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‘In crime fiction, the readers’ interest in a criminal’s motives often outweighs their interest in the crime itself’. Explore the significance of criminal motives in two crime texts you have studied. $5.21
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‘In crime fiction, the readers’ interest in a criminal’s motives often outweighs their interest in the crime itself’. Explore the significance of criminal motives in two crime texts you have studied.
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Course
Elements of Crime Writing
Institution
AQA
I compared Greene's 'Brighton Rock' to Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. I obtained an A* on this essay.
‘In crime fiction, the readers’ interest in a criminal’s motives
often outweighs their interest in the crime itself’. Explore the
significance of criminal motives in two crime texts you have
studied.
One of crime fiction’s many allures is its positioning of the dark and
twisted minds of criminals which the reader is allowed to explore. The
unwavering popularity of the crime genre is reflective of society’s thirst for
an understanding of the criminal psyche, from a psychoanalytical
perspective, in the hope of being able to discern what motivates such
complex individuals to commit their deeply disturbing crimes. On one
hand, Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’ is no exception, spotlighting the various
motives propelling the crimes of the novel’s sadistic antagonist, Pinkie
Brown. The significance of criminal motives is also highlighted in
Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (TRAM), where the author
exposes the actions of a sailor to culminate in his eternal punishment. It
seems that the act of killing an ‘albatross’ exposes how man is incapable
of appreciating the natural world, an ecocritical perspective, and the
readers of the age question the motives of the Mariner. Therefore, both
texts craft motives to add to the overwhelming sense of suspense,
portraying the triumph of the motives rather than the punishment
endured to their respective readerships.
In ‘Brighton Rock’, Pinkie’s motives lay the foundations to both the
reader’s understanding of his character and Greene’s potential social
comment on the contemporary issues he wanted to convey. The initial
motive which the readership is shown is his desperation to escape his
poverty-stricken lifestyle. Pinkie grew up in ‘Nelson Place’, one of
Brighton’s most deprived slums in the 1930s, which is a fitting locating as
it exacerbates Pinkie’s motives as the reader can see why he is so intent
on permanently liberating himself from his birthplace. Moreover, the ironic
epithet attributed to his home ‘Paradise Place’ provides the reader with
further evidence of his deprivation which has shaped and moulded him
into a malevolent criminal, as this life of crime is his only means of
survival. This desperation seems to enable Pinkie to welcomingly accept
the false sense of security offered by the entrapment within a cycle of
crime; each of his crimes seem to provide motivation for the next one.
This is encapsulated when he explains to fellow mob member Dallow,
‘when people do one murder, they sometimes have to do another, to tidy
up’. However, later on in the novel perhaps the readership begins to sense
that Pinkie’s motivation stems from his lack of control, as Greene
highlights, ‘it was as if he was travelling too far down a road, he only
wanted to travel a certain distance’. This metaphor could elucidate that
Pinkie’s motivation stems from a lack of control and it is perhaps the
ambiguity and lack of clear-cut motivation which entices the readership as
we are interested by his character as a construct.
In the case of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, Coleridge deliberately
depicts the ambiguity of the Mariner’s motivation to pique the
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