This description of a criminal case appeared in the John Bull on March 4, 1848. What type of language does it use to describe the case? What information does it see fit to include? Does the trial in Mary Barton contain similar types of information? Why or why not? Can we hypothesize what would have been the public interest in reading accounts of this type (which were often included in weekly newspapers)?
The first description of the trial is probably the most similar to the description of the trial in Mary Barton. While the article does use some descriptions of the prisoner, it does not employ so much charictarization as Jem’s trial. The article tells us that Myers is “dejected” and “laboring under great mental suffering,” but that’s about the extent the character description. One reason for this could be that this is an article in a newspaper whereas Mary Barton is a novel and has creative liberties. But the fact that both include a bit of character speaks to the importance of character in court cases. This was one defense used by Bridgenorth; he tried proving Jem’s good character. The article uses Ducker’s “bad character” as a reason for clemency.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can think of for the public being interested in these stories is that there is not a huge variety of reading material, so they would find whatever interesting stories they could. Particularly the second article gives more of a drama description of the case.