CRIME POETRY REVISON
AOS
AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations. (12%)
AO4 Explore connections across literary texts. (12%)
AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in
which literary texts are written and received. (24%)
AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts. (24%)
AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using
associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression. (28%)
Weightings for each question are as follows:
AO5: 3 marks AO4: 3 marks AO3: 6 marks AO2: 6 marks AO1: 7 marks
Elements in Crime Writings
1. the inclusion of violence, murder, theft, betrayal
2. the detection of the criminal and the investigation that leads to his or her capture or
punishment.
3. how far there is a moral purpose and restoration of order.
4. guilt and remorse, confession and the desire for forgiveness.
5. the creation of the criminal and their nemesis, the typical detective hero.
6. the sense that there will be a resolution and the criminal will be punished.
7. the victims of crime and the inclusion of suffering.
8. the central motifs of love, money, danger and death.
9. punishment, justice, retribution, injustice, accusation, the legal system, criminal trials
and courtroom dramas, imprisonment, death.
10. the structural patterning of the text as it moves through a series of crises to some sense
of order.
11. the specific focus on plotting.
12. the way that language is used in the world that is created; there may be use of a
criminal register, legal register, police register.
13. the way that crime writing is used to comment on society, particularly the
representation of society at particular historical periods.
(Crime writing) Psycopath
1. GLIB and SUPERFICIAL CHARM — The tendency to be smooth, engaging, charming, slick,
and verbally facile.
2. GRANDIOSE SELF-WORTH — A grossly inflated view of one’s abilities.
3. NEED FOR STIMULATION or PRONENESS TO BOREDOM — An excessive need for novel,
thrilling, and exciting stimulation.
4. PATHOLOGICAL LYING — Can be moderate or high, in moderate form.
, 5. CONNING AND MANIPULATIVENESS — The use of deceit and deception to cheat, con, or
defraud others for personal gain.
6. LACK OF REMORSE OR GUILT — A lack of feelings or concern for the losses, pain, and
suffering of victims
7. LACK OF EMPATHY — A lack of feelings toward people in general; cold, contemptuous,
inconsiderate, and tactless.
8. PARASITIC LIFESTYLE — An intentional, manipulative, selfish, and exploitative financial
dependence on others
9. POOR BEHAVIORAL CONTROLS — Expressions of irritability,
10. PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL BEHAVIOR — A variety of brief, superficial relations
11. EARLY BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS — A variety of behaviors prior to age 13
12. LACK OF REALISTIC, LONG-TERM GOALS — An inability or persistent failure to develop
and execute long-term plans and goals.
13. IMPULSIVITY — The occurrence of behaviors that are unpremeditated and lack
reflection or planning.
14. IRRESPONSIBILITY — Repeated failure to fulfil or honor obligations and commitments,
such as not paying bills
15. FAILURE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OWN ACTIONS — A failure to accept
responsibility for one’s actions reflected in low conscientiousness.
16. MANY SHORT-TERM MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS
17. CRIMINAL VERSATILITY —taking great pride at getting away with
Psychopath or Sociopath
Sociopath-
1. Make it clear they do not care how others feel.
2. Behave in hot-headed and impulsive ways.
3. Prone to fits of anger and rage
4. Recognize what they are doing but rationalize their behaviors.
5. Cannot maintain a regular work and family life.
6. Can form emotional attachments but it is difficult.
Psychopath
1. Pretends to care.
2. Display cold-hearted behavior.
3. Fail to recognize other people’s distress.
4. Have relationships that are shallow and fake.
5. Fail to form genuine attachments.
6. May love people in their own way.
Willem H.J. Martens argues in his infamous article "The Hidden Suffering of the Psychopath"
that psychopaths do at times suffer from emotional pain and loneliness.
Most have led hurt-filled lives and have an inability to trust people, but like every human being
on the planet, they, too, want to be loved and accepted.
, Robert Browning context (AO3)
Robert Browning was born in 1812, the son of wealthy and liberal parents who took an interest
in his education and personal growth. He read voraciously as a youth, and began to write
poetry while still quite young, influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose radicalism urged a
rethinking of modern society. However, Browning’s earliest works garnered him some negative
attention for their expression of strong sensations and their morbid tone. Thus, for a time he
set poetry aside to work on plays, finding in their fictional world an apt space for
experimentation and development as a creative mind. Most of the plays did not find success,
however, and Browning turned back again to verse.
