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Tj Steinthal Feb/20/16. Intro To Literature Prof. Tabak.

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TJ Steinthal Feb/20/16 Intro to Literature Prof. Tabak The Laboratory: Analytic Essay Through literary and poetic devices, Robert Browning reveals the underlying insanity of wealth through a women harnessing the power of science to strive and control the fates of both herself and others. The poem tells of a powerful, rich scientist who discusses her plans of poisoning the new women her lover now admires. She plans to accomplish this by creating a poison that she’ll implant into a piece of jewelry and give it the the women at the ball everyone is going to. Robert portrays this character as someone who is thirsty for seeking vengeance and even death upon new lover, to the point of almost killing herself in the …show more content…

Specifically, the power of alchemic chemistry, which she plans to achieve through the massive amounts of wealth she possesses. In the fifth stanza of the poem, the speaker describes her plans more in depth, specifically on what type of gift she will get and implant poison into, with “Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures, What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures! To carry pure death in an earring, a casket, A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket!” (CITATION) Here the speaker mentions the different type of gifts she could give to the new lover, some of which include an earring, casket, signet, and filigree basket. Robert also uses rhyme in an interesting way here to help catch the attention reader and emphasize the wealth of this women, with words like “treasure and pleasure” and “casket and basket.” All this wealth gives the speaker this false sense of security in a way, seen she knows that with all the money that she has she can basically do anything, even as far as make a poison to kill someone with. Why worry about what they think I’m doing when in reality I am the one who is going to be getting the last laugh in the end. The combination of both her wealth and her strange obsession with vengeance is something that is both dangerous and continuous when looking into the rest of the poem. The repetitive, compulsive thoughts continue on in stanzas six and seven, but this time the speaker begins to narrow in on her target. She says the following “And

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