might not come at all. When she finally arrives, she lights a fire and removed her wet clothes, letting down her hair, and finally sitting at his side. She "called [him]" but he did not respond to her.
It seems possible to me that he is acting out his hurt, hoping to punish her for nearly breaking his heart, even, perhaps, for her lateness. This seems a little petty, as he has no idea what might have held her up. Further, when she arrives, she does a number of other things before acknowledging and...
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greeting him, and maybe he is irked by these, her evident priorities. Maybe he feels that she is not as happy to see him as he is her. This makes him seem insecure, even paranoid, and self-centered.
Porphyria goes on to become physically affectionate, even confessing her love for him, and this may have been part of his goal all along: to get her to make such a confession (as he expresses his "surprise" at her statement a bit later). This makes him seem manipulative and self-serving.
You are right to focus on this intriguing detail as something that helps us to build up a picture of the narrator in this excellent dramatic monologue. Let us first remind ourselves of how the text describes this moment:
And, last, she sat down by my side
And call'd me. When no voice replied,
She put my arm about her waist,
And made her smooth white shoulder bare,
And all her yellow hair displaced,
And, stooping, made my cheek lie there...
Let us note the way in which the narrator deliberately ignores his lover's voice. However, from what Porphyria then goes on to do, it seems as if this is a calculated response from the speaker to manipulate Porphyria into showing him her affection physically, as the quote makes clear. This incident therefore helps us build up a picture of the narrator as a coldly manipulative individual who is happy to use guilt and the goodness of other characters for his own ends. Porphyria is a woman who, because of her goodness, is therefore an easy victim to the speaker's heinous deeds.