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William Harrison Ainsworth's Going To See A Man Hanged

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Recommended: Critique of William Harrison Ainsworth’s Going To See A Man Hanged

William Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard , serialised in Bentley 's Miscellany magazine, an affordable means of entertainment for the lower classes, from 1839-40; the story fictionalises and sensationalises the events of a notorious real life housebreaker written to entertain. William Makepeace Thackeray’s ‘Going to See a Man Hanged’, published in Fraser’s Magazine, a general interest periodical aimed at the middle-classes, in 1840; written to express Thackeray’s discontent with capital punishment and gives a graphic but factual depiction of a hanging ‘to see the effect on the public mind of an execution’. Thackeray’s essay can be read against the last two chapters of Jack Sheppard where Ainsworth gives a very accurate representation of a …show more content…

Thackeray’s text states; ‘the waves of this mob-ocean laughed innumerably’ and several references to this are used in Jack Sheppard such as ‘for the tide, which poured upon them behind, around, in front, and at all sides’ (JS p. 522), ‘over the sea of heads’ (JS p. 528) and Jack’s body ‘was borne along by that tremendous host, which rose and fell like the waves of the ocean’ (JS p. 530). The use of this metaphor within the two texts are used to show the vastness and strength of the crowds. Thackeray’s use signifies the sheer volume of the event, showing how much admiration and attention the man trespassing is receiving therefore, showing the immensity of support for a criminal. Ainsworth’s use, particularly the first quote mentioned, which preceded with ‘the guards had great difficulty in preserving a clear passage without resorting to severe measures…’ (JS p. 522), expresses the madness of the event as it shows how uncontrollable the crowd was. The metaphor itself suggests the crowd is overtaking the streets and engulfing whatever was around them. It shows the popularity of Jack and the chaos he caused, it is a metaphor for the fame he has gained as this fame has overtaken the city and its

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By doing this he now represents a communist leader. Golding saw that communist leaders lure people in by using promises of protection and freedom and everything they could ever want and then traps them there with fear and punishments. Jack represents this very effectively. He runs away from the main group while promising them games and fun with food. This lures his main friends, the choir away from the other group.

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1. The fall of man on the uninhabited, peaceful, and pure island represents how man is inevitably entropic and anthropocentric. Man is centered on humankind being the most important element of existence which is a threat to the surrounding nature. Jack and his team symbolize the arrogance of man and "mankind 's essential illness," which is the evil inside of us. Hence the creation of anarchy where the boys have the temptation to conquer everything.

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The id, as represented through Jack, needs violence to survive and see itself as superior. The defectiveness of human nature and the desire to hurt is overpowering and Jack represents this darkness in humans. Further in the novel, Jack feels as if he’s “not hunting, but-being hunted, as if something’s behind” him(40).

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A savage, violent, and harmful imagery is created with the use of the words “viciously” and“hurled.” The text is also able to express that Ralph’s injuries were given intentionally by using the phrase “He hurled his spear into Ralph.” This expresses that Jack had full intentions of doing this evil action, out of viciousness and anger. and allows us to see the evil coming out of Jack when put in a situation that he is not comfortable in. The idea of Jack being so young

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Golding characterises Jack as the primary representation of the instinct of violence through the use of a beast metaphor. In extract one from chapter one, Jack is not given a name, instead Golding describes him as a “creature steed from mirage on to clear sand”(line3,page15,chp.1). Jack’s first appearance and impression to the readers is

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