Brighton Rock Flashcards
Pinkie and Hale
. Trapped in Brighton . Responsibility to work . Criminal background: makes them exposed and vulnerable . Killed by Pinkie . Connection to Kite . Aware of their death/damnation
Rose and Hale
. Victims of Pinkie’s violence and exploitation
. Sense of professional duty that leaves them vulnerable
. Out of place/isolated - at Snow’s, in Brighton
Rose and Pinkie
. Young + inexperienced . Effectively parentless . Poverty . Religious otherness - cause for discrimination . Stunted emotionally and physically
Hale and Spicer
. Killed by Pinkie . Trapped in Brighton . Following orders/assignments . Criminal register used against them by Pinkie . Want to go undetected/vanish
Spicer and Pinkie
. Running away: from underworld or legal repercussions
. Criminals
. Trapped in Brighton - distancing leads to their deaths
. Physically express discomfort
Spicer and Rose
. Victims of Pinkie
. Seek to escape to country/idealised perception of what they’re going towards
. Outsiders/on periphery of mob
. Don’t see through Pinkie’s machinations
All the Victims
. Class . Morally compromised . Doomed . Victims of corrupt legal system - no helpful police intervention . Legal system lets deaths go untested
Everyman Character
. Exposed to vices and virtues and picks virtues
. Represents humanity - everyone will be tested + should choose virtues
Physical expressions of fear (H+S)
. “inky nails, bitten fingers” Hale
. “small eruptions” (spots) Spicer
. Both are unaware of what awaits them but are still nervous
. Hale clings to Ida, Spicer tries to leave
Speech (H+S)
. Cautious, faltering, element of apology, conciliatory
. Talk too much
. Contrasts with Pinkie’s laconic speech: sinister subtext, clipped utterances, euphemisms
. Pinkie calls Hale the wrong name - obliterates him in advance
Contribution to plot (H)
. Hale is catalyst: Ida’s motivation, domino effect leads to Spicer’s death
. Brings Pinkie and Rose together, involves Ida with gang
Contribution to Plot (S)
. Spicer adds to cumulative effect of P’s progression into losing control - shows how far P is willing to go, deflects P’s attention from violence that happens to P, emphasises sympathy with him when he’s hurt
. Identify w Pinkie: we don’t know what happens to Spicer at the races
. Gets P to racetrack where he and S are attacked
Qualities (H+S)
. Pitiable, desperate, apologetic/cringing, cowering, craven (Hale begging with Ida), meek, cowed, undignified
. Weak + vulnerable - Everyman quality
. Unintentional consequences (H)
. Betrayal (S)
Responses to H + S
. Conflicting
. Not entirely innocent characters
. They build anxiety through their anxiety - as focaliser we feel what they feel
Criminal Register
. If overheard, can’t be held accountable
. Sympathy for H + S when Pinkie uses it
. Spicer doesn’t get it “You’re too old for this life”
- Awkwardness, trapped animal as P circulates
. Uneasiness, amplifies horrified awe of Pinkie
. P as hunter: cat and mouse with Hale
Cultural context
. Only one train out of Brighton, can’t escape
. Criminal underworld separates from tourist above
. Transient community, no one pays attention to violence.
. Police obsolete
. Poverty - Spicer needs money to escape, pitifully small ambition - Nottingham
Rose in context
. Economics: poverty, she has to work at Snow’s
. Religion: fear of God/damnation, corrupted by Pinkie
- Code between her and Pinkie
. Poor parenting: drives her to Pinkie
. Gender: expectation of marriage, domestic duty, sold to Pinkie essentially
. Limited education: lack of understanding
. Class: aligns her w Pinkie. Everyone here is poor
Rose: not a victim
. Independent focaliser, enjoys married life
. “I have a memory for faces” - threat
. “pride swelled in her chest”
. “detective with cuffs”
. “it marked her possession of him”
. P fears marrying her more than damnation
. “sense of glory” “an army of friends for Pinkie”
Context for Rose
. Popular culture: ideas about romance, love songs and films, unrealistic - “I’ll love you always”
- The record Pinkie gives to Rose
. The depression: work
- Rose is easily exploitable going into work young
. Catholicism: outsider status, encorages submissive idolatry of God, Rose directs this at Pinkie
. Modernism: shifting perspectives, notions of truth
. Social realism: poverty, pity Rose
Rose’s identities
. Focaliser: suggests victimhood (like S + H)
- however shifting focaliser in chap 9, she has power
. Accomplice: enjoys being a mob wife
. Sacked from Snow’s: pray to poverty, Pinkie’s exploitation, works to escape poverty
. Mob wife: not femme fatale but enjoys role
Rose as victim
. “I’ll never leave you” “I love you forever”
. “She belonged to him like a room or a chair”
. “little dingy damaged row [of houses]”
. “the blind, lost face”
. “horror and admiration” Rose at Pinkie
. “I don’t care what you do I love you forever”
. “they couldn’t damn him without damning her too”
Spicer as victim
. “It’s not me, it’s him you want” P @ S
. “His words wilted out like a line of seaweed”
. “You’re too old for this life”
. “What are you smiling at?”
. “small eruptions on the face, the bloodshot eyeballs”
. “as if he were apologising for being alive at all”
. “I’m too old for the game, I got to get out”
Hale as victim
. “It was then Hale realised they meant to murder him”
. “sadly and desperately watching her” [Ida]
. “a little flare of pride went up in Hale’s heart” (job)
. “pride bobbed up again, taunting him” “I’m not going to die”
. “pygmy elephant - before the kill” P stalking H
Role of victims
. Relatable, sympathetic to an extent . Visibly vulnerable . Naive, oblivious . Limited agency/agency taken from them . Susceptible to manipulation . Contrast w villain . Isolated, exploited, exposed, abused, timid, traumatised, defenseless, trapped
