Death Wish is a 1972
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by
Brian GarfieldBrian Francis Wynne Garfield is an American novelist and screenwriter. He wrote his first published book at the age of eighteen and wrote several novels under such pen names as Frank Wynne and Brian Wynne before gaining prominence when his book Hopscotch won the 1976 Edgar Award for Best Novel...
.
Paul Benjamin is a
CPACertified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...
in New York and lifelong liberal. However, his staid life is overturned when his daughter, Carol, and spouse, Esther, are attacked by muggers. His wife does not survive the attack, and his traumatized daughter dies a few months after, having been left in a vegetative state. Forced to reevaluate his views, Benjamin becomes paranoid and eager for vengeance.
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Death Wish is a 1972
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by
Brian GarfieldBrian Francis Wynne Garfield is an American novelist and screenwriter. He wrote his first published book at the age of eighteen and wrote several novels under such pen names as Frank Wynne and Brian Wynne before gaining prominence when his book Hopscotch won the 1976 Edgar Award for Best Novel...
.
Plot
Paul Benjamin is a
CPACertified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...
in New York and lifelong liberal. However, his staid life is overturned when his daughter, Carol, and spouse, Esther, are attacked by muggers. His wife does not survive the attack, and his traumatized daughter dies a few months after, having been left in a vegetative state. Forced to reevaluate his views, Benjamin becomes paranoid and eager for vengeance. After purchasing a gun on a trip to the Southwest, Benjamin shoots a mugger who accosts him. Benjamin continues to take justice into his own hands, drawing would-be muggers into traps by using himself as the bait. In one case, he rents a car, pulls it over to the side of the road, and writes an "Out of Gas" sign on the vehicle. He then hides, waiting for someone to steal the car. When some lawbreakers do so, he shoots them.
It is only within the last fifty pages of the first novel that Benjamin slays his first victim. The second novel,
Death SentenceDeath Sentence is the 1975 sequel novel to Death Wish by Brian Garfield.-Plot introduction:Continuing where Death Wish left off, Paul Benjamin has now moved to Chicago after his catatonic daughter died in an institution, a result of the brutal attack that changed Paul Benjamin into a vigilante...
, states that Benjamin murdered seventeen people over five weeks.
Film adaptation
In 1974, a
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
based on the novel was made, starring
Charles BronsonCharles Bronson was an American actor best known for his "tough guy" image, who starred in such classic films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, The Evil That Men Do and the popular Death Wish series...
and directed by
Michael WinnerMichael Robert Winner is an English film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...
.
Characters
- Paul Benjamin- The protagonist of the story, Paul begins to slowly turn to vigilantism right after his family were brutally mugged. Note: In the film version that character's last name was changed to Kersey and works as an architect, unlike the book.
- Jack Tobey- Paul's son-in-law, works as a lawyer.
- Carol Benjamin Tobey- Paul and Esther's twenty-three year old daughter and wife of lawyer Jack Tobey, after the beating from the muggers, her mental state begins to deteriorate throughout the book.
- Esther Benjamin- Deceased wife of Paul Benjamin, little is known about her except that she met Paul back in high school, she and her daughter were attacked offscreen from the book, unlike the movie where the scene is detailed
- Sam Kreutzer- Paul's best friend, he clearly does what he can to help Paul after the event that took his family and his life.
- Adele Kreutzer- Wife of Sam Kreutzer.
- Henry Ives- Paul's boss.
- Bill Dundee- One of Paul's co-workers.
- George Eng- One of Paul's co-workers.
- John Childress- one of Paul's co-workers.
- Lieutenant Malcolm Briggs- Detective who is under investigation on the home invasion of Paul's family.
- Inspector Frank Ochoa- Detective who is on the "Vigilante case" investigation.
- Officer Joe Charles- Officer who was the first at aid and response of Paul's daughter and wife after they were mugged.
- Ira Nermserman- One of Paul's clients of whom owns a big industry.
- Thomas Leroy Marston- The first mugger Paul kills.
- Ames Jainchill- One of Paul's clients that he visits in Tucson, Arizona to get away from New York a few weeks.
- Shirley Mackenzie- A short-lived girlfriend that Paul met and slept with one night in Tucson, it would be the next day after she left Paul, that he purchases a gun.