Category: Guilt

When People first read or hear about Romeo and Juliet they think that it is merely just a classic tale of romance and hardship. But when we actually look through the story we are able to see that many people are truly involved in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. For instance; their parents, for continuing the feud between both families which started for some unknown reason, Mercutio one of Romeo’s most trusted friends, for taking Romeo to the ball where he first met Juliet, and even Romeo and Juliet themselves, for being blind to their own foolish and childish actions to see what being in “love” with each other would actually do to them. Yet, the person who comes up the most when it comes to the incidents that occur in this story has to be Friar Laurence. A man who may seem like a simple Friar with nothing more than good intentions throughout the whole story, but if we take a closer look into the role that he plays we can actually see that this man may have more to do with putting the young lovers into their own demise them helping them get away from it. As we stroll along through the story we are actually able to see Friar Laurance’s mistakes slowly fold out and how he truly affected the play. For starters, he kept Romeo and Juliet’s relationship a secret from everyone and even got them married for his own reasons, and he also left Juliet alone in the Capulet’s tomb, giving her an opportunity to kill herself. He also was not able to communicate and coordinate his plan with Romeo, which was very important to the survival of their relationship and themselves later on in the play. If he had actually had coordinated with Romeo about the plan or with Friar John about when and where the letter would be delivered to Romeo, or if he had stayed with Juliet like he said he would then maybe the two lovers might have had their happily ever after.

Let’s start at the beginning of this tale where we see Friar Laurance’s first mistake. When Romeo first comes to Friar for advice after he had met with and fallen in love with Juliet at the Capulet masquerade party, the Friar tells Romeo about how he shouldn’t rush into things and think through his decision. He is shocked that Romeo has gotten over Rosaline so quickly, seeing as how he was complaining a lot about her and his love life early on in the play, but later on, Friar Laurance sees how the marriage of Romeo and Juliet will actually benefit Verona in some ways and so the next day he marries them. “Friar Lawrence: ‘Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!

Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine Hath washed thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! How much salt water thrown away in waste To season love, that of it doth not taste! The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears, Thy old groans yet ringing in mine ancient ears. Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit Of an old tear that is not washed off yet. If e’er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine, Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline. And art thou changed? Pronounce this sentence then: Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.’” What the Friar could have done differently was really to talk Romeo out of making this type of decision. Friar Laurance was supposed to be the calm voice of rationalism and be the one to set things straight between the issues of Verona but in this case and many more to come, he was not doing that at all. Friar Laurence knew that their love is really just two teenagers being silly and that this likely to end just as the first one did for Romeo. Yet, he still agrees to get the two of them married in secret by the next day overlooking the fact that he knew that it would most likely end badly. And even if his intentions were good-hearted because he hoped the marriage would end the feud between the families, in reality keeping the marriage a secret only made things worse. Maybe if the young couple alongside with Friar Laurance, who is ideally an adult that they trust, had come up to them with the idea that Romeo and Juliet were in love and wanted to get married (A.K.A being open to them about the idea with their families before jumping to get married) then maybe the family feud would have stopped for the happiness of the children which would have brought a new era of peace to them and to Verona. But this sadly was not the case, instead of this much more thought out plan Friar Laurence oversees the now and looks into the far future to see what might happen when Romeo and Juliet get married. This was merely the first domino that would really test what Friar Laurance’s role is in this tale of woe.

