Plot

“The Case for the Defence” by Graham Greene is constructed around a plot twist: a seemingly guilty murderer escapes a death sentence and is acquitted using reasonable doubt, as his twin brother is brought to his trial. Yet, one of the twins dies in the end, through divine intervention.

Exposition

The setting and the characters are introduced to the readers. We find out what the story is going to be about – a murder trial. An interesting aspect of the exposition is that it creates an element of mystery from the first line: “It was the strangest murder trial I ever attended. They named it the Peckham murder in the headlines, although the old woman who had been battered to death, was not found in Peckham.” (p. 38, ll. 1-5)

Rising action

The rising action narrates how the murder had been committed according to the witnesses, and parts of the trial. The accused man was assumed guilty by the public opinion from t...