This document received 17/25 (grade A.) It debates both perspectives of the argument and somewhat agrees with the question. It is actually very close to the 2022 A Level exam paper which I took in the summer of 2022.
‘In the selected poems, physical cruelty is presented as the worst crime of all’,
how far do you agree with this statement?
It would not be entirely accurate to say that physical cruelty is portrayed as the worst crime of
all in the selected poems. Physical cruelty in ‘Peter Grimes’ is shown as the worst crime of all as
the criminal abuses children as well as his own father for a thrill. Moreover, his guilt manifests
as a hellish domain where his victims can haunt him in his own mind. On the other hand, in ‘the
Ballad of Reading Gaol’ Wilde focuses on the brutality of the prison system and the corruption
of the justice system. He argues that the most heinous crime is undermining God’s law by
condemning a man to death. Wilde also focuses on the hypocrisy of fellow man as every man
kills the thing he loves and therefore physical cruelty could not be the worst crime of all.
In ‘Peter Grimes’ physical cruelty is undoubtedly presented as the worst crime of all. Crabbe
immediately characterises Grimes as the abuser, even in his youth, stating ‘Nay, once had dealt
with the sacrilegious blow/ on his bare head, and laid his parent low.” The young Peter Grimes’
abusive nature is exacerbated even further when his father is convinced that Grimes would
have killed his mother if she had not died. This sets out a timeline of the gradual progression of
the seriousness of Grimes’ crimes to show there is no redemption for his character. Crabbe
shows this through the use of dialogue to shape Grimes as a heinous criminal who revels in
physical cruelty as ‘some, hearing cries/ Said calmly, “Grimes is at his exercise.”’ Though those
around him know of Peter’s actions, they do nothing to stop him. This may reflect society at the
time and critique their passivity of child abuse as they all seem to dismiss Grimes’ actions,
possibly because they also partake in the same sort of behaviour. This further reinforces an
eroded normality between both society and Grimes which is shown through Crabbes’ use of
violent verbs to highlight what Grimes’ victim went through. Crabbe displays the extensive use
of torture by stating, “Pinn’d, beaten, cold, pinch’d, threatn’d and abused” which mirrors the
slow torture the child went through under the hands of Peter. Furthermore, the fact that
society merely passes this off as Grimes’ exercise invalidates the child’s traumatic death and
again brings the sense of normality for abuse. One could argue that the physical cruelty the
unnamed child went through becomes much more twisted when Peter’s sadistic thrill for the
abuse is known to the reader. His true nature is shown where Grimes is described as ‘the
savage master, grinn’d in horrid glee,’ which pinpoints Grimes’ motive of needing to inflict pain
onto others as a projection of his miserable life because it is euphoric for him. This heavily
contrasts to the end of the poem as Peter’s guilt for his actions manifest as hellish imagery and
results to the quick downward spiral of Grimes’ emotional torment. Crabbe attempts to
verbalise early psychological corruption by stating ‘I thought Demons would have turn’d my
brain.’ Peter’s psychological break manifests into religious imagery as his end is now near – but
hell seems to be even closer to him. This shows that toward the end of the poem Grimes lives in
a prison that he created himself as he is trapped in his own mind. The more crimes he
committed the more his soul was corrupted by what Peter believed to be the devil. Essentially,
Crabbe presents physical cruelty as the worst crime of all as Grimes’ hedonistic crimes resulted
into the devil erupting chaos in his mind, whilst also criticising society as he is never held
accountable for his crimes.
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