Browning’s first important poem was the lengthy Paracelsus, which appeared in 1835. Really a
long dramatic monologue, the poem described the career of the sixteenth-century alchemist,
and achieved popular success, establishing Browning as a familiar name with the reading public,
if not yet as a great poet. In 1841 Browning put out Pippa Passes, a loosely structured set of
poems that draw from the sensationalism of modern media. This was followed by 1842’s
Dramatic Lyrics and 1845’s Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. Along with the 1855 volume Men
and Women and the 1864 book Dramatis Personae, these two collections, although not wild
successes, contain most of the poems today considered central to the Browning canon. But the
poet achieved true literary stardom with the publication of his verse novel The Ring and the
Book, a historical tragedy based on a group of documents Browning had found at an Italian
bookseller’s. The work appeared in installments from 1868 to 1869, and Browning societies
soon sprang up all over England, rocketing Browning into a fame he enjoyed until his death in
1889.
Just as Browning’s professional life centered around this crucial publication, so did his personal
life center around a crucial relationship. Following the appearance of her celebrated first
collection, Browning had begun corresponding with the poet Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861), a
semi-invalid who lived in the home of her extremely protective father. Not long after their first
face-to- face meeting, the two poets married in secret and fled to Italy, where they lived until
Elizabeth’s death in 1861. During this time critics considered Elizabeth much the finer poet, and
scholars even proposed her as a candidate for poet laureate when William Wordsworth died
(Alfred Tennyson received the honor instead). Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s work still
receives much scholarly attention, Robert Browning’s subtle, detail-oriented poems have
proven attractive to modern critics, and he has now replaced his wife as the Browning of favor.
Browning lived and wrote during a time of major societal and intellectual upheaval, and his
poems reflect this world. England was becoming increasingly urban, and newspapers daily
assaulted the senses with splashy tales of crime and lust in the city. Many people began to lose
faith in religion as various new scientific theories rocked society—most notably Charles
Darwin’s theory of evolution, articulated in his 1859 The Origin of Species, and many
questioned the old bases of morality. Just as religion and science were shifting in their roles, so,
AOS
AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations. (12%)
AO4 Explore connections across literary texts. (12%)
AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in
which literary texts are written and received. (24%)
AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts. (24%)
AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using
associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression. (28%)
Weightings for each question are as follows:
AO5: 3 marks AO4: 3 marks AO3: 6 marks AO2: 6 marks AO1: 7 marks
Elements in Crime Writings
1. the inclusion of violence, murder, theft, betrayal
2. the detection of the criminal and the investigation that leads to his or her capture or
punishment.
3. how far there is a moral purpose and restoration of order.
4. guilt and remorse, confession and the desire for forgiveness.
5. the creation of the criminal and their nemesis, the typical detective hero.
6. the sense that there will be a resolution and the criminal will be punished.
7. the victims of crime and the inclusion of suffering.
8. the central motifs of love, money, danger and death.
9. punishment, justice, retribution, injustice, accusation, the legal system, criminal trials
and courtroom dramas, imprisonment, death.
10. the structural patterning of the text as it moves through a series of crises to some sense
of order.
11. the specific focus on plotting.
12. the way that language is used in the world that is created; there may be use of a
criminal register, legal register, police register.
13. the way that crime writing is used to comment on society, particularly the
representation of society at particular historical periods.
(Crime writing) Psycopath
1. GLIB and SUPERFICIAL CHARM — The tendency to be smooth, engaging, charming, slick,
and verbally facile.
2. GRANDIOSE SELF-WORTH — A grossly inflated view of one’s abilities.
3. NEED FOR STIMULATION or PRONENESS TO BOREDOM — An excessive need for novel,
thrilling, and exciting stimulation.
4. PATHOLOGICAL LYING — Can be moderate or high, in moderate form.
, 5. CONNING AND MANIPULATIVENESS — The use of deceit and deception to cheat, con, or
defraud others for personal gain.
6. LACK OF REMORSE OR GUILT — A lack of feelings or concern for the losses, pain, and
suffering of victims
7. LACK OF EMPATHY — A lack of feelings toward people in general; cold, contemptuous,
inconsiderate, and tactless.
