7.7.2
Guilt & Punishment in Crime Texts
Guilt and Punishment in Crime Texts
Guilt and Punishment in Crime Texts
In terms of the significance of guilt and punishment in Atonement and other set texts, you could discuss the following ideas.
Absence of guilt - Browning's poems
Absence of guilt - Browning's poems
- Browning’s narrators (in The Laboratory, My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover) are chilling because they lack a conventional moral perspective. Each of them justifies their actions.
- The speaker in The Laboratory is almost exultant about the pain and suffering she will cause. That we hear from them directly only adds to the power of the poems.
Absence of guilt - Dr Sheppard
Absence of guilt - Dr Sheppard
- The lack of guilt Dr Sheppard shows in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a key point of the novel’s structure. The use of an unreliable first-person narrator tricks the readers into looking elsewhere for the identity of the murderer.
Failings of legal/judicial processes
Failings of legal/judicial processes
- In Oliver Twist, Dickens criticises his society as people are imprisoned “on the most trivial charges” in squalid “dungeons”.
- The local authorities and towns people fail the young victims in Peter Grimes because, even on “hearing cries”, they look the other way.
- In Brighton Rock, the police fail to detect that Hale has been murdered.
Divine justice in Hamlet
Divine justice in Hamlet
- The Ghost in Hamlet describes his sufferings in what sounds like Purgatory, the place of temporary punishment in the afterlife according to Catholic beliefs. The Christian idea of divine justice – the belief that God is the ultimate judge of our sins – also stops Hamlet from contemplating suicide.
Peter Grimes & Brighton Rock
Peter Grimes & Brighton Rock
- Peter Grimes is tormented by the “spirits” of his victims. George Crabbe introduces a supernatural element to symbolise his protagonist’s guilt. This can be read as divine justice for Grimes’ earlier “contempt” of religion.
- In Brighton Rock, Pinkie’s Catholicism leads him to believe in the reality of Hell. Despite this, he shows little sense of guilt for his crimes and seems to accept the idea of eternal punishment as inevitable.
1Introduction to Atonement
1.1Introduction & Background to Atonement
1.2Focus of Your Exam: Crime Texts
2Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part One
2.6Chapter 6
2.10Chapter 10
2.11Chapter 11
2.12Chapter 12
2.13Chapter 13
2.14Chapter 14
3Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Two
3.1Pages 191-201: To the Farmhouse
3.2Pages 202-213: The Night in the Barn
3.3Pages 214-226: The Attack
3.4Pages 226-234: Robbie's Reflections
3.5Pages 234-246: To the Bridge over the Canal
3.6Pages 246-254: Arrival at Dunkirk
3.7Pages 254-265: To the Cellar
4Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Three
4.1Pages 269-277: London, 1940
4.2Pages 277-286: Briony as Writer
4.3Pages 287-315: Victims of War
4.4Pages 315-327: Lola & Paul Marshall’s Wedding
4.5Pages 328-349: The Visit
5Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Four
5.1Epilogue: London, 1999 - Pages 353-371
6Key Character Profiles
6.1Briony Tallis
6.2Robbie Turner
6.3Cecilia Tallis
6.5Paul Marshall
6.6Emily Tallis
7Key Themes
7.1Introduction to Crime Texts
7.2Crimes in Atonement
7.3Criminals in Atonement
7.4Victims in Atonement
7.5Detection in Atonement
7.6Settings in Atonement
7.7Guilt & Punishment in Atonement
8Writing Techniques
9Context
9.1Historical Context
9.2Social Context
9.3Literary Context
10Critical Debates
10.1Marxist Literary Criticism
Jump to other topics
1Introduction to Atonement
1.1Introduction & Background to Atonement
1.2Focus of Your Exam: Crime Texts
2Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part One
2.6Chapter 6
2.10Chapter 10
2.11Chapter 11
2.12Chapter 12
2.13Chapter 13
2.14Chapter 14
3Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Two
3.1Pages 191-201: To the Farmhouse
3.2Pages 202-213: The Night in the Barn
3.3Pages 214-226: The Attack
3.4Pages 226-234: Robbie's Reflections
3.5Pages 234-246: To the Bridge over the Canal
3.6Pages 246-254: Arrival at Dunkirk
3.7Pages 254-265: To the Cellar
4Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Three
4.1Pages 269-277: London, 1940
4.2Pages 277-286: Briony as Writer
4.3Pages 287-315: Victims of War
4.4Pages 315-327: Lola & Paul Marshall’s Wedding
4.5Pages 328-349: The Visit
5Chapter Summaries & Analysis: Part Four
5.1Epilogue: London, 1999 - Pages 353-371
6Key Character Profiles
6.1Briony Tallis
6.2Robbie Turner
6.3Cecilia Tallis
6.5Paul Marshall
6.6Emily Tallis
7Key Themes
7.1Introduction to Crime Texts
7.2Crimes in Atonement
7.3Criminals in Atonement
7.4Victims in Atonement
7.5Detection in Atonement
7.6Settings in Atonement
7.7Guilt & Punishment in Atonement
8Writing Techniques
9Context
9.1Historical Context
9.2Social Context
9.3Literary Context
10Critical Debates
10.1Marxist Literary Criticism
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