the laboratory

Question 1

the laboratory summary?

Answer 1

• “The Laboratory” is one of English poet Robert Browning’s famous dramatic monologues—poems written in the voice of a particular character, as if they were speeches from a play. In this poem, a 17th-century French lady from the court of Louis XIV visits a chemist’s laboratory with a dark purpose in mind: tormented by jealousy, she intends to poison her romantic rival.
• Her sadistic cheerfulness at the prospect suggests that jealousy is itself a poison, able to corrode a person’s very soul.
• The poem was first published in Browning’s important 1845 collection Dramatic Romances and Lyrics.

Question 2

tying thy glass mask tightly

Answer 2

The Laboratory
analysis : indication of the level of danger she’s dealing with

Question 3

faint smokes curling whitely …

in this devil’s-smithy

Answer 3

The Laboratory
analysis : indication of the level of danger she’s dealing with and hellish imagery

Question 4

which is the poison to poison her?

Answer 4

The Laboratory
analysis : indicates how she is actively plotting revenge

Question 5

he is with her …

they believe my tears flow …

they laugh, laugh at me

Answer 5

The Laboratory
analysis : continuation of jealousy, victimises herself

Question 6

empty church

Answer 6

The Laboratory
analysis : emphasises there is a lack of christianity here, she’s going against God

Question 7

grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste, pound at thy powder

Answer 7

The Laboratory
analysis : indication of witchcraft

Question 8

i am not in haste

Answer 8

The Laboratory
analysis : indicates she is enjoying this

Question 9

sure to taste sweetly

Answer 9

The Laboratory
analysis : indicates she is enjoying this

Question 10

treasures / invisible pleasures / to carry pure death…in a casket

Answer 10

The Laboratory
analysis : indicates she is enjoying this

Question 11

pauline should have just thirty minutes to live / elise with her head and her breast and her arms and her hands should drop dead

Answer 11

The Laboratory
analysis : indicates how these women are victims of her violent crimes

Question 12

quick - is it finished ?

Answer 12

The Laboratory
analysis : indicates a slight tone of anxiety

Question 13

she ensnared him

Answer 13

The Laboratory
analysis : villainises her

Question 14

let death be felt and the proof remain; brand , burn up , bite into its grace

Answer 14

The Laboratory
analysis : emphasises violence of crime

Question 15

he is sure to remember her dying face

Answer 15

The Laboratory
analysis : emphasises how she truly wishes to hurt him

Question 16

next moment I dance at the king’s

Answer 16

The Laboratory
analysis : emphasises how she after her crime she faces no sense of justice