Explore the significance of self-pity in two
crime texts.
Explore the significance of self-pity in two crime texts.
Atonement and The Poetry Collection
[25 Marks]
Self-pity being the novel atonement which Briony spent years working on.
Briony becoming a nurse as a form of penitence.
Self-pity in Peter Grimes directly mentioned and explored.
Pity for the prisoners in Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Throughout centuries critics have used crime fiction and a vehicle to explore themes of self-
pity. In Atonement and the Poetry Collection, self-pity is explored in a similar way through the
criminals own response to their crimes. It arguably acts as a translation of guilt which is
internalised within the criminal resulting in their self-hatred and self-pity of themselves due to
their own actions or even actions of society. In this essay I will therefore discuss the
significance of self-pity in Atonement, Peter Grimes, and The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
The very novel of Atonement can be seen as a metaphorical encapsulation of Brionyʼs self-pity
acting as a fifty-nine-year assignment to win back the forgiveness of a sister who died in WWII.
As Briony states that “There was our crime – Lolaʼs, Marshallʼs, mine”, the inclusive pronoun
“our” presents who she views herself on the same level as Paul Marshall whose victim was
“prised open and taken” against her will. Her attempt to right the wrongs she created when she
was just thirteen suggests that the events which occurred in 1935 marked her life forever. Due
to her misunderstandings, childish innocence, and selfishness she caused the “damnation” of
an innocent man – Robbie who died in Dunkirk and early death. Therefore, the novels formation
in which Briony writes Robbie and Cecilia a happy ending where Robbie did not die “of
septicaemia at Bray Dunes” and Cecilia was not “killed in September of the same year by the
bomb that destroyed Balham Underground” can be seen as Brionyʼs self-pity and immense guilt
causing her to attempt to change the ending of a love story which she swiftly ended too early.
However, as the critic James Phelan stated, “although crime fiction can illustrate ethical
dilemmas… it has no power to right wrongs”. Brionyʼs confession does not change the ending of
real-life. Significantly, Robbie also still remains guilty in the perspective of the law as Briony
does not revoke her 1935 confession which would have taken her much less time than simply
rewriting the lovers ending. Instead, she writes a novel stemming from the letters handed to her
by Nettle which Cecilia and Robbie passed to each other during the war. Therefore, there
appears to be a lack of poetic justice in the matter as it was Brionyʼs misunderstanding of the
lovers words earlier in the novel, specifically the term “cunt”, which led to her crime occurring
and labelling of Robbie as a “maniac”. Briony could therefore be seen as simply just being “self-
crime texts.
Explore the significance of self-pity in two crime texts.
Atonement and The Poetry Collection
[25 Marks]
Self-pity being the novel atonement which Briony spent years working on.
Briony becoming a nurse as a form of penitence.
Self-pity in Peter Grimes directly mentioned and explored.
Pity for the prisoners in Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Throughout centuries critics have used crime fiction and a vehicle to explore themes of self-
pity. In Atonement and the Poetry Collection, self-pity is explored in a similar way through the
criminals own response to their crimes. It arguably acts as a translation of guilt which is
internalised within the criminal resulting in their self-hatred and self-pity of themselves due to
their own actions or even actions of society. In this essay I will therefore discuss the
significance of self-pity in Atonement, Peter Grimes, and The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
The very novel of Atonement can be seen as a metaphorical encapsulation of Brionyʼs self-pity
acting as a fifty-nine-year assignment to win back the forgiveness of a sister who died in WWII.
As Briony states that “There was our crime – Lolaʼs, Marshallʼs, mine”, the inclusive pronoun
“our” presents who she views herself on the same level as Paul Marshall whose victim was
“prised open and taken” against her will. Her attempt to right the wrongs she created when she
was just thirteen suggests that the events which occurred in 1935 marked her life forever. Due
to her misunderstandings, childish innocence, and selfishness she caused the “damnation” of
an innocent man – Robbie who died in Dunkirk and early death. Therefore, the novels formation
in which Briony writes Robbie and Cecilia a happy ending where Robbie did not die “of
septicaemia at Bray Dunes” and Cecilia was not “killed in September of the same year by the
bomb that destroyed Balham Underground” can be seen as Brionyʼs self-pity and immense guilt
causing her to attempt to change the ending of a love story which she swiftly ended too early.
However, as the critic James Phelan stated, “although crime fiction can illustrate ethical
dilemmas… it has no power to right wrongs”. Brionyʼs confession does not change the ending of
real-life. Significantly, Robbie also still remains guilty in the perspective of the law as Briony
does not revoke her 1935 confession which would have taken her much less time than simply
rewriting the lovers ending. Instead, she writes a novel stemming from the letters handed to her
by Nettle which Cecilia and Robbie passed to each other during the war. Therefore, there
appears to be a lack of poetic justice in the matter as it was Brionyʼs misunderstanding of the
lovers words earlier in the novel, specifically the term “cunt”, which led to her crime occurring
and labelling of Robbie as a “maniac”. Briony could therefore be seen as simply just being “self-