Secondly, when we go further on in the play when it was time for Juliet to marry Paris, we see another mistake that was taken by Friar Laurance. Though, this one seems to be a much bigger one for him, even if none of the characters realized it. A few nights before Juliet was to marry Paris, Friar Laurance gave Juliet a potion, a very powerful potion. He gave her this potion with the intention to put Juliet into an extremely strong coma, so much so that it would seem like she was dead. Juliet was ready threatening to kill herself because she did not want to betray her new husband Romeo. ‘Be not so long to speak. I long to die If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.” Juliet was putting Friar under a lot of pressure to give her a solution for the terrible situation she was in. Friar must have felt that he had to think quickly and “effectively” to help Juliet, but the solution he gave her was very, ill-advised and because doesn’t promise that the potion will work as he wants it to, and sure enough, it didn’t. The Friar made a very uneducated decision when he decided to give a mentally unstable girl, (who was threatening to kill herself just a few moments before he gave her the potion) a potion so powerful it will put her in such a deep sleep it will fool everyone around her that she is dead. Even worse he didn’t even know if it would work, because the potion alone could have killed her. Juliet then shows multiple fears before she drinks the potion. She fears she will wake up too soon before Romeo can get to her, and that she’ll wake up and suffocate in the vault. She also fears that she will go “Mad” from waking up in a tomb and seeing all her dead ancestors along with her cousin Tybalt. Even though Juliet is really scared about going through with the plan, Friar Lawrence takes the risk anyway and gives her the potion anyway.

It is true that Friar Laurence has much to be blamed for, but the nurse of the Capulet household is another member of the of this abnormal tale who can be blamed for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. She was Juliet’s trusted friend. The nurse also sent letters to Romeo for Juliet. She helped Juliet when she was going to marry Romeo, but when everyone heard that Romeo was banished from Verona, the nurse really began to push Juliet into marrying Paris. Even if Juliet or the Nurse didn’t realize it, the nurse was actually going to let Juliet make a life-changing decision Juliet never wanted to take, that is a pretty harsh thing to do to someone who you consider your own daughter. Obviously, some of the blame also has to be placed onto Romeo and Juliet themselves. They were young and quite foolish. Instead of trying to figure out a way to make their relationship work, they both killed themselves. All things aside, this isn’t a very rational decision no matter who you are, or what age you are. They have to be held responsible to some extent. Going back to the fight with Tybalt we clearly see Romeo refraining himself from telling Tybalt what happened between him and Juliet because he probably knew that that might have made Tybalt even angrier than he already was and this made Romeo present himself in a terrible way ultimately leading to Tybalt’s death. Even with all this it still does not match to what Friar Laurence has pinned against him seeing is as to how he failed to be a rational adult or how he dropped the idea of Romeo being silly and moving on to quickly. There may be much to blame on other people but Friar Laurance still shows that in the “Blame Game” he still has many things to explain.

In the story The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne has a plethora of thematic subjects, but the one that sticks out the most is the nature of sin, guilt, and blame. From start to finish the idea of sinning, and an inner guilt is prevalent in the entire story. Every character has something that they are holding in or have something against another. To go along with the obvious, Hawthorne presents the theme in many symbols and situations to make it pop out even more than the reader can even grasp at the surface of the information. The overall theme that stuck out as far as this topic is concerned is to not have the blame that others put on one for their sin let their guilt eat them alive, and define who they are.

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne, the characters develop the ideas of sin, guilt, and forgiveness in multiple ways. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister of the town, who is loved by so many, lives with an insane amount of guilt for an act that he had committed years prior. Dimmesdale is the father of Hester’s daughter, and if the town knew he would be seen as a sinner as well. Knowing this Dimmesdale lives with an extreme amount of guilt and starts to blame himself for all of Hester’s issues, even though she was just as much a part of the incident as he was. Dimmesdale couldn’t live with his guilt so much, that it caused him to go insane. “It is inconceivable, the agony with which this public veneration tortured him” (98). This quote is showing how the guilt was eating up Dimmesdale internally knowing the backlash it would have if he were to admit it. “In Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge. Oftentimes this Protestant and Puritan divine had plied it on his own shoulders.”(99). Dimmesdale got so built up with guilt he would start to stress, have nightmares and harm himself to make up for his sins. He did end up confessing to his sin at the very end of the story, but because he held it in for so long he became sick, and he died as soon as he admitted to the sin.

