The actual event of murder or violence is very cleverly concealed in My last Duchess and The Laboratory. This down through the lyrical qualities the poems have for their rhyme schemes. In Laboratory, the rhyme scheme is a set AABB scheme which makes the poem seem like a song; almost distracting the reader from the horrible act she is about to commit. In Duchess the Duke’s rhyme scheme is also AABB but through great use of enjambment the rhymes are weaved into the middle of sentences; still giving that lyrical quality but not as obviously as in The Laboratory.
There is a very creepy aura around all four of the poems, as every single on of the speakers seems to show absolutely no remorse around their murders. For example in the laboratory the speaker often uses exclamation marks to show herself being happy; shown in such quotes as, ‘ just thirty minutes to live!’ in stanza six. In My last duchess it is possibly the most disturbing as right at the end of the poem it seems the Duke will simply repeat his actions on the next Duchess with the line, ‘ Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse’ which proves in itself he cant be sorry for murdering the first time. In Education for Leisure and Hitcher however (The two post-1914 poems) the speaker seems to be much less aware of what they’re doing is wrong. When the Hitcher’s narrator says, ‘I dropped it into third’ it is like his mind is just changing gear; this is similar to Education for leisure with the line ‘it is an ordinary day’ when it is clearly not as they’re about to commit murder.
Similar to before, it seems all but one of the speakers is very emotionally detached to the world. Both The Duke from My last Duchess and the speaker from Hitcher seem to be able to turn off their minds, blocking out all emotion; demonstrated in the lines for duchess, ‘ …stands as if alive. Will’t please you rise?’ and ‘I dropped it into third’ for Hitcher. Both of these quotes are after an important event in the poem; suddenly changing subjects. This contrasts however with the Laboratory’s speaker who seems very in tune with what she is doing every step of the way.
Next, it seems that the speakers in Duchess and Leisure are incredibly arrogant. It is seen that duke is incredibly controlling and arrogant in the first line simply by saying ‘My last duchess’ and the education for leisure speaker is constantly saying he is a ‘genius’. These arrogant quotes draw the reader away from sympathising with them and makes it seem a lot more nasty that they have or about to kill someone.
In contrast to this though, the fact that all the poems are dramatic monologue using pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘my’ helps you to identify with the speakers; which in turn could help you to see their side of the story. Once again though, in contrast to that, their views are probably very biased and wouldn’t tell you the whole story anyway.
In all of the monologues, there is a calmness and politeness about the language, such as the word ‘prithee?’ in the laboratory, which completely contrasts with the acts the speakers commit. For example in Education for Leisure, short sentences like, ‘We did that at school. Shakespeare’ give and impression of basic thoughts which make the character and ergo the poem seem calm and innocent. This makes the poems more disturbing than if the speakers knew what they do is evil.
A big difference between The Laboratory and Education for Leisure is the use of euphemisms. In Education for leisure, there are all sorts of interpretations for lines such as,’ They don’t appreciate my autograph’. Does it mean he literally went into town and offered his signature to random people? Or is it a euphemism for him killing them? However, in the laboratory there are almost no euphemisms, just about quotes like ‘pure death’ meaning quite literally what they say.
