'The Laboratory' by Robert Browning.

'The Laboratory' by Robert Browning is said to have been influenced by the 17th Century famous serial killer Madame de Brinvillier who had killed women she had seen to be love rivals, thus it is easy to comprehend were the poem has been influenced from. 'The Laboratory' is about a woman who has gone to the 'devil's-smithy' to seek out a man who's 'trade' is to make 'sweet' 'poison' which she intends to kill her love rival 'Pauline' and other women who pose as threats- such as 'Elise'. She therefore metamorphosis' into the saying 'a woman scorned', as she is trivialised by Pauline and her previous lover which results in her wrath.

The form Robert Browning often uses for his poems (such as 'My Last Duchess' or 'Porphyria's Lover') is the dramatic monologue. This is a first person narrative in a poem which presents the reader with a psychological portrait of the narrator.  The reader therefore can understand an event from the narrators perspective which thus helps them to understand why they feel justified in committing an immoral action- such as killing women with poison. In 'The Laboratory' the woman feels justified in killing her love rival Pauline, as she and the woman's previous lover have made her feel like an insignificant 'minion' by making a mockery out of the narrator. The line 'He is with her, and they know that I know... while they laugh' highlights the narrator could be jealous or angry, even resentful to the couple, however, she does not intend to kill the man but only to give Pauline a gruesome death which should take 'thirty minutes' and she will 'drop dead'. Alternatively, her revenge over the man could be highlighted when the narrator imagines Pauline's death and the reaction of the man who is 'sure to remember her dying face' as a warning to never treat her so poorly again.

In addition the poem is structured in twelve quatrains (four lines per stanza) which each have a rhyming couplet of AABB, creating an atmosphere of order as the narrator controls what happens in the laboratory-due to her payment of 'jewels' and 'gold' to the poison maker. She even offers her body 'you may kiss me, old man. on my mouth if  you will!' showing there are no limitations or lengths she won't go to to get her revenge. This would have shocked Browning's original Victorian readership, as proprietary was the cornerstone of society where women were expected to act presentable and respectable as image was viewed as everything. Furthermore the poem uses an anapestic tetrameter rhyme scheme, this is a dactyl (One strong stressed syllable followed by to weak syllables) used four times in a line, but there are points in the poem where Browning has purposely strayed from the rhyme scheme, such as 'could I keep them one half minute fixed, she would fall shrivelled; she fell not; yet this does all', where he is has employed caesura to break the pace which emphasises certain parts such as 'she fell not' which could highlight the narrators disappointment or it can show how the disruption in rhythm is due to her thoughts being lost (which regularly occurs at points) and therefore the order  of the stanza has gone (as she controls what happens, or what is said in the dramatic monologue).

This is contrasted with moments of enjambent such as the second stanza, 'he is with her, and they know that I know where they are, what they do: they believe my tears flow while they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear empty church, to pray God in, for them!', which is one sentence long making the narrator sound as if she is hysteric. This could be interpretted as the narrators paranoia, as it is possible she has imagined them 'whispering' in her mind. However once again caesura is used at the end of the enjambent, '-I am here', which highlights a striking contrast between moods of hysteric and calm which further serevs to heighten the tension in the poem. 'I am here' may also be a reminder to the reader on where the narrator is and why she is at the 'devil's-smithy' and showing the dramatic irony on how the couple mock the narrator yet she mocks them as she has the upper hand.

The narrator displays signs of an unstable mind and a decent into madness, this can be viewed through her topics of revenge in each stanza which regularly change as her thoughts lack consistency. For example in the sixth stanza the narrator  speaks the effects of the poison and how Pauline's body will turn a 'light pastile' corpse colour as her body slowly dies from her 'head and her breasts and her arms and her hands' will 'drop dead'- ending with alliteration using the line 'drop dead' to give a bluntness and finality to her death. But then in the seventh stanza she asks the question to the unseen audience (the poison maker) 'Quick-is it finished', changing the tense from future to present instantaneously which may signify her mind's inability to grasp thoughts for a long periods of time as it flickers from one subject to another, Paiuline and her ex-lover to the posion being presently made. Her madness is further communicated in moments when she speaks to herself-'better sit thus and observe thy strange things'- which produces a sinister atmosphere to the reader as a deadly poison is essentially being given to an unstable woman and she is enjoying the moment and takes pleasure in watching the poison being created which will give Pauline a violent and painful death not that she bid-ed the poison making to 'spare' Pauline' or any of her victims. Or it could highlight that power has corrupted ands destroyed her mind, as the poem is based on upperclass people who attend 'dance[s]' at the 'King's', and women like Pauline who are 'not little' due to being well fed. This may have been Browning jabbing at Victorian society as the upper class were obsessed with social status and power- however Browning softens the message by placing his poems in a different time period or different country -'ancien regime' which is France before the French Revolution, which his readers would have been aware of-so that he does not cause direct offence to the readers.