My Take - The Trial for Murder by Charles Dickens
The Trial for Murder by Charles Dickens is a first person narrative of a paranormal experience by an unnamed narrative. We are told that the narrator belongs to the ‘respectable’ bourgeois class and has led an almost uneventful existence undisturbed by anything unordinary, except this one instance which he narrates.
On an ordinary morning he read a news article about a murder which captured his attention leading him to read the piece twice and more carefully. This inexplicable attraction of the narrator towards the story of the murder set forth a domino effect entangling him into events which were absolutely unconnected to him. He started seeing the apparition of the murdered man and unbeknownst to himself became the murdered man’s medium for justice.
The story is well-written and the narrative is taut. Dickens characteristically wrote a vividly descriptive story. I could easily visualise each event happening before my eyes. However, after the first two-three sections, I felt the plot to be insipid because it became predictable. Nevertheless, the last sentence renders the story open-ended which salvaged the predictability of the last few sections. My interpretation of the murderer’s last sentence is that the narrator initially was so mentally occupied with the case that he unconsciously got involved in it, because the power of mind and mental affiliations are exponentially greater than our comprehensions. I will summarize the story by quoting Shakespeare, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Overall, it was an entertaining story for Dickens seldom fails to entertain his readers. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a short, entertaining, satisfying, supernatural read.
My Rating – 4 🌟
On an ordinary morning he read a news article about a murder which captured his attention leading him to read the piece twice and more carefully. This inexplicable attraction of the narrator towards the story of the murder set forth a domino effect entangling him into events which were absolutely unconnected to him. He started seeing the apparition of the murdered man and unbeknownst to himself became the murdered man’s medium for justice.
The story is well-written and the narrative is taut. Dickens characteristically wrote a vividly descriptive story. I could easily visualise each event happening before my eyes. However, after the first two-three sections, I felt the plot to be insipid because it became predictable. Nevertheless, the last sentence renders the story open-ended which salvaged the predictability of the last few sections. My interpretation of the murderer’s last sentence is that the narrator initially was so mentally occupied with the case that he unconsciously got involved in it, because the power of mind and mental affiliations are exponentially greater than our comprehensions. I will summarize the story by quoting Shakespeare, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Overall, it was an entertaining story for Dickens seldom fails to entertain his readers. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a short, entertaining, satisfying, supernatural read.
My Rating – 4 🌟
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