My Last Duchess is about the Duke of Ferrara, talking to the go – between arranging his next marriage. He shows the man a painting hidden behind curtains of his previous or ‘last’ wife. The poem is very conventional as it uses iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets and enjambment. Beneath the surface is a terrible story of ruthless and despotic of the Dukes disapproval of his wife’s innocent acts and naivety, who loses her life for not being appreciative of his great name. The picture kept hidden shows that he still feels a love for her and that now she is a piece of art he is able to control her which shows his sick, unnerving possessive side.
The Laboratory is a psychologically fascinating dramatic monologue, macabre in that psychotic way. It is about a person (probably a woman as it kisses the old man on the cheek and it carries a basket) who kills her rival in the presence of her lover. She asks an older scientist to create a poison. But soon develops the idea in her head of giving out poisons liberally throughout the court. Browning explores the jealousy and vengefulness of someone disappointed in love.
All the poems use enjambment but use it for different uses such as suspense, pity, reflection on the characters and anticipation.
Havisham and The Laboratory are about seeking revenge on someone, after feeling pain through love or lack of. Both poems are similar as there is an element of jealousy within the killers. The duke of Ferrara is jealous that his wife is more attentive to other men, and the woman in 'The Laboratory' is jealous of her lover's mistress. Both of the characters in the poems are driven to kill because of their jealousy, it is because of their partners they are led to commit a murder. The duke is angry that his wife does not value his nine-hundred-year-old family name, and then jealous woman is enraged that her husband is with another woman.
Havisham and Kid are about being left alone or abandoned and the consequences from it. Kid is more reflecting on the triumph of succeeding when left alone which, shows the positive side of losing his security and ‘like a father figure’ but gaining independence. When compared to Havisham we see her pain of being left, feeling no love and having no identity. We see this in the poem, as the title is just Havisham, not Ms or Mrs. In the days that the poem was written the job of a women was to marry a man and be a true and faithful wife. In this she is jilted and feels useless. Instead of committing suicide she has chosen to live a life of hate, yet still waits for her loved one to return. In Kid he is also seen as the weak sidekick who relies on the super hero, yet after being abandoned he succeeds and does well for himself.
The Laboratory and My Last Duchess are reflecting on the idea of not doing as they wish and feeling in futile as they cannot take control and therefore have a possessive and evil side. Both of the main characters seem disturbed as the Duke of Ferrara feels it is necessary to keep his previous wife behind curtains and that he can only say who can see it. In the Laboratory the women begins to imagine poisoning the whole of the court. Both of there reasons for killing are amoral and spontaneous due to insecurity of loved ones or the embarrassment ‘to a 900 year old name.’ Both the characters are jealous of the relationship there partners have between the other sex and become paranoid and eventually decide on murder to solve the idea.
All the poems are about being jilted or abandoned and the way in which the central character deals with that situation.
