The context of "bloody" in the Lusk letter

[JTRSickert]

Hey everyone,

I had a question about the "From Hell" letter and it may seem maybe stupid to ask but I just wanted to clarify something. In the note, it says "I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wait a whil longer." My question is how do you think the context of the word "bloody" is being used? Do you think the author is referring to the knife literally dripping with the victim's blood? Or, is he using the word in a vulgar sense, like how we hear British people often use it as a harsh adjective? Example:

"Look at them! Bloody Catholics. Filling the bloody world up with bloody people they can't afford to bloody feed!"
-Graham Chapman, Monty Python and the Meaning of Life.

let me know what you think.

[Howard Brown]

JT:

I personally think he meant it in the sanguinious sense...not the correlative of the word we hold near and dear to us in the City of Brudderly.

Anyone else ? Or are you all too bloody busy ?

[JTRSickert]

Also, remember, today, "bloody" is not really a very harsh word in the UK, Ireland, and Australia, but back in Victorian London, it was considered just as bad as we say the s-word or f-word and it's relatives today. So, perhaps, the writer was meaning to be vulgar in order to sort of make the public gasp.

[Howard Brown]

I agree JT...not that I'm "right", but I think it would be just as disturbing to see that word in either context...

[Chris G.]

Hey everyone,

I had a question about the "From Hell" letter and it may seem maybe stupid to ask but I just wanted to clarify something. In the note, it says "I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wait a whil longer." My question is how do you think the context of the word "bloody" is being used? Do you think the author is referring to the knife literally dripping with the victim's blood? Or, is he using the word in a vulgar sense, like how we hear British people often use it as a harsh adjective? Example:

"Look at them! Bloody Catholics. Filling the bloody world up with bloody people they can't afford to bloody feed!"
-Graham Chapman, Monty Python and the Meaning of Life.

let me know what you think.

The Jack the Ripper letters are full of threatening and ominous language. To me, I think it is evident that "bloody" refers to the bloody act of murder and the fact that the knife was bloody when the crimes were done.

Chris

[JTRSickert]

See though, I think if he was going to say that, he would've said something more like, "I may send you the knife with some blood on it if you only wait." However, like lots of things in this case, it is open to interpretation.

[Chris G.]

See though, I think if he was going to say that, he would've said something more like, "I may send you the knife with some blood on it if you only wait." However, like lots of things in this case, it is open to interpretation.

Hello JTRSickert

This might seem like a flip answer, but they could have equally said

"I may send you the flipping knif that took it out if you only wait a whil longer."

That doesn't say much though does it? Contextually, I think real blood is meant not the cursing meaning.

All the best

Chris

[Caroline Brown]

I have always taken it for a double meaning - a little play on words.

It's in keeping.

A very practical joker.

The bloody knife was bloody - wasn't it?

Ha bloody ha (as we say this side of the pond).

Love,

Caz
X

[JTRSickert]

Has the vulgar adjective "bloody" ever been used in a literary sense? Like, does it appear in any letters by individuals during the Victorian period?

[Howard Brown]

The word "whore" or a derivative is used over 110 times in the Maybrick Diary...how's that for editing,eh? ( I can't believe that I counted them once thinking I was an original....but here, SPE counted them too...the bastid).

There are probably instances of the word used in diaries and memoirs and the like in the LVP. I don't know of any offhand, but then again English be my second language...love bein' the first.

[Chris G.]

Has the vulgar adjective "bloody" ever been used in a literary sense? Like, does it appear in any letters by individuals during the Victorian period?

There was a certain primness in writing in the nineteenth century to the extent that people would write "d____d" rather than "damned." It's possible that you might similarly see "bl__dy" instead of "bloody" as well.

Here's what Google has to say on the matter of the use of swear words in Victorian times.

Again, I would contend that in the Lusk letter the main intent was to shock by describing the knife as literally bloody.

Chris