Matt Jewlers Definition Of Murder

The definition of murder in the first degree is: any intentional murder that is willful and premeditated with, by the law of Massachusetts, malice aforethought. This means that one must have the intention to kill, and have thought about killing for enough time for one’s conscious to fully commit to the killing with an evil purpose. So simply by definition, it appears that Matt is a first degree murderer; As we see in the film, his plan was very intricate which shows his forethought, pan out on day where he would have the perfect alibi. He is also the one that pulled the trigger, so surely there was malice in the squeezing of that trigger. All the evidence is there that would put him away for years, or even a lifetime in prison; But now that
all of the facts are out of the way, Matt is not actually a first degree murderer, and there’s evidence to prove so. Though he might have thought about doing so, his intentions were not actually to kill, and you can see it in his looks and actions throughout the film with support in the novella. Thus, it is my duty to prove that what Matt committed was indeed not first degree murder, but rather: voluntary manslaughter. When Matt Fowler comes to mind, one would hardly think of a killer.
Whether he is the owner of a local shop or a a doctor who finally started his career, Matt is a giver and a known all around good person around the tiny community in which he lives in. He has a beautiful family of 5 consisting of: a loving wife, Ruth, his eldest son Steve, his daughter Cathleen, and of course the youngest of the bunch, Frank. Well, he had a beautiful family and a good life, until one August day a person by the name of Richard Strout murdered his youngest son, Frank. Frank was a 21 year old boy with collegiate dreams. Obviously as any father would be, Matt was furious and lost in the world. He did not know what to think and kept to himself. Though initially, Matt had thoughts of doing something to Richard, to what extent is unknown; We hear Willis say “How often have you thought about it?” (5), but ‘it’ was never explained explicitly, so we can safely assume by no means was that a reference to killing. Because let’s face it, killing is far from being in Matt’s nature. As we saw in the film, Matt was doing his best to take legal recourse against Richard. He spent days looking for any evidence that can give him more than the minimum jail time he was going to receive; Constantly hastling his lawyer and even asking around Richard’s friends he was desperate for evidence that would uphold in the court of law. And why would a doctor who has been studying for years to save people’s lives turn that
all around because he wanted to kill Richard. The facts just do not add up. Perhaps Matt was merely a vessel for someone else to manipulate. Richard was after all hatred by many after Frank’s death, but who was hurt the most is the question. We do see Willis do a little instigating, egging on Matt to do something. Willis seems to especially hate the fact that he was so close because we hear him say “I hate him, Matt. My boys went to school with him. He was the same then” (5). But Willis was just an accomplice and not the puppet master. The real puppet master is so obvious that she was hiding in plain sight: Ruth. The sweet mother who could not bear to lose her youngest child at such an old age, it just tore her apart. Don’t be fooled, although her feelings of sorrow were equal to that of Matt’s, she took it upon herself to take control of Matt at his lowest point in his life; She convinced her husband amidst a argument between them that the only way to get past this is to murder Richard in cold blood. Matt is obviously reluctant, but Ruth continues to spread lies, saying how she sees him everywhere and he smiles at her. Matt being as vulnerable as he is, agrees to do something. It is clear Matt is not in a right state of mind and was manipulated by Ruth who took advantage of their son’s death by blaming it all on Matt. Feeling the guilt, Matt agreed under distress. Revisiting the crime scene tells us a lot about what happened.
When Matt took Richard back to his house, Matt stopped and was entranced by the picture of Ruth and her kids “… then down the hall where, near the bedroom door, hung a color photograph of Mary Ann and the two boys sitting on a lawn…” (15-19). He was slowly realizing that Richard had a family, and no matter how evil he was, the man had a family. This image starts to play around in Matt’s head through the rest of plan; He was getting lost in his imagination, thinking about Frank sleeping with another person’s wife. Not to say that Matt starts sympathising with him, but rather begins to understand what his motive was. Then there is the shooting. With everything that's been going on in Matt’s head, he finally realized he did not want to shoot Richard. But obviously he did ended up doing it, but why did he do it. Matt stopped before pulling the trigger, hesitating; This is what everything has been leading up to. His wife, Ruth, her kids, his kids, Frank, everything popping into his head. He almost did not shoot, until Richard took what seemed to be a strut for safety and Matt’s fight or flight instincts kicked in, and he chose fight. Killing Richard was the plan originally, but Matt knew he wasn't going to go through with it, so he thought that killing him there was his only way to accomplish the task. Later Matt goes home to his wife who could only care about the killing: “‘Did you do it?... Are you alright?...
Tell me,’” (22-23). Matt shook her off and starred in the air, contemplating what had just happened and realized he was no better than him. Matt avenged his son, but at what cost? Throughout the film and book Matt struggles with his own thoughts about what to do with his son’s killer. In the film we see him take to himself with his own thoughts; Rather than in the book he is much more verbal. In both iterations we can see the main similarities that show us how Matt did not intend on murdering Richard. Between the hesitation of pulling the trigger, Ruth’s turning Matt into a hitman, or even the simplicity of him admiring a picture of the wall, it was made clear that Matt had no intention of killing Richard in the end. His only cause to kill him was his fear of him escaping while under extreme distress from his son’s death. If none of these factors ever came into play, or Richard just complied, he would still be alive.