Language in the Laboratory by Browning

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‘The Laboratory’ Anya Moore 10G How does Browning use the language and form to present the narrators feelings and attitude in ‘The Laboratory’? ‘The laboratory’ was published in ‘Dramatic Lyrics’ in 1842 and is set in 18th century France. The subtitle is ANCIEN RÉGIME which is referring to an old type of government which suggest that the narrator is from the past. The poem is about a woman who has been betrayed by her lover or husband after she found out he was having an affair with another woman. The woman is now determined to get revenge on her husband’s second lover and decides to poison her by going to a alchemist. In the poem she mentions a woman’s name, Pauline, who could be the man’s lover, ‘And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!’ The poem is in the form of a dramatic monologue and has been written in twelve stanzas, all of four lines. Throughout the poem there is a series of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables. This gives the poem an energetic, upbeat feeling and intensifies the narrator’s mood which is highly excited. The use of rhyming couplets in the poem causes the verses to flow when reading, and their pace quickens during the poem. The rhythm of the poem increases when the narrator is anxious or excited. An example of this is the use of rhyming which presents the woman’s increasing excitement while she watches the alchemist grind the poison mixture (Stanza 5, ‘treasures....pleasures’, and ‘casket...basket). The poem is written in the first person, and the narrator is a woman describing the scene of a laboratory and expressing her feelings of betrayal to the apothecary (chemist). We know that the narrator is a woman because in the fifth stanza it refers to how the poison will be carries, ‘in an
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