8. PARASITIC LIFESTYLE — An intentional, manipulative, selfish, and exploitative financial
dependence on others
9. POOR BEHAVIORAL CONTROLS — Expressions of irritability,
10. PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL BEHAVIOR — A variety of brief, superficial relations
11. EARLY BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS — A variety of behaviors prior to age 13
12. LACK OF REALISTIC, LONG-TERM GOALS — An inability or persistent failure to develop
and execute long-term plans and goals.
13. IMPULSIVITY — The occurrence of behaviors that are unpremeditated and lack
reflection or planning.
14. IRRESPONSIBILITY — Repeated failure to fulfil or honor obligations and commitments,
such as not paying bills
15. FAILURE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OWN ACTIONS — A failure to accept
responsibility for one’s actions reflected in low conscientiousness.
16. MANY SHORT-TERM MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS
17. CRIMINAL VERSATILITY —taking great pride at getting away with
Psychopath or Sociopath
Sociopath-
1. Make it clear they do not care how others feel.
2. Behave in hot-headed and impulsive ways.
3. Prone to fits of anger and rage
4. Recognize what they are doing but rationalize their behaviors.
5. Cannot maintain a regular work and family life.
6. Can form emotional attachments but it is difficult.
Psychopath
1. Pretends to care.
2. Display cold-hearted behavior.
3. Fail to recognize other people’s distress.
4. Have relationships that are shallow and fake.
5. Fail to form genuine attachments.
6. May love people in their own way.
Willem H.J. Martens argues in his infamous article "The Hidden Suffering of the Psychopath"
that psychopaths do at times suffer from emotional pain and loneliness.
Most have led hurt-filled lives and have an inability to trust people, but like every human being
on the planet, they, too, want to be loved and accepted.
, Robert Browning context (AO3)
Robert Browning was born in 1812, the son of wealthy and liberal parents who took an interest
in his education and personal growth. He read voraciously as a youth, and began to write
poetry while still quite young, influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose radicalism urged a
rethinking of modern society. However, Browning’s earliest works garnered him some negative
attention for their expression of strong sensations and their morbid tone. Thus, for a time he
set poetry aside to work on plays, finding in their fictional world an apt space for
experimentation and development as a creative mind. Most of the plays did not find success,
however, and Browning turned back again to verse.
Browning’s first important poem was the lengthy Paracelsus, which appeared in 1835. Really a
long dramatic monologue, the poem described the career of the sixteenth-century alchemist,
and achieved popular success, establishing Browning as a familiar name with the reading public,
if not yet as a great poet. In 1841 Browning put out Pippa Passes, a loosely structured set of
poems that draw from the sensationalism of modern media. This was followed by 1842’s
Dramatic Lyrics and 1845’s Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. Along with the 1855 volume Men
and Women and the 1864 book Dramatis Personae, these two collections, although not wild
successes, contain most of the poems today considered central to the Browning canon. But the
poet achieved true literary stardom with the publication of his verse novel The Ring and the
Book, a historical tragedy based on a group of documents Browning had found at an Italian
bookseller’s. The work appeared in installments from 1868 to 1869, and Browning societies
soon sprang up all over England, rocketing Browning into a fame he enjoyed until his death in
1889.
Just as Browning’s professional life centered around this crucial publication, so did his personal
life center around a crucial relationship. Following the appearance of her celebrated first
collection, Browning had begun corresponding with the poet Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861), a
semi-invalid who lived in the home of her extremely protective father. Not long after their first
face-to- face meeting, the two poets married in secret and fled to Italy, where they lived until
Elizabeth’s death in 1861. During this time critics considered Elizabeth much the finer poet, and
scholars even proposed her as a candidate for poet laureate when William Wordsworth died
(Alfred Tennyson received the honor instead). Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s work still
receives much scholarly attention, Robert Browning’s subtle, detail-oriented poems have
proven attractive to modern critics, and he has now replaced his wife as the Browning of favor.
Browning lived and wrote during a time of major societal and intellectual upheaval, and his
poems reflect this world. England was becoming increasingly urban, and newspapers daily
assaulted the senses with splashy tales of crime and lust in the city. Many people began to lose
faith in religion as various new scientific theories rocked society—most notably Charles
Darwin’s theory of evolution, articulated in his 1859 The Origin of Species, and many
questioned the old bases of morality. Just as religion and science were shifting in their roles, so,
