Analysis Of Charles Merrett's Murder By Dr. William Chester Minor

On February 17, 1872 Charles Merrett was shot by Dr. William Chester Minor on his way to work. Charles Merrett was supposedly sneaking into Dr. William Chester Minor's room every night and trying to poison him by way of metallic biscuit. This is the reasoning behind Charles Merrett's murder by Dr. Minor. In Dr. Minors time in the service he had to do some things that were not the most humane or heart satisfying, as you can say about many things to do with war. Dr. Minor was ordered to brand a D on the face of an Irish traitor. After returning home from war he always believed that poor men of Irish decent were breaking into his apartment and trying to kill him. One could say that would be the PTSD of the 1800's. Subsequently Minor was put on trial for the murder of Merrett. Yet he convinced the

jury of insanity and was then sent to a criminal asylum. This is where the other part of the novel comes into action. During Dr. Minor's stay at the asylum James Murray, contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, sent out requests for people to read passages and rare works to find what the early use of common words was. Murray couldn’t get any common word uses, only unusual. To contrast Minor knew just what he was asking for. He then spent much of his time working toward the cause of the new dictionary. In the time span on 20 years Minor has contributed 10,000 words and there early uses to Murray.

This is where the big question comes into action.

Is "The English-speaking world is better off for the death of Charles Merrett." ? The statement is true in my opinion. Without his death Minor would have never been sent to the asylum. Without being sent to the asylum he would've never felt the need or dedication to submit all those words. He provided many necessary words that are in our dictionary today. Without them our dictionary and vocabulary today could possibly be different. I wholeheartedly agree that the author agrees with the statement. If he did not agree with it I do not believe his dedication page would be the same. His dedication page states "To the memory of G.M.". I could only imagine who that could be. Without his death Simon Winchester would have no book at all. He would only have the professor, a boring history of the dictionary. He would be missing the madman, leaving out the only excitement and drama of the whole book. Without it Winchester has nothing but a history of the man who wrote the dictionary. He would not have the PTSD murderer who felt the need to donate his time and knowledge of 10,000 words. The author needed Merrett's death to have a

novel.

Even though death is unfortunate; and murder is very cruel and inhumane, our dictionary wouldn’t be the way it is without it happening to Mr. Merrett. Simon Winchester would also not have a book without Mr. Merrett's death. Its terrible to say death and or murder was and or is necessary but in the case of the Oxford dictionary and this novel it was necessary. As Oxfords site says "The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use". Take the 10,000 words of Minor's and divide them by the total number of words. If Minor contributed 10,000 words and there are a total of 171,476 words today, that means minor contributed roughly 17.15% of words in the dictionary. By one man that’s pretty amazing. Not saying that I find murder or death necessary in any way, shape, or

form; but in the case of Minor V. Merrett the actions that happened were beneficial to the dictionary, later society, and Simon Winchester.