Analyse af Graham Greenes 'The Case for the Defense'

In The Case for the Defense by Graham Greene, the story takes place in a courtroom during a murder trial. The court where the trial takes place is near Peckham in southern England. The story doesn't just tell you that there's a bus. The Case for the Defense could have been set anywhere between the early 20th century. But if we use our common sense, we assume that the story is set in the late 1930s, which is when it was written. Otherwise, the story would most likely have had some futuristic hints.

The Case for the Defense is set in the past because the entire story is written in the past. Therefore, the story contains many flashbacks that show us scenes other than the courtroom. Mrs. Salmon's eyewitness accounts bring the scene to a residential street called Northwood Street, where Mrs. Salmon herself lives at number 15. This gives us readers two settings: the courtroom and the crime scene/location where the eyewitness account takes place.

The language contains many legal terminologies, making it clear that we are witnesses to a serious but strange situation. Sample text: "This wasn't one of those circumstantial cases where you feel the fear of the jury - because mistakes were made - like silence muffling the court."