Peccavi Literary Elements

Literary Fiction, Thriller

Long Stow Village, England during the latter part of the 19th century

The story is told by an omniscient third-person narrator who has access to the characters’ inner thoughts and emotions.

The tone of the novel is serious to convey the gravity and seriousness of the issue tackled. The mood is often dark and mysterious.

The protagonist of the novel is the parson of Long Stow church, the reverend Robert Carlton in spite of his sin. The antagonist is Jasper Musk, Molly’s father who had dedicated his life to revenge against the parson.

The story is that of a fallen clergyman; therefore its major conflict is the redemption of the matter and whether he would regain his former respectability and value first in his own eyes and those of God, and then in the hearts of his former parishioners.

The story reaches its climax when the church is set on fire for the second time. At this point, Carlton had already regained his former respectability among his parishioners, so when he ventures inside the burning church to save Jasper Musk, the reader wonders whether he would make it out, and live as a redeemed and respectable man among his parishioners at last, or would he perish with his old foe in the dreadful fire.

At the beginning of the story, Carlton had confessed his sin to Jasper Musk. In response, the latter threatened him saying that he would kill him. This is a foreshadowing of the ending, for Carlton dies at the end because of his old foe, who caused them both to be trapped in the burning church.

Throughout the story, Robert Carlton seems to underestimate the cruel treatment of his parishioners. Although he had sinned, the inhabitants of Long Stow had no right to punish him, for this was the responsibility of both court and church. They did so, however, and treated him like a cast away, which Carlton had underestimated and regarded as his due and deserved punishment.

"You remind me of Don Quixote," said Sir Wilton's voice.
This is an allusion to Miguel de Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote. It serves as a symbolic comparison of Robert Carlton to a vainly heroic figure.

The text is loaded with imagery of heroism in connection with Robert Carlton. The fallen clergyman of Long Stow is portrayed as a hero by the author by dint of his bravery and physical abilities. When the church caught fire for the first time, he is said to have climbed up to the fire and fought like a fearless man who feared nothing, not even death.

Jasper Musk is the villain of the story, and yet he treats Carlton as such. He accuses the parson of hypocrisy although the latter had confessed bravely for his sin, while he himself concealed his within the folds of secrecy.

The story parallels the progress of two sinners, Robert Carlton on the one hand, and Jasper Musk on the other. While Carlton had chosen the road of redemption and atonement, Musk chose that of revenge and retaliation.

Metonymy:
“Nothing is too bad for me—I deserve the very worst. But abuse my Church you shall not, in my hearing."
Church, here, is a metonymy of religion as a whole.

Synecdoche:
“Musk had been the lessee's bailiff, and had feathered his nest so well that when the whole estate changed hands…”
Changing hands here means changing owners. Therefore hands is used as a synecdoche.

“It abutted directly on the road, grim and rambling, with false windows like wall-eyes,”
Jasper Musk’s house is given, here, the human characteristic of having eyes.