Explore the significance of justice and injustice
in two crime texts you have studied.
Explore the significance of justice and injustice in two crime texts you have studied. Remember
to include in your answer relevant detailed exploration of authorial methods.
Atonement and Poetry
[25 marks]
Introduction to justice and injustice in crimes, discussed by critics and different
interpretations over centuries.
The ideas of injustice in justice in The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Wilde presenting the
injustice of the penal system through the language used to describe the horrors felt by the
prisoners. The ‘ailʼ sounds, the Dantesque circle of hell, the communal depictions of
suffering.
Injustice in Atonement where Briony becomes a successful author.
Injustice in Paul Marshall becoming a lord, the Greek temple in which he raped Lola
disappearing, false innocence in projects in Africa.
The injustice in Browningʼs narrators.
Throughout centuries, critics have explored concepts of justice and injustice in literature using
it as a vessel for commentary on the current justice system of the time. In Atonement, by Ian
McEwan, we view a depiction of English society from the summer of 1935 where Briony
committed her crime, to the presentation of London 1999, allowing us to determine the extent
of which Briony was successful in her atonement and if justice has occurred in the novel in
relation to the criminals and victims. In contrary the poetry collection provides very different
commentaries of justice. The Ballad of Reading Gaol instead present the ideas of injustice in
justice where the 19th century criminals roles are reversed forcing the reader to question if
there treatment by society is fair while Browningʼs narrators present societies where crime in
the upper classes is accepted and neglected. In this essay I will therefore explore the
significance of justice and injustice in the texts stated above.
In 1993, Seamus Heaney stated that in ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaolʼ Wilde becomes a
“propagandist writer” as the poem becomes a polemic on the justice system through its
contrary portrayal of the executor and those working in the prison as the criminals while the
actual criminals are the victims. In doing this, Wilde presents the significant idea of injustice in
the believed justice of the penal system. A sense of community is also created as the epigraph
of the poem “each man kills the thing he loves” unites the reader and prisoners together
through the inclusive pronoun “each”. As stated by the Guardian Newspaper this creates a very
“Dantesque depiction of hell” through the prisons through the “souls in pain” walking in a “ring”
“within another ring” represents the cruel cycle of crime and punishment. The long enduring
description of the prisoners suffering through the descriptions of daily life where the tarry ropes
in two crime texts you have studied.
Explore the significance of justice and injustice in two crime texts you have studied. Remember
to include in your answer relevant detailed exploration of authorial methods.
Atonement and Poetry
[25 marks]
Introduction to justice and injustice in crimes, discussed by critics and different
interpretations over centuries.
The ideas of injustice in justice in The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Wilde presenting the
injustice of the penal system through the language used to describe the horrors felt by the
prisoners. The ‘ailʼ sounds, the Dantesque circle of hell, the communal depictions of
suffering.
Injustice in Atonement where Briony becomes a successful author.
Injustice in Paul Marshall becoming a lord, the Greek temple in which he raped Lola
disappearing, false innocence in projects in Africa.
The injustice in Browningʼs narrators.
Throughout centuries, critics have explored concepts of justice and injustice in literature using
it as a vessel for commentary on the current justice system of the time. In Atonement, by Ian
McEwan, we view a depiction of English society from the summer of 1935 where Briony
committed her crime, to the presentation of London 1999, allowing us to determine the extent
of which Briony was successful in her atonement and if justice has occurred in the novel in
relation to the criminals and victims. In contrary the poetry collection provides very different
commentaries of justice. The Ballad of Reading Gaol instead present the ideas of injustice in
justice where the 19th century criminals roles are reversed forcing the reader to question if
there treatment by society is fair while Browningʼs narrators present societies where crime in
the upper classes is accepted and neglected. In this essay I will therefore explore the
significance of justice and injustice in the texts stated above.
In 1993, Seamus Heaney stated that in ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaolʼ Wilde becomes a
“propagandist writer” as the poem becomes a polemic on the justice system through its
contrary portrayal of the executor and those working in the prison as the criminals while the
actual criminals are the victims. In doing this, Wilde presents the significant idea of injustice in
the believed justice of the penal system. A sense of community is also created as the epigraph
of the poem “each man kills the thing he loves” unites the reader and prisoners together
through the inclusive pronoun “each”. As stated by the Guardian Newspaper this creates a very
“Dantesque depiction of hell” through the prisons through the “souls in pain” walking in a “ring”
“within another ring” represents the cruel cycle of crime and punishment. The long enduring
description of the prisoners suffering through the descriptions of daily life where the tarry ropes
