Peter Grimes by George Crabbe Flashcards
Summarise Peter Grimes
- Grimes is a fisherman who was a troubled child
- he needs boys to help him with fishing
-he goes to London and ‘purchases’ a boy from one of the orphan houses
- he keeps abusing and murdering boys, three die in total
- rural society turns a blind eye
-he is then told to stop ‘purchasing’ boys
- he then withers and decays, ‘seeing’ the dead boys speak to him
- Grimes dies
Pastoral meaning?
style of literature, lots of nature presented in idyllic way
blissful existence, harmony with nature
this style of writing tended to be a tradition before writers such as George Crabbe
How does Crabbe explore ideas of Rural Life and society?
he shows how rural life is spoiled and tainted by issues such as poverty
crime - this is a contributing factor for crime and criminality, such as how poverty lead to this
enclosure laws
the date of the poem is 1810
- in 1810, parliament passed a general enclosure act, enabled any village where three-quarters of the landowners agreed , to enclose its land - meant fields and common land could be bought - creating legal property rights to land that was previously considered common
industrial revolution
- This poem shows how this impacts on the rural
Heroic Couplets
the poem goes ‘employ’ ‘boy’ ‘fish’ ‘wish’
- after the first three lines
narrative poem
- sequencing of events
christianity
- seeing lots of fisherman, lots of allusion to Christian ideas and holy trinity and ideas of Christ and the disciples
quote from Bible - ‘go forth and be a fisher of men’
- this poem is a ‘Genesis’ of how Grimes becomes a criminal
literary context
The Borough is a collection of poems by George Crabbe, published in 1810
Grimes is set in Aldeburgh, where at the time there was a lot of poverty
in the Borough, Crabbe tries to portray the misery and degradation of rural life in a community affected by economic and social change
setting of the poem
Aldeburgh is a costal town in Suffolk, by the 19th century it’s importance as a port had declined and it mainly survived as a fishing village
fishing was dangerous and income was pretty low
How is Crabbe’s writing effective at showing the truth?
His poetry is more realistic, showing the true horrors of the rural poverty and the effect it had on society
this is perhaps conveyed through the degradation and decay of Grimes
Rural Poverty at the time of Crabbe
1780 - 19th Century - poor relief system was under strain and increasing population of agricultural depressions
people escaped from the difficulties of the countryside through the chnages in manufacturing
poor relief in these towns were lower than in the country
Peter Grimes signals the cost of poverty and how the setting and society nurtured Grimes into a criminal lifestyle
Drinking context
Peter Grimes ‘drank for his relief’
in fishing and mariner communities, alcohol abuse was not unusual
if a society says and does nothing of a crime they are all conscious of - does that justify the crime?
culpability (blame cannot just be put to one person alone, seeing the more holistic picture) and
complicity (onlooker and not acting, done nothing to stop, report and bring justice)
what is the narrative of Peter grimes?
Third Person (our perspective is moved so we can look at Grimes’ perspective but also society) , omniscient narrator
How did Crabbe describe Grimes?
a man ‘untouched by pity, unstung by remorse and uncorrected by shame’
even his name evokes ‘crimes’ and moral ‘griminess’ - name being antonymic of words
religion, retribution and salvation are key aspects of crime in Grimes
form ?
heroic couplets, iambic pentameter - which drives the relentless rhythm of the narrative poem
structurally, how does the poem start?
it starts with a family background environment that Grimes was raised in
- by doing this, Crabbe allows the reader to look at the genesis of Grimes’s criminality
from the first 8 lines it is clear that Old Grimes is very Christian and
what is the Christian allusion at the beginning?
from the first 8 lines it is clear that Grimes’s dad followed a Christian ethos
‘old peter grimes made fishing his employ’ - In the Bible, Peter is one of Jesus’s disciples and they were fishermen - Christian allusion
rhyming triplet at beginning?
‘employ’, ‘boy’, ‘enjoy’
- Christian work ethic here, work hard, supply materials and supply spiritual needs - Christian ethos
‘and seem’d that life laborious to enjoy’ - someone content with their life and was respected
‘he left his trade upon the Sabbath-day’ - a devout Christian and was worshipful
‘and took young Peter in his hand to pray:’ ‘but soon the stubborn boy from care broke loose’
-semantic field of captivity of which Grimes breaks away - what is the motivation behind criminal behaviour
