In the poem, "My Last Duchess," Browning creates a narrator who conveys the distinct displeasure he feels at the perceived infidelities of his wife. There is some question as to the sanity of the narrator as he can calmly talk about the beautiful picture of his wife, then transition into tales of her betrayal, and then calmly explain that he was not willing to compromise so he gave the words to have her killed, all the while keeping the next duchess waiting downstairs.
With the poem, "The Laboratory," there is little doubt that the narrator is crazy. We, as readers, can almost see his hunched shoulders and intense concentration as he ponders what poison will be best to use when killing his wife. As readers, we still don't know if the indiscretions were real, but we have absolutely no doubt how the wife was killed--by his own hand.
Both husbands are...
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angry and bitter, but we get the feeling that the husband in "The Laboratory" is hurt more by the emotional betrayal. While the husband in "Last Duchess" is more angry at the insult of the betrayal.
Compare the poems "My Last Duchess" and "The Laboratory" by Robert Browning.
One of the key similiarities between the poems is that they are both dramatic monologues. In other words Browning is creating a character that is speaking to someone else and we as the audience is listening in.
Both of the poems are concerned with murder; or in the case of 'The Laboratory' the planning of one. Browning was interested in considering what drives people to such actions and uses the first person narration which allows us to see into someone's thoughts.
Both poems are also set in an older historical period to the one that Browning was writing in to explore different ways of life.
The monologues are both interesting as they slowly reveal the truth to the reader; we begin to realise that the Duke has had the Duchess killed as she displeased him. We also have to consider whether this is actually true as we only have the Duke's word for this. Similiarly in 'The Laboratory' we have to believe the narrator.