The setting of the story The Scarlet Letter lays out a perfect dystopia for the theme to thrive in. Taking place in Boston, Massachusetts in a very Puritan society, the acts committed by the characters in this story make for the community to be very judgmental and cause the characters to feel guilt and know that they have sinned. For example, the act of adultery is a very serious crime in the Puritan religion, and once the community found out about Hester they automatically see her as a sinner and Pearl gets the same treatment, “How strange indeed! Man had marked this woman’s sin by a scarlet letter, which had such potential and disastrous efficiency that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were sinful like herself” (61). Even though Pearl doesn’t know why, she knows that the community blames something on her and her mother, but she feels angry about it, not guilty, so she retaliates in ways, instead of feeling guilty as most of the other main characters do. The town really judges the sinners and Hester and Pearl get it the worst. Because of this stigma that society has on Hester and her child. Dimmesdale feels guilty for being apart of such a thing, knowing the people of the town (who loves him so much) are going to look down upon what he has done. “ I, your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie!” (99). At this point in the story, Dimmesdale, knowing how judgemental the community he lives in is, he feels that he must tell them before they find out and he gets the blame even worse. This is another point relating back to the theme as Dimmesdale being eaten alive by his paranoia from guilt on how the community will view him.

Imagery created from the symbols in The Scarlet Letter is everywhere as one reads. The symbol used throughout the book that represents the blame and judgement of the townspeople towards the sinners, and the guilt of the ones who are stereotyped as sinners is the scaffold. The scaffold seems to be a part of every deep scene in the book where one is getting a verdict or revelation. In the opening of the book Hester is on the scaffold awaiting her verdict, “Meagre, indeed, and cold, was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders at the scaffold.” (35) and that is when she is first pronounced a sinner by the community. Later on when Dimmesdale is described as “ Thus, while standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast right over his heart. On that spot, in very truth, there was, and there had long been, the gnawing and poisonous tooth of bodily pain.” (102). Starting to be overcome with immense guilt he goes back to the scaffold by himself to give himself the idea that he is the one to blame for the sin, and he breaks down because of all the guilt built up. This is another example of Hawhtorne’s main theme as Dimmesdale Once again, because of being at the scaffold which represents all the sins and judgements that the town has put on people he becomes weak because of the guilt he keeps inside of himself. The last scene of the book happens on the scaffold as well. In this scene Hester is awaiting her new verdict as to whether or not the letter should be removed. The town has stopped blaming her so much for sinning, and Hester really has no guilt left inside her. On the other hand Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are there as well. Chillingworth who doesn’t want people to know the secret because it will allow Hester and Dimmesdale to live happily ever after is sitting there built up with the guilt, knowing that he can’t have Dimmesdale do that even though that is the right thing to do for both Hester and Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale also has the guilt built up inside him on the scaffold, and it causes him to do the act that Chillingworth feared so much, “With a convulsive motion he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed!” (175). He confessed to his sin, and let all of his guilt out, just so people know not to blame Hester anymore. This sums up the last action of the book and it so happens to happen at the scaffold. The scaffold was there in Hawthorne’s vision, not as just a setting in the story, but as a symbol admitting sins, and being open about problems. This symbol is Hawthorne telling the reader to find their place to let their problems out, and not hold it back because in this case, because Dimmesdale let this out it made things clear up and let everything go to the way they should have been.

Nathanial Hawthorne paints a perfect picture to a reader of a dystopian Puritan society in his book The Scarlet Letter. The true guilt that grew on to people because of the very Puritan, judgemental community at the time makes for a theme that is universal to everyone. He pinpoints his theme of being open, and not letting guilt from other people’s blame eat one alive. From the characters, to the setting, to the deep symbolism in the story, Hawthorne hits all sides of a story, and presents readers with some real life wisdom.

On the 18th of January 2017, Björn Höcke, a leading member of German right-wing party AfD, sparked an outcry through his criticism of the Holocaust memorial, or what he sees as “a monument of shame”. Hocke’s erroneous arguments for Germany to stop atoning its Nazi past were, naturally, faced with widespread criticism. However, it was the replica of Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial secretly erected outside the home of Höcke, as a form of protest and rejection of his beliefs, that proved this to be a salient moment of realisation – the seeds of collective German guilt had been sowed deeper than anticipated.

