The case against melancholy rests! 19:38 Mar 12, 2015
As Lancsman has just so lucidly illustrated by posting the original text, there is absolutely nothing melancholy about any aspect of this case.
An observer may indeed have become melancholic after aurally and visually experiencing the proceedings, but the handling of the case in all its gory details is the likely cause, much more so than a "melancholy" at the root of the crime as supposed here by others.
It tells of dereliction, hate, brutality and unbridled violence, the voyeurism of observers, the superficial and supercilious attitudes of the judiciary and the media in concentrating on trivia like the style of the ashtray and the dismal/sordid milieu in which the murder happened (or was, perhaps, de facto, the cause), rather than treating the defendant as "innocent until proven guilty" - which the interpreter did.
A couple (or more) definitions of melancholy to be going on with
noun, plural melancholies.
1. a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged; depression.
2. sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness.
3. Archaic. The condition of having too much black bile, considered in ancient and medieval medicine to cause gloominess and depression. black bile.
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