Unseen Crime Text – Susan Hill ‘Question of
Identityʼ [25 Marker] (number 2)
Unseen Crime Text – Susan Hill ‘Question of Identityʼ [25 Marker]
Contrasting Lombrosoʼs Theory of Criminality – questions about what a criminal should
look like?
The courtroom setting and tension created in the awaiting for the announcement.
The animalistic imagery used to describe the reporters acting as a commentary on society
which enjoys crime (including the reader).
The victims personifying weakness – “three elderly women”.
The extract presents a courtroom drama scene where we await the conviction of the Alan
Keyes, an “ordinary looking man with the unremarkable hands who had strangled three old
women”. The extract explores the tension, drama, and anticipation of the verdict common to
crime fiction focused on the legal system, however the unexpected verdict alongside the
mysterious title of the novel; “A Question of Identity” suggests that this may not be a typical
courtroom drama that reader may expect. Crime elements of the court setting,
commercialisation of crime, victims and even what a criminal is and should look like are all
explored. In this essay I will therefore discuss the significance of this extract in relation to the
genre of crime fiction as a whole.
As the extract begins the focaliser and reflector Charlie and his partner Rod are described as
being “pressed against the doors poised like greyhounds in the slips”. It becomes clear that
they are reporters yet the authors zoomorphosis of them and use of animal imagery to describe
how they await the verdict correlates them to dogs waiting to pounce on a feast, good story. It
introduces an aspect of crime deeply discussed by critics – which is the commercialisation of it
introducing questions of whether it is moral or amoral to sensationalise crimes, an element of
crime which became popularised in the 19th century in Victorian England, and profit from them.
It also produces a direct metafictional attack at the reader who the author ironically confronts is
exactly like the reporters in terms of witnessing the crimes “better than any film, better than any
book” as it induces the emotions of “joy, relief, and exhaustion” when finished acting as an
almost ‘cathartic outletʼ for the readers repressed emotions. Through this reflection on the
morality of crime writing as a genre the significance of the extract can be seen in allowing the
reader to reflect on this idea.
Furthermore, Hill plays upon the common element of tension and anticipation within the extract
through the many short sentences which increase the pacing of the extract suggesting an
element of pressure in the scene. By introducing the conflict of whether Keyes is guilty or not a
question is introduced which the reader hopes to get an answer to but must wait and continue
reading to discover the outcome. It is important to realise that the extract immediately attempts
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