love of money – Discipline & Punish

Rosencrantz

mtt3e — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:31:47 +0000

Love of Money- Rosencrantz has everything, unlike many of the criminals in these narratives. He stops being content when he loses money, however. He is willing to risk losing his family, which he says gives him an “unspeakable joy” in order to pursue money.

Return- Rosencrantz can’t seem to stop returning to counterfeiting money, even though he is apprehended almost as soon as he starts. He compares himself to a dog returning to vomit or a cow to mire.

Fatality- Rosencrantz says of continuing to take up crime “that fatality which always attended me, or the evil disposition of my own heart, still pushed me on to my ruin.” He sometimes acts as though something is controlling him (here fate of his heart). He never seems to really try to stop, however.

bloody register

drummerboy — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 21:43:36 +0000

conscience – the awareness of your actions and the consequences that should morally follow; Williams chose to suffer the punishment due to his crime even though the evidence was not strong enough to convict.

list – throughout the entire register there is a recollection of the crimes that each individual has committed. These lists appear to be given as a way to boost up notoriety and fame.

love of money – putting the value of money over the value of anything else that may matter to a person. For example the convict who is a pirate is guilty of murdering a man due to his love of money. In effect the pirate’s desire to marry his girlfriend was overrun by the love of money and in a fit of rage he murdered a man, because he felt that he could not control his mischeivous nature.

buchanan ross brooks

chard3ah — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:16:56 +0000

Money- Mr. Spooner is apparently murdered for money, hired by Mrs. Spooner, and paid with cash kept in a box which is split up among the murderers, a few hundred dollars for each. They also split up some his belongings, such as clothing and his watch. The concept of money, and the willingness to kill for it, is very different from the reasons we saw for murder in the earlier narratives. Patience
Boston and Esther Rodgers killed for more confusing psychological reasons: Buchanan, Ross, and Brooks killed, it appears, purely for money, as they were paid for their crime and did not even know Mr. Spooner.

Conscience- Buchanan says that at the ti me of the killing “I was instantly struck with the horror of conscience”, one of the earliest mentions we’ve seen of the conscience in these narratives (223). Interestingly, this mention of conscience has nothing to do with God and is also for a man who the murderers do not even know.

Warning- Buchanan, Ross, and Brooks conclude their account with the usual warning to youths of how to avoid becoming an executed criminal. They should “avoid bad company, excessive drinking, profane cursing and swearing, shameful debaucheries, disobedience to parents” (224). The three criminals, despite the fact that their narrative is very different from the ones that we have read up to this point, still conclude with the typical repentance, religious talk, and warning to the youth that we have come to expect.