Browning's 'The Laboratory'

How does the poet suggest the presence of the chemist and how does he make the words seem like speech?

The poet suggests the presence of the chemist as the woman asks the person to “pliest thy trade in this devil’s-smithy” and because the woman is enquiring about poisons, we can assume that the “devil’s-smithy” is an alchemy laboratory; therefore we can also presuppose that the person who is using their trade is the chemist. The poet makes it seem like speech because the speaker asks the question “which is the poison to poison her, prithee?”

What more evidence is there for this throughout the rest of the poem?

“Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste, pound at thy powder”

“You call it a gum?”

“Is that poison too?”

“Quick – is it finished?”

“Is it done? Take my mask off!”

“Now take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill, you may kiss me, old man, on my mouth if you will!”

How does the poet set the scene in the first three lines?

“Now that I, tying thy glass mask tightly” – this shows that wherever the speaker may be, there is a sense of danger about it due to the fact that she has to protect her face in order to be there.

“May gaze thro’ these faint smokes curling whitely” – this sets the scene through the imagery of the fumes emitted from the various concoctions that the speaker can see in the laboratory.

“As thou pliest thy trade in this devil’s-smithy” – insinuates that the lab is used to create evil substances, sets the mood.

How does line 4 come as a surprise? How does the poet underline the directness of the question, and the woman’s intention?

Line 4, “which is the poison to poison her, prithee?” comes as a surprise as it is a very blunt question and we as a reader are almost caught off-guard due to the fact that there is no air of subtlety surrounding the statement. The poet makes the question direct through alliteration which makes the words seem more prominent which in turn helps the woman’s intentions become very clear – she wants someone dead, and she’s excited to be a part of it.

 

Who are the ‘he’ and ‘her’ of line 5? Is it important we are never completely sure of their relationship with the speaker?

We can estimate that ‘he’ is perhaps her partner or someone the speaker feels amorous towards and ‘her’ is  either the person ‘he’ cheated on the speaker with or ‘his’ actual partner that the speaker feels jealous towards. I don’t think it is important that we actually find out who these characters are as it adds to the sense of mystery that the overall poem has.

How many repetitions are there in verse II?

What does the speaker think the other two people think about her? Where does she think that they think she is? Where is she and why does she express it so emphatically?

·         The speaker believes that the two other people are ridiculing her because she knows about their relationship

·         They think she is at the church which is almost the antithesis of this “devil’s-smithy”

·         She says “I am here” so emphatically because she has the other woman’s death to motivate her being at the laboratory and the fact that neither of the other two people would expect her to be there might make the speaker feel more empowered.

Verse 3

Which are the words that identify what the chemist is doing? Is the speaker commanding or describing?

“Grind”, “mash”, “pound” – I think the speaker is describing what she is seeing because she knows the chemist will know what he is doing more than she will and she also says “I am not in haste” which implies that she is overseeing the creation rather than being a part of it.

What effect do the stressed words have on the woman’s voice?

The stressed beats fall upon the verbs which are almost of a violent nature; this suggests that the woman’s voice has violent undertones.

(Lines 15-16) What are the adjectives/adverbs? How do they contrast with ‘poison’? What does this tell you about the woman’s mind?

“soft”, “exquisite”, “sweetly” contrast with the word “poison” because the adjectives/adverb are all very positive whereas poison is generally seen as a very negative thing due to the fact that it’s primary use is to cause harm, this could suggest that the woman is slightly deranged as she takes pleasure in the thought of harming others.

What does the word ‘pleasures’ reveal about the woman’s nature? How does the poet convey her excitement?

The fact that the speaker uses the word ‘pleasures’ when talking about causing someone else pain, shows that she has a very twisted nature, the poet conveys her excitement by making the speaker go on to talk about how great it would be to be able to carry poison on her person everywhere she goes in “an earring, a casket, a signet, a fan mount, a filigree-basket!” showing that she might like to poison more than one person. The list, also shows her growing enthusiasm and the fact that it is concluded with an exclamation mark shows that the prospect of poisoning lots of people is very exciting indeed.

Verse VI

What does the woman imagine herself doing in this verse?

In this verse, the speaker imagines herself killing off two other people that have wronged her in two different methods; she almost revels in the variety of ways that she is able to kill.

‘He’ and ‘her’ are identified as the objects of poisoning – but who are ‘Pauline’ and ‘Elise’?

Pauline and Elise could just be two other women who have wronged the speaker at some point, perhaps even one of them is the aforementioned ‘her’. The fact that the speaker is so willing to kill anyone who does her wrong shows that she has a very violent (yet subtle?) temperament.

The speaker lists Elise’s head/breast/arms/hands, why does she do this? What does it reveal about her?

The speaker does this because it’s as if she wants to experience every single part of Elise’s death, as if she is not happy enough knowing that Elise is dead, she wants to acknowledge that every single part of Elise is dead, this shows that the speaker relished in the fine details of her kill, showing almost psychopathic tendencies.