At its core, guilt is an interiorized self-concept and an experience of repression. Historical guilt has been deeply entangled into our identities; one is destined to be marked as either a victim or descendant of oppression. There is a dark side to all history. All our ancestors simply cannot be painted as plaster saints or images of perfection. This makes the perennially asked questions around guilt somewhat insoluble. Will America face up to the ghastly reality of slavery? Will Serbia ever indicate any form of guilt for the Kosovo War? When will the Turkish government recognise the horrors of the Armenian genocide as empirical truth? An archaic moral problem prevails: to what extent are we morally responsible for the wrongdoings and blunders of our past governments or leaders?

Guilt, at its core, remains an issue of identity. Thousands of years of the paradoxical progression in both war and civilisation has conditioned humans to a tendency of viewing the world and others around us through a kaleidoscope of past struggles or prosecution. Thus, making us quick to draw the line between history’s vicious oppressors and destitute victims. This only morphs the complicated issue of guilt, and the relation to identity, into sheer absurdity. It is the overriding issue of responsibility that interconnects guilt and identity. April 2015, for example, marked the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917, where 1.5 million Armenians were killed by direct killing, malnourishment and odious torture. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 fled into permanent exile in Russia – an ancient civilization was obliterated from its homeland of 2,500 years. Yet in Turkey, these events have never been officially recorded and acknowledged as truth by the government. Turkey’s wilful historical blindness is closely attached to the beginnings of Turkish identity, a concept vaguely lost in time somewhere between the Ottoman and Byzantine empires. Turkey has ultimately considered themselves successors of the Ottomans instead of successors of the Byzantines, making their attempted detachment or association of the genocide as Ottoman almost intractable. Despite this, one universal truth remains and that is, as Taner Akçam puts it: “The attempt to justify and rationalize the death of a whole nation” still “must itself be considered a crime against humanity.”

Historical blindness and willful denial of events has grave consequences, it is the “wounding instrument” of guilt; making it hard for victims to feel connected to their culture without “defining oneself in opposition to it.” Internalised guilt through wilful historical blindness “strives to reshape history in order to demonise the victims and rehabilitate the perpetrators”. It is this tendency to demonise the victim that makes up the initial mark on the intrinsic sequence of historical guilt. This seems to be more palpable in the first years after events that stimulate the nerving wave of guilt. In the case of the recent war in Kosovo, which only officially ended 20 years ago, there is a clear inability to deny the ICTY’s estimated 13,500 deaths of Albanians in Kosovo and thousands of incidents of rape and torment. This is due to the reality of the intervention of NATO-led by the United States, in order to “reverse the continuing human-rights abuses that were being committed against the citizens of its Kosovo province” on March 23rd, 1999. It seems that Serbia has dealt with the burden of guilt through demonising Kosovo’s victims or adopting the tendency of demeaning the real atrocities of the war in Kosovo. However, ironically, it is also guilt through complete denial or rejection of the past wrongdoings of our governments, that seems make up the astronomical pinnacle of internalised guilt. It must take vigorous humiliation for one to make the choice to completely wipe out the dark parts of a nations’ history – only so that the onerous weight of guilt becomes more bearable.

Clearly, “the ideological conception of a victim makes such a phenomenal difference in terms of social practice.” Due to the enormous progression in the proving of integrity of past events, our perception of ‘the victim’, in this relentless cycle of stamping history’s tyrants and victims, has changed. The very conception of a victim proves challenging in some instances; however, it is a line that historical guilt seems to draw fairly easily. Yet, the creation of a dual dimension of victims and oppressors is all-encompassing. In recent years, this has led to a self-flagellant form of guilt – nowhere is this clearer than in “white guilt”, a force that has strived from the “knowledge of ill-gotten advantage” and benefitting from an immoral system. It has been 154 years since the end of slavery in America. Yet, the encumbrance of the reality of the horrific reality of slavery is deeply rooted to the appreciation of the existence of “white privilege”. Whilst this is necessary to the psychology of white guilt and historical understanding, privilege is not inherently bad; it is what we do with it and how we use it alongside our historical guilt that brings about change.

