Peter Grimes or ambiguous the various characters are. Pears was certainly the intended Peter Grimes, and it is likely that Britten wrote the role of Ellen Orford for Joan Cross. The work has been called "a powerful allegory of homosexual oppression", and one of "the true operatic masterpieces of the 20th century", but the composer's own contemporary (1948) summation of the work was simpler: a subject very close to my heart — the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual. Though as the writing of the libretto progressed, certain versions showed Grimes'
John Bryan Grimes Carr. Grimes served as president of the North Carolina Tobacco Growers Association, was a member of the North Carolina Farmers Alliance, and in 1899 was appointed to the North Carolina Board of Agriculture. While serving as secretary of state, Grimes also served on and chaired the North Carolina Historical Commission. John Bryan Grimes John Bryan Grimes (1868–1923) was a North Carolina Democratic politician and farmer who served as North Carolina Secretary of State from 1901 until his death in 1923. He was the son of Confederate Major General Bryan Grimes and the grandson of Congressman John Heritage Bryan. Grimes grew