1) Thirty-two people were sentenced to death in one session. Thirty-two! This would be a great argument against the death penalty. What are your thoughts on that punishment? What does Dickens seem to think of it?
2) How do Pip's actions at the trial and at Magwitch's bedside show he has changed?
3) What will Pip do now that everything he has strived for is over?
1) I think that the death penalty is unnecessary and morally wrong. It is not right to decide if someone should live or die.
ReplyDeletePip is certainly disturbed by this sentencing. To him, it seems almost traumatic. On an aside, when talking about the doomed prisoners, Dickens does not condemn them. Rather, he says that both the prisoners and the judges were "passing on, with absolute equality, to the greater Judgement that knoweth all things and cannot err."(Dickens 491) In this passage, Dickens states that the prisoners and the judges alike are equal. Therefore, I believe that Dickens is opposed to the death penalty, as he is equating the prisoners to the judges, and saying that if the prisoners deserve to die, then so do the judges.
1) I agree with Bokrug. The death penalty is wrong as it is permanent and it is killing people when the justice system says that killing is wrong. Let's say that a man is found guilty of murder and is executed but a few years later there is new evidence and it is found out that the man is innocent. He died for no reason when he could've been put in jail for life without parole. Also the death penalty is ironic when the justice system puts people to death for the punishment of murder.
ReplyDeleteI think Dickens is against it as well. I believe this because, like Bokrug said, the judge and prisoners are equal which do not give the judge, or anyone, any right to decide who lives and who dies. I believe that Dickens is saying that all people are equal and none should have any more power over another like deciding whether or not someone dies. When Magwitch says "My Lord, I have received my sentence of death from the Almighty, but I bow to yours" (Dickens 462) I think Dickens is trying to say that God has decided that Magwitch will die since he is very ill and because of that God is the only person able to decide who will die or live.