Elements of crime writing in PG and BORG Flashcards
(12 cards)
How is murder presented in PG?
Crabbe’s poem centres on a murder / murderer where as Wilde’s poem has the murder as it’s backstory
How is murder presented in BORG?
Wilde focuses on the potential for murder that is in all humans - he saw Wooldridge as a simply flawed human.
Wilde shows psychological and physical violence inflicted on all prisoners
e.g. hanging, protests…
How is the criminal psyche presented in PG?
PG is terrified of being punished, and this is portrayed in his physical decline forced upon him by fear, guilt and realisation.
How is the criminal psyche presented in BORG?
Wilde focuses on the thoughts and feelings of the criminal in relation to their punishments.
He also focuses on humiliation, emptiness and shared misery.
How are the victims presented in PG?
Crabbe makes Peter prey on victims who are younger and weaker than himself.
This could link back to his childhood where he felt inferior and powerless against his father and therefore wants to gain it back through the work boys.
How are the victims presented in BORG?
Wilde makes his murderer the victim - a victim of a system claiming to uphold Christian values yet is incapable of forgiveness, denying sinners the possibility of redemption.
How is punishment presented in PG?
There are detailed descriptions of Peter’s torment as he’s punished by society who rejects him, and by the ‘3 spirits’ which haunt him, his sleep is disturbed too.
However, it’s argued that he doesn’t receive true punishment for his actions.
How is punishment presented in BORG?
Wilde instead shows the punishment of criminals through an inside lens for the reader to gain a different perspective.
How is setting presented in PG?
The isolation of the sea reflects Peter’s internal emptiness when he’s exited from his community.
How is setting presented in BORG?
Reading Gaol is a place of suffering where Wilde spent 2 years of his life and had his identity removed.
The prison is grey, oppressive and forbidding, contrasting the small patch of blue the prisoners call the sky, also a place of execution.
How is social commentary presented in PG?
Crabbe criticises workhouses which allow young children to be exploited by people like Peter.
How is social commentary presented in BORG?
Wilde condemns a society which allows punishment capital punishment and a prison system that’s known to allow humans to suffer without hope of forgiveness.
