Crime Comparison practice essay 2
‘Victims are always powerless in crime fiction.’ To what extent do you agree with this view?
Arguably, the mistreated victims of My Last Duchess and Peter Grimes together with the
embarrassing entrapment felt by Lola in Atonement establish compelling grounds to suggest that
victims are always powerless in crime fiction. This view is further supported by the unjust and
irreversible crimes of the justice system in Atonement which leaves Robbie to suffer eternal
damnation, although Briony’s depiction of Lola as a willing participant in her ‘entrapment’ must not
be ignored in understanding whether some victims actually hold considerable power.
Perhaps the most unambiguous example of a powerless victim appears in Peter Grimes,
where three young boys are subject to the horrific exploitation of the eponymous criminal. The
unsympathetic narrator does not spare us the graphic details of their abuse, commenting that they
are ‘pinn’d, beaten, cold, pinch’d, threaten’d and abused’; the listing of aggressive, dynamic verbs
emphasises the control that Grimes has over them and the suffering that they are forced to endure
at his mercy. The fact that society does nothing to alleviate their plight – the word ‘none’ is repeated
to emphasise the passivity of the villagers – leaves the victims with no recourse and therefore no
power to escape the emotional and physical abuse of their captor. The line ‘Grimes is at his exercise’,
quoted directly from the villagers and later used to form the chorus of Britten’s opera, enables
Crabbe to create powerful social commentary about a society that is aware of the suffering of
innocent yet actively encourages it through a gross sin of omission. Further social commentary is
made regarding the power of the victims as Crabbe suggests that their employment opportunities
are frankly appalling, comparing their previous places of work to ‘slave shops’. It is a grimly ironic
message befitting of Crabbe’s unsentimentally realist style that the boys’ only alternative is to work
for Grimes, a murdering psychopath, thus emphasising how society’s lack of assistance nor care has
left the victims without any power or freedom of opportunity.
Both the first victim of Peter Grimes (the father) and the Duchess in My Last Duchess are
elevated prior to their deaths for the purpose of villainising the criminals. The father is the epitome
of the devout and hard-working citizen as someone who ‘left his trade upon the Sabbath day and
took young Peter in his hand to pray’. Although the verb ‘took’ would seem to suggest that he holds
a degree of power over his son, the roles reverse as Grimes matures to the extent where he ‘dealt
the sacrilegious blow’. The verb use has changed and it is now the son who is in control, leaving us in
doubt as to who holds complete power as he has took all of his father’s rights by killing him.
Similarly, the criminal in My Last Duchess is motivated by a desire to reverse power relations as he is
angered simply because ‘she liked whate’er she looked on’. We feel that she was an asset to her
people as a monarch who sought to ingratiate herself upon the people instead of rule as if she were
above them, as was customary of most European royal families of the Renaissance period. It appears
as a great injustice that she lacks the power to dispute the Duke’s allegations that she ‘thanked men’
with the intention to commit adultery against her husband, as we feel that if it weren’t for her
position simply as companion to the Duke then he would not be able to silence her so easily. His
crime is therefore a gross abuse of power that exploits the powerlessness of his victim and the
inability of society to protest against his divine right of rule.
Indeed, through the use of synecdoche, the Duchess is reduced to nothing more than
‘smiles’ which are ‘stopped together’ by way of the speaker’s ‘commands’. The fact that only
‘Victims are always powerless in crime fiction.’ To what extent do you agree with this view?
Arguably, the mistreated victims of My Last Duchess and Peter Grimes together with the
embarrassing entrapment felt by Lola in Atonement establish compelling grounds to suggest that
victims are always powerless in crime fiction. This view is further supported by the unjust and
irreversible crimes of the justice system in Atonement which leaves Robbie to suffer eternal
damnation, although Briony’s depiction of Lola as a willing participant in her ‘entrapment’ must not
be ignored in understanding whether some victims actually hold considerable power.
Perhaps the most unambiguous example of a powerless victim appears in Peter Grimes,
where three young boys are subject to the horrific exploitation of the eponymous criminal. The
unsympathetic narrator does not spare us the graphic details of their abuse, commenting that they
are ‘pinn’d, beaten, cold, pinch’d, threaten’d and abused’; the listing of aggressive, dynamic verbs
emphasises the control that Grimes has over them and the suffering that they are forced to endure
at his mercy. The fact that society does nothing to alleviate their plight – the word ‘none’ is repeated
to emphasise the passivity of the villagers – leaves the victims with no recourse and therefore no
power to escape the emotional and physical abuse of their captor. The line ‘Grimes is at his exercise’,
quoted directly from the villagers and later used to form the chorus of Britten’s opera, enables
Crabbe to create powerful social commentary about a society that is aware of the suffering of
innocent yet actively encourages it through a gross sin of omission. Further social commentary is
made regarding the power of the victims as Crabbe suggests that their employment opportunities
are frankly appalling, comparing their previous places of work to ‘slave shops’. It is a grimly ironic
message befitting of Crabbe’s unsentimentally realist style that the boys’ only alternative is to work
for Grimes, a murdering psychopath, thus emphasising how society’s lack of assistance nor care has
left the victims without any power or freedom of opportunity.
Both the first victim of Peter Grimes (the father) and the Duchess in My Last Duchess are
elevated prior to their deaths for the purpose of villainising the criminals. The father is the epitome
of the devout and hard-working citizen as someone who ‘left his trade upon the Sabbath day and
took young Peter in his hand to pray’. Although the verb ‘took’ would seem to suggest that he holds
a degree of power over his son, the roles reverse as Grimes matures to the extent where he ‘dealt
the sacrilegious blow’. The verb use has changed and it is now the son who is in control, leaving us in
doubt as to who holds complete power as he has took all of his father’s rights by killing him.
Similarly, the criminal in My Last Duchess is motivated by a desire to reverse power relations as he is
angered simply because ‘she liked whate’er she looked on’. We feel that she was an asset to her
people as a monarch who sought to ingratiate herself upon the people instead of rule as if she were
above them, as was customary of most European royal families of the Renaissance period. It appears
as a great injustice that she lacks the power to dispute the Duke’s allegations that she ‘thanked men’
with the intention to commit adultery against her husband, as we feel that if it weren’t for her
position simply as companion to the Duke then he would not be able to silence her so easily. His
crime is therefore a gross abuse of power that exploits the powerlessness of his victim and the
inability of society to protest against his divine right of rule.
Indeed, through the use of synecdoche, the Duchess is reduced to nothing more than
‘smiles’ which are ‘stopped together’ by way of the speaker’s ‘commands’. The fact that only
