Poetry – Critical Essays
Min as a Translator of Crabbe: A Russian Transformation of Peter Grimes
• As a boy he rebelled violently against hi pious father, as a grown man he sought to exercise complete control
over another human soul
• The most striking aspect of the story is that while exposing Peter’s cruelty unflinchingly Crabbe somehow
manage by the end of the poem to arouse a surprising amount of charity for him
• Crabbe’s narrator takes care to show his townspeople moving from a position of excessive non-involvement to
one of excessive hardness and then to a Christian position of compassionate
• The townspeople know what the ‘exercise’ is, but, being British and believing in an Englishman’s right to do as
he likes, they remind themselves that it is ‘his’ exercise – his business, not theirs
• The excuse their inaction by referring to Peter’s activity simply as ‘exercise’
• The narrator is an imaginary personage brought forward to describe the Borough, he should be regarded as a
citizen of it, describing it in a series of letters to a friend
• Crabbe was a practicing priest in the Church of England
• There is deep conflict within Peter, the drink allows him to weep over the death of his father and the more peter
steals the more he looked upon men as his foes
• Peter tries to justify his crimes against the community by seeing them as his enemies – the fact he feels the need
to justify it shows that he is aware of the morals of the community
• Crabbe believed Peter has a cruel soul and another soul which at least acknowledges the claims of filial piety
and conventional morality. The cruel soul finds an obedient boy who represents filial piety and conventional
morality and seek to inflict on him the suffering which would refute these conventional values
• Crabbe’s narrator is a paradox – being able to sympathise with a man who has done evil deeds
• Long before Peter went mad he had a keen sense that he had done something wrong – that he is void of
feeling is untrue
• Crabbe uses ironic reversal. Peter the boy who spurned the Bible and the pious life no begs of his hallucinatory
judge to give him time to pray
Peter Grimes – Presentation of Society
• The community are passive and culpable to Grimes’ abusive actions
• The community is at fault for not intervening for a long time
• It is easy for Grimes to acquire new victims – systematic abuse/exploitation of vulnerable children
• The justice system fails to protect the victims and ultimate punishment is left to God
• CONTEXT – the abuse of the boys was not explicitly illegal at the time, but Crabbe clearly condemns the action
and society’s failure to prevent the boys suffering
• Society is condemned for its failings to provide justice and for the systematic abuse which is allowed to happen.
However, the impact of this is lessened slightly, both because society becomes less culpable when they isolate
Peter, but also because they are somewhat absolved of responsibility when the reader knows that Peter faces
punishment for his crimes anyway, despite societies failings which somewhat limits the impact on the social
commentary
Peter Grimes - Presentation of the Criminal
• Grimes is presented as a criminal and a sinner
• Cruel, violent and prolonged torture before the actual murder
• He is presented as truly evil
• The natator interjects and is judgmental in its mocking/damming of Peter
• Grimes is condemned for violent and cruel nature and is literally dammed to hell at the end of the poem
Peter Grimes - sympathetic criminal
• Mostly presented unsympathetically, although while exposing Peter’s cruelty, Crabbe manages to arose
sympathy for him by the end of the poem, perhaps as the reader feels that his punishment is unjust
• For most non-religious readers, they would see eternal damnation in hell too harsh a punishment and would
believe that Peter should have been punished by human law instead
• Peter suffers at the end of the poem as a result of his actions and it is this suffering that the audience feels
sympathy towards which leaves the reader with mixed feelings towards the criminal by the end of the poem
Min as a Translator of Crabbe: A Russian Transformation of Peter Grimes
• As a boy he rebelled violently against hi pious father, as a grown man he sought to exercise complete control
over another human soul
• The most striking aspect of the story is that while exposing Peter’s cruelty unflinchingly Crabbe somehow
manage by the end of the poem to arouse a surprising amount of charity for him
• Crabbe’s narrator takes care to show his townspeople moving from a position of excessive non-involvement to
one of excessive hardness and then to a Christian position of compassionate
• The townspeople know what the ‘exercise’ is, but, being British and believing in an Englishman’s right to do as
he likes, they remind themselves that it is ‘his’ exercise – his business, not theirs
• The excuse their inaction by referring to Peter’s activity simply as ‘exercise’
• The narrator is an imaginary personage brought forward to describe the Borough, he should be regarded as a
citizen of it, describing it in a series of letters to a friend
• Crabbe was a practicing priest in the Church of England
• There is deep conflict within Peter, the drink allows him to weep over the death of his father and the more peter
steals the more he looked upon men as his foes
• Peter tries to justify his crimes against the community by seeing them as his enemies – the fact he feels the need
to justify it shows that he is aware of the morals of the community
• Crabbe believed Peter has a cruel soul and another soul which at least acknowledges the claims of filial piety
and conventional morality. The cruel soul finds an obedient boy who represents filial piety and conventional
morality and seek to inflict on him the suffering which would refute these conventional values
• Crabbe’s narrator is a paradox – being able to sympathise with a man who has done evil deeds
• Long before Peter went mad he had a keen sense that he had done something wrong – that he is void of
feeling is untrue
• Crabbe uses ironic reversal. Peter the boy who spurned the Bible and the pious life no begs of his hallucinatory
judge to give him time to pray
Peter Grimes – Presentation of Society
• The community are passive and culpable to Grimes’ abusive actions
• The community is at fault for not intervening for a long time
• It is easy for Grimes to acquire new victims – systematic abuse/exploitation of vulnerable children
• The justice system fails to protect the victims and ultimate punishment is left to God
• CONTEXT – the abuse of the boys was not explicitly illegal at the time, but Crabbe clearly condemns the action
and society’s failure to prevent the boys suffering
• Society is condemned for its failings to provide justice and for the systematic abuse which is allowed to happen.
However, the impact of this is lessened slightly, both because society becomes less culpable when they isolate
Peter, but also because they are somewhat absolved of responsibility when the reader knows that Peter faces
punishment for his crimes anyway, despite societies failings which somewhat limits the impact on the social
commentary
Peter Grimes - Presentation of the Criminal
• Grimes is presented as a criminal and a sinner
• Cruel, violent and prolonged torture before the actual murder
• He is presented as truly evil
• The natator interjects and is judgmental in its mocking/damming of Peter
• Grimes is condemned for violent and cruel nature and is literally dammed to hell at the end of the poem
Peter Grimes - sympathetic criminal
• Mostly presented unsympathetically, although while exposing Peter’s cruelty, Crabbe manages to arose
sympathy for him by the end of the poem, perhaps as the reader feels that his punishment is unjust
• For most non-religious readers, they would see eternal damnation in hell too harsh a punishment and would
believe that Peter should have been punished by human law instead
• Peter suffers at the end of the poem as a result of his actions and it is this suffering that the audience feels
sympathy towards which leaves the reader with mixed feelings towards the criminal by the end of the poem
