Justice and punishment in two short stories: 'The Black Veil' and 'The Melancholy Hussar'

The aspects of justice and punishment in the ‘Melancholy Hussar’ is in the Navy, and you could be demoted for being two minutes late, and shot if you tried to desert the Navy, and in’ The Black Veil’, the aspects are retribution (a repayment, especially in the form of punishment) Charles Dickens is writing about the cruelty of state punishments, and if you were poor, you weren’t allowed to steal food for your family, because the law came down on you very seriously.

The punishments were severe because it was a violent age, so the law believed in punishing harshly. E.g. if you set fire to a haystack you would get hung. The law weren’t interested in fairness it reflects the harshness of the time because there was no welfare state to help the poor. Poverty was regarded, as your own fault so there was little help. These who committed crimes were punished severely rather than helped.

There are no links that I can see, except from that the punishments were severe, whether you were in the military or a civilian the death penalty was very common. Hangings were common and used as entertainment and examples for other criminals.

The writers are making a deliberate political comment on the cruelty to people who were poor and did not provide any thing to poverty, so they turned to stealing food, this had harsh consequences.