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Summary A* AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B CRIME WRITING POETRY ESSAY - 2021 Selected Poems – George Crabbe, Robert Browning and Oscar Wilde ‘In this selection of poetry the victims are always innocent.’ To what extent do you agree with this view?R103,02
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Summary A* AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B CRIME WRITING POETRY ESSAY - 2021 Selected Poems – George Crabbe, Robert Browning and Oscar Wilde ‘In this selection of poetry the victims are always innocent.’ To what extent do you agree with this view?
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Course
Elements of Crime Writing
Institution
AQA
A* AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B CRIME WRITING POETRY ESSAY -
2021 Selected Poems – George Crabbe, Robert Browning and Oscar Wilde ‘In this selection of poetry the victims are always innocent.’ To what extent do you agree with this view?
Received 24/25 marks
2021 Selected Poems – George Crabbe,
Robert Browning and Oscar Wilde ‘In this
selection of poetry the victims are always
innocent.ʼ To what extent do you agree with
this view?
2021
Selected Poems – George Crabbe, Robert Browning and Oscar Wilde ‘In this selection of poetry
the victims are always innocent.ʼ To what extent do you agree with this view? Remember to
include in your answer relevant detailed exploration of the poetsʼ authorial methods. You should
refer to at least two authors in your answer. [25 marks]
Innocence of My Last Duchess and Porphyria.
Porphyria and My Last Duchess not being innocent to their 19th century society.
Innocence of Peter Grimeʼs boy slaves.
Peter Grimes not being innocent but being a victim of society.
Ballad of Reading Gaol – the criminals being the not so innocent victims.
For centuries, critics have discussed the portrayal of victims in crime fiction where certain
interpretations suggest that crimes are more horrific when the victims are ‘always innocentʼ,
while others state that a combination of innocence and complicity in the crime makes it more
realistic and relatable to audiences. In the collection of poetry both aspects of victims are
presented. In Peter Grimes and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, the criminals are both victim at the
hands of society, but also perpetrator. While in Porphyriaʼs Lover and My Last Duchess the
female victims although are irrevocably innocent to modern audiences may have been seen as
complicit to 19th century readers. In this essay I will therefore discuss to what extent in these
poems ‘the victims are always innocentʼ.
As the critic Clyde De Ryals stated the Duke “tells all” in is his “unguarded moment” and in
telling all by attempting to reveal what exactly he does not like about the Duchess he presents
her as an innocent victim of his cruel hand. As the poem progresses the Dukeʼs fragmented
language increases in frequency with more dashes, caesuraʼs and stop-ends which present the
broken language of a broken mind. The climax of the poem is not the murder of the Duchess
where “I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped” but is the Dukeʼs declarative statement that
the Duchess “ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybodyʼs gift”. In doing
this he unintentionally presents the Duchess as a kind and non-shallow woman in juxtaposition
to himself who cares only about power struggles and reputation. It depicts the poems greatest
achievement which is the “decline of an ego through language most subtle and auditous” (De
Vane). The description of the Duchess who found simple pleasure in even the “dropping of the
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