Injustice & complicity

• 'I know at once who we should blame' - ch 1 


  • knows Brooker Higgs & the Derby twins are to blame from the start but keeps quiet
  • self-preservation - doesn't want to betray villagers - but instead means the outsiders are blamed - prioritises personal safety over collective justice - silence perpetuates injustice
• 'We have no magistrate or constable; and Master Kent, our landowner, is just' - ch 1 


  • question justice
  • justice happens according to how master wants it to happen
  • very isolated - no other source of power to turn to - days away from formal justice
  • only source of power is master
• ‘I will have to sit and watch the world. Whatever’s bound to happen when my neighbours reach those newcomers who’ve set up home on the common outskirts of our fields will happen without me’ - ch 1 


  • thinks burns hand - uses as an excuse to go home, physically separating himself from rest of village
  • inevitability something will happen
  • Thirsk cannot take action - he thinks it absolves him from blame but as a reader we know he is holding back the truth so we disagree
  • burning hand is metaphor for passivity - allowing injustice to happen to newcomers
• 'And each of you should have your head shaven, to mark you at as... well, suspicious travellers' - ch 2 


  • simply wants physical lasting indication that these people are not villagers - humiliating assertion of villagers' power over them - dehumanising & othering - exposes xenophobia
  • hesitation shows he is not really sure why he wants to shave their heads - mainly driven by prejudice & fear of outsiders - unjust punishment
  • punishment disproportionate to alleged crime - beyond what is necessary to maintain order
• 'One week, disarmed and bald? A modest punishment' - ch 2 


  • thirk's justifies Kent's actions
  • erosion of moral standards & normalisation of cruelty - minimise their actions
  • hypocrisy in their sense of justice
• 'He shouted 'Murder, Murder!', as I passed' - ch 4 


  • hints at fact older man in pillory has died - this is later revealed at end of chapter when Kent is found 'reciting obsequies and intercessions for the dead' - realise what they've done is wrong
  • death a result of the unjust treatment they receive from Kent & the villagers - ignored their suffering in the pillory
  • contrast between start of new life/ hope with Gleaning ceremony and death/ evil at end
• Jordan arrives & finds Kent at 'the head end of a mutilated corpse' - ch 5 


  • man in pillory has died - exceeds any imagined justice -civilisation in village is slipping into chaos
  • villagers try to 'revive him' - forced to confront the brutality of punishment
  • attempt to relieve guilt by 'wiping off the blood, closing the wounds' - refuse to confront consequences of unjust system - sense of communal guilt but instead of accepting what they have done & seeking change they focus on concealing the evidence, as if erasing physical signs of violence will absolve them of moral responsibility
• 'I must plan provision for myself' - ch 6


  • Thirsk has just been told of Jordan's plans but decides not to warn neighbours
  • further detachment/ alienation from community - fear & change fractures collective bonds
  • instead of rallying villagers to resist, he focuses on securing his own future - self-preservation overrides communal duty when individuals feel powerless
  • fear and uncertainty silence opposition and make individuals complicit in their own downfall - community falling apart, reinforcing impact of enclosure
• 'The cottagers are told, therefore, that none of them must stray a step beyond the barn today' 'Their dwellings and their gardens will be searched' - ch 7


  • cottages will be searched - invasion of private space - police should need legal warrant
  • no regulation by justice system - no magistrate to sign off allowing searching
  • villagers have no say in this - no rule of law
  • freedom restricted because pf fear of threat of major crime escalating
• 'We have forgotten Benefits of Law, Just Punishment' - ch 7 


  • satirical capital letters - ironic
  • has never been benefit, law or just punishment - but villagers are becoming increasingly willing to abandon morality & integrity
  • link to how actions like the accused arsonists or pilloried man which are not grounded in justice but in mob mentality & scapegoat where punishment is excessive & disproportionate - this will only increase
• 'Master Jordan is still looking for ways to save his face and demonstrate his loyalty to justice' - ch 7 


  • justice is being used as a performance
  • becomes detached from fairness or truth & instead is shaped by personal gain
  • Jordan is loyal to his reputation, authority & maintaining appearance of justice - justice is form of self-preservation not fairness
  • someone has to be punished & punishing the powerless maintains the illusion that justice is being done
• When asked whether Mistress B's husband burned the dovecotes Kent 'dips his chin' - ch 7 


  • avoids direct responsibility
  • cannot admit that he condemned an innocent man
  • pins blame elsewhere by saying 'the villagers wanted it'
• ‘There’s something in these shapes and lines, in these casual, un-directed blues and greens, that, for all their liveliness seems desolate’ - ch 8 


  • proleptic of deserting of village
  • underlying emptiness undercuts beauty
  • hints at a world losing its structure - social unravelling taking place - community ties collapsing
• ‘I plead guilty to the charge of being too tight-lipped, though I might say my silence was judicious rather than dishonest’ - ch 9 


  • admits to withholding info - knows he could be seen as complicit or cowardly but is trying to justify it
  • silence becomes a strategy in a world where speaking out can lead to ruin - tension between truth & self-preservation
• 'I know I should have answered them myself… but I was still confined behind my door. I could have shouted, I suppose…' - Kent - ch 10 


  • captures Kent's guilt & moral cowardice
  • attempts to justify inaction - didn't carry out rape but he holds structural power & by failing to speak out he enables the abuses to happen - passivity makes him complicit
  • Crace criticises those in leadership who claim helplessness, using physical or social obstacles as excuses, even though they hold enough influence to challenge wrongdoing
  • failure of those in power to protect vulnerable
• 'my neighbours arrived too late' women already 'tied by their wrists and ankles' - ch 10 


  • failure of community to act until its too late
  • injustice often goes unchallenged until damage is irreversible
  • moment of communal & moral failure
• Kent negotiates deal with Jordan to let women go - 'it is my wish to witness it... to see that widow, daughter, wife walk freely' - ch 12 (end/ pg 190)


  • chance for redemption for Kent to spare women being burned
  • however comes too late - his own complicity in earlier events allowed violence & injustice to happen by giving orders & failing to protect the villagers (esp women accused of witchcraft)
  • silence & inaction enabled abuse & chaos that unmade village
  • simple freedom not enough to restore what has been lost - community is fractured by this deal as results in villagers exodus of village & traditional way of life completely destroyed
• 'I have no doubt that this is him, the stumbler, the Chart-maker, the man who was too oddly brave to turn his back on us' - ch 16 (pg 266)


  • quill was ultimately & powerless, despite insight & moral clarity
  • was under no obligation to stay - paid by jordan to map the land, he could have left before the enclosure took hold but he remained, recognising the harm it would bring
  • those who tell the truth or witness injustice are often the ones who suffer, while the powerful go unpunished
  • no accountability for death - reminder of systemic injustice
  • Thirsk: 'I hold myself responsible. I feel that I have failed the man' - reflects deeper societal guilt - recognition of the complicity in injustice through silence or inaction