The 5 women were arrested on very vague allegations. “The charges against all of they alleged that they had conspired to commit the offences and wilful damage to property and that they were ‘loose, idle and disorderly persons.” The use of the word ‘conspired’ makes it sound worse than it really is, the most famous being the gunpowder plot. The other allegations, “loose, idle and disorderly persons” are very vague and are not really major offences. It just suggests that they are ‘easy’ women, maybe prostitutes who don’t work for their men, ‘working class’. The main offence was that they had conspired, the police had found during a raid, plans to bomb a house in Leicester, but the items that they actually collected were totally irrelevant to the allegations, such as a hammer and some fuse wire.
The reporter uses specific language to describe the women and the scenes taking place in the courtroom.
“As soon as Nellie Hall took the stand in the box she indulged in an outburst. She said ‘No court has the right to sentence a woman to torture. Since Sunday I have been forcibly fed twice a day.”
The words ‘indulged in an outburst’ prove that this source is hostile towards the suffragettes.
Source C on the other hand isn’t. It is also an article, more obviously than the other as it is set out like a page from a paper. It is taken from ‘The Daily Herald’, Monday June 29th 1914. The paper backed the labour party, who, at that time were in opposition to the current government. This explains its supportiveness towards the suffragettes, this totally political because if they were to support the suffragettes through the rough times then the women will vote for them, if they ever get the vote, putting the labour party back into power. ‘Your enemies enemy, is your friend’
The article describes the way the home secretary Mr McKenna, was trying to break down the women torturing them, this refers to the way that the women had been force fed by the prison officers. The writer likens it to the tortures crimes committed by the Czars in Russia. It suggests that they have no human rights what so ever. The writer uses language to try and get people to feel for the women, ‘hideous brutality’ is a prime example of the article bias towards the women.
It then goes on to say that the people who are not campaigning for the women at this stage are with the government and for this terrible torture.
There are references that she is not a fine lady, an upper class lady, but working class women and there are hundreds of thousands of them just like her throughout the country. If they can get this extra influx behind the labour party then perhaps they can get in to power. As if, if they could group together they could ‘do it’ for the working class women around the country.
It also makes threatening statements towards MP’s saying how they could let this happen to the women, when they are the people that could be voting for you in future elections when women have the vote.
This source generally backs the women and concludes with the statement. ‘Grant the vote to all women’ showing its support, whereas source b is totally opposite showing how irresponsible the women are in a very hostile manner.
