Characters

The characters featured in the story “The Case for the Defence” by Graham Greene are Adams, the alleged murderer, his twin brother, the witnesses (Mrs Salmon, Mr MacDougall, and Mr Wheeler), the defence counsellor, the narrator, the judge, the reporters, the crowd. However, many of these characters are only mentioned in order to better establish the setting.

The narrator

The narrator is a reporter who is used to covering crime trials, yet he is astonished by a particular case which ended with an acquittal of a man who, by all evidence, appeared to be guilty: “If you had reported as many murder trials as I have, you would have known beforehand what he would say. And I was right, up to a point.” (p. 40, ll. 15-17)

He has limited knowledge on the events, yet from the way he depicts them, we can conclude that he thinks the accused, Adams, was guilty. He shows no sympathy towards him; quite the contrary: “No one present at the opening of the trial believed that the man in the dock stood any chance at all.” (p. 38, ll. 9-11); “… he was badly out of luck; he might as well have committed the crime in broad daylight.” (p. 39, ll. 10-11)

He considers Mrs Salmon to be an “ideal witness” (p. 40, l. 2), indicating once more on which side he stands in the trial. But even if he is an experienced crim...