Pride

3 0 6 PRISONS

Lucifer According to Christian tradition, Lucifer, also known as Satan or the Devil, was cast out of heaven for his pride in daring to rebel against God. Lucifer represents pride that leads to one's own destruction.

The shining Bull's Eye of the Court was gone, or it would have been the mark for a

She knows now what it was. It was Pride, deadliest of the Seven Deadlies; the sin of Lucifer, the wellspring of all the others.

MARCARET ATWOOD The Robber Bride, 1993

But the Fontclairs are an old Norman family, and proud as Lucifer.

KATE ROSS Cut to the Quick, 1993

Ozymandias Ozymandias is the name of an imaginary ancient king in Shelley's poem Ozymandias (1819). He enjoyed great power in his lifetime, but his power and works have all decayed over time. The inscription on the remains of a great stone carving of him warns others not to fall into the trap of pride in their earthly achievements because all will crumble to dust after their death:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of king: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Ozymandias can be used to represent hubris.

Maybe he [Orson Welles] suffered from an Ozymandias complex—he wanted to bequeath the world a vast, scattered ruin in order to imply a lost glory. It's true that no ruins were ever so magisterially bewildering.

The Guardian, 1997

Prisons

The names of such 20th-century prisons as ALCATRAZ, COLDITZ, the GULAG

ARCHIPELAGO, and ROBBEN ISLAND have entered common usage to describe

not only another prison but also any institution that resembles a prison in

its regime or level of security. • See also Captives, Escape and Survival.

Alcatraz Alcatraz was a notorious American prison on the island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. Built in 1868, it was originally a prison for military offenders, but was later used for civilian prisoners. From 1934 it held the most dangerous criminals, including the gangster Al Capone. Alcatraz was closed in 1963. Its name has come to symbolize a prison from which escape is impossible.

PRISONS 3 0 7

Conditions are awful inside a new £3m unit designed to hold the country's most dangerous prisoners, says Sir David Ramsbotham, the Chief Inspector of Prisons. The Close Supervision Centre at Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes was labelled Britain's Alcatraz when it opened earlier this year.

The Independent, 1998

Andersonville Andersonville is a village in SW Georgia in the United States. It was the site of a notorious Confederate prison, where dreadful conditions led to the death of over 12,000 Union soldiers.

Bastille The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, built as a royal castle by Charles V, and completed in 1383. Used as a prison in the 17th and 18th centuries, it became a symbol of repression. It was stormed and sacked by the Parisian mob in 1789 on 14 July, now commemorated as Bastille Day, marking the beginning of the French Revolution.

I would fain unite the duties of existence and have my mother at home with me, but alas, fate has arranged it otherwise, and here we are imprisoned as completely as if we were in the Bastille.

CELIA THAXTER Letters, 1873

Black Hole of Calcutta The Black Hole of Calcutta was a dungeon in Fort William, Calcutta. In June 1756, Siraj-ud-Dawlah, nawab of Bengal, reputedly imprisoned some 146 British prisoners there in a narrow cell, 6m square. Only twenty-three people survived, all the others suffocating. The expression is now used to refer to any small, cramped place in which people are trapped.

As I passed Erskine-Brown's open door I could see his room was bursting at the seams, and, as I hung up my hat and coat in the hallway, I heard the voice of the Erskine-Brown say he supposed they'd have to hang on in that Black Hole of Calcutta a little longer.

JOHN MORTIMER Rumpole of the Bailey, 1978

Bloody Tower The Bloody Tower is a nickname for a part of the Tower of London, built 1377-99. It derived its name from the belief that it was the place where the Princes in the Tower were murdered. It also housed famous prisoners such as Sir Walter Ralegh.

Colditz Colditz is a medieval castle near Leipzig in eastern Germany. It was used as a top-security prison camp during the Second World War, particularly for prisoners who were known as likely escapees, and became famous as a camp from which escape was considered almost impossible.

Former residents described Bryn Estyn as the 'Colditz of residential care!

The Observer, 1996

Dartmoor Dartmoor is a high-security prison on Dartmoor, a moorland district in Devon, originally built to hold French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars.

Devil's Island Devil's Island is a small island off the coast of French Guiana. It was used as a convict settlement, initially for prisoners with contagious diseases but later for political prisoners. Its most famous prisoner was Albert