A united slogan of second-generation and contemporary Germans has been: ‘Collective guilt, no! Collective responsibility, yes!’. This view of moral responsibility raises more moral implications as the responsibility and burden of guilt is quickly embedded into a whole nation. Do those who acted on the decisions made by those in power or even those who did nothing to protest or stop the bodies of power bear significance? In the words of John Stuart Mill, “A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case, he is justly accountable to them for the injury.” This is notably tangible when it comes to collective responsibility and historical guilt. How is it that guilt still manages to be experienced by generations after those who committed the various misconducts? It is true that specific individuals who centralised and held power in the case of Nazi Germany, such as Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler and Eichmann share an undeniably fundamental degree of personal responsibility towards the Holocaust. However, where those who signed Hitler’s Nazi “Final Solution” order more guilty than the guards at Mauthausen, who tortured 197,464 prisoners. The imprint of guilt is pervasive. Yet it cannot be fully attributed to one individual or vessel of power as the essence of guilt lies in the distribution of responsibility. Rarely is it the case that a single serpent blights the garden of Eden.

Theoretically, history and events of the past should be locked away tightly with a layer concrete. However, this simply cannot be the case as the continuous element of history intensifies once the omnipotent burden of guilt takes over; making historical interpretation susceptible to mutation of sequences of events. The nature of guilt over history was proven to be profoundly complex due to the moral questions on what constitutes guilt, what establishes responsibility and how these are interconnected. Atrocious ethnic crimes of the past have inevitably become disembodied. Rarely is there idyllic existence and condemning the past and gaining a feeling of ‘guilt by association’, without stepping up for the choices we make every day, proves hypocritically futile.

The essence of guilt undeniably involves a morphing into outbursts of interrogations of moral responsibility. This becomes entirely burdensome when we consider the fact that guilt does not have a set ‘expiry date’ – it lacks a ‘half-life’. Nevertheless, the presence of guilt through the course of history will remain a core aspect of our personal and national identities; we are bound by common guilt in one way or another.

Everyone has at least gone through one moment in their life that really leaves a lasting impact on them. It’s what shapes an individual and their perception of the world, as well as how they view themselves and their actions. The novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a historical fiction that introduces its readers to the tragedies of war and childhood regrets. The novel follows a young Afghan boy named Amir, who one day abandoned his friend and, unknown to him, his step-brother at the mercy of childhood bullies, to which they subsequently did away with. Amir would be haunted by this event for many years of his life, seeking retribution for himself that he believed he deserved. Suddenly, his perspective of the past changes when the revelation of Hassan being his brother is revealed to him. The Kite Runner has many interesting interpretations, but the one that most sticks out is how Amir copes with his past and how disturbed he is by it. It’s no doubt that the novel revolves around him, but what the reader doesn’t know much about is the extent to which this revelation affects his perspective of the past and how he processes guilt. The novel progresses over the course of several decades that show the beginning of Amir’s whole ordeal to the end, where he’s finally living a happy life, enlightened and complete.

This revelation had a much bigger impact on Amir’s perception of his past than one might think, in which his state of mind completely changes from beginning to end. There are three significant moments to which Hosseini conveys this deep level of character development and change that make the revelation of Hassan being Amir’s stepbrother much more significant than us readers realize. First, the time when Amir demanded Hassan to punish him, but ultimately never got it. The second being the revelation that Hassan was his secret stepbrother. The third is when he finally faces off with Assef and rescues Hassan’s now orphaned son, Sohrab, from him. These three different moments represent the major evolutions of the stages of Amir’s overall life, and would gradually change how he dealt with his guilt and how he perceives his past as he begins to understand and experience different aspects of his life, some hidden, that slowly made his way into his knowledge.

To fully understand Amir’s mindset throughout the novel and his evolution as a character, one must know about the trigger point that began it all during his youth.

Amir had a lot of regrets as a child, but the moment that he left Hassan behind in the alley was the most significant part because it was the one memory that gave him a lifetime scar that would take him a long time to get over. Facing childhood bully Assef and his gang in an alleyway, and with Hassan in their possession, in his mind, he thought to himself, “I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan–the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past – and accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run. In the end, I ran” (Hosseini 77). It is then that Amir is faced with a dilemma. He could either jump in and try to save Hassan and risk sharing the same fate as him, or he could run away and let it all happen. Instead, Amir decides to run and allowing Hassan to get raped. He had the opportunity to return the favor of Hassan having his back all those times by standing up for him, but he refused to take it. Understandably in the real world, one would run away in the face of overwhelming odds. However, if it involves someone like a friend or family member, then it’s a whole different story. Furthermore, having this be done on an individual that is close to oneself can be pretty traumatizing, and psychologically, it can be long-term. In Amir’s case, this moment would scar him for years to come. The lifelong guilt that he would endure would eventually lead him back to making a return trip to Afghanistan, to try and amend the sins he had committed as a child.

Despite being abandoned, however, Hassan refuses to punish Amir, which only builds on the amount of guilt and trauma Amir had accumulated from the alleyway incident. This immediate interaction Amir exchanges with Hassan would also contribute to Amir’s later perception of his past. Not only did he not receive the punishment he believes he wanted, but he also was gifted with a lifetime curse that would turn him into an insomniac, not being able to get the thought of his mistake out of his head. One moment while with Hassan at this time, he thought to himself, “I wished he would. I wished he’d give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I’d finally sleep at night. Maybe then things could return to how they used to be between us. But Hassan did nothing as I pelted him again and again” (Hosseini 92). The significance of this was that this interaction was a much bigger player in building Amir’s past because he always believed that he needed to get punished for whatever he did wrong. For example, he wished to get punished for having his mother killed while giving birth to him, even though that never came. Furthermore, it shows us this part of Amir’s character, which of course is a large part of his long-term thoughts and guilt as he lives his life in America. He wants the punishment, but can’t seem to get it for the time being. In the real world, people often have so much guilt that they do what is called “turning themselves in,” in which they hand themselves over to receive the punishment that they otherwise would have gotten had they not already received it. To add on, one aspect of human nature is that when we make a mistake, sometimes running away is the best solution, however, that always backfires. In the end, they will seek to get what they deserved. What the author of this novel wanted was to show that Amir was the kind of person to actually want a punishment that he felt he deserved, and to also set him up for the redemption arc he has a lot later in his life.

Upon meeting up with Rahim Khan at the beginning of his return trip to Afghanistan, things about his childhood finally come full circle as he realizes why everything happened the way they did.

Amir’s household had inherently been full of family problems, and it all had to do with this secret family lineage, though of course, he wouldn’t know about them. “Apparently, the estranged father-son relationship between Amir and baba led to Amir’s jealousy of Hassan, eventually betraying Hassan, who was willing to sacrifice everything for him” (Yuan-yuan 58). While Amir had loved Hassan, he couldn’t help but be jealous of their affection towards one another. He became the opposite of Hassan, who, unlike himself, was willing to sacrifice everything and defend him, no matter the cost. This would be one of the things Amir would also later regret in his life. His original mission to Afghanistan had been to face the demons of his past, but now knowing that Hassan and his wife had been killed and leaving behind a son, Amir took it upon himself to rescue his nephew as he was the only part of Hassan he had left.

To further add on, there had always been a power difference between the two boys. In the relationship, Amir is above Hassan, as Hassan acted as the family’s servant or “underling.” This is supported by the fact that Hassan identifies as a Hazara, as according to Malik, “Ali and Hassan represent Hazara minority who are the victim of racism in Afghanistan” (Malik 73). This is significant because normally when a group of people is a minority, they are often treated as inferior or insignificant. Especially if it involves children, then they will face bullying from others. In Hassan’s case, because he is from a minority ethnic group, he faces bullying from other children, most notably from Assef and his gang.

In the aftermath, Amir takes it upon himself and makes it his mission to find Hassan’s son, Sohrab, and take him back with him back to the States.

Knowing that Sohrab was once Hassan’s son, he had to rescue him. This is the moment that Amir can atone for the actions that he regrets so long ago, and was one of the reasons why he had returned to Afghanistan in the first place. “Ultimately, his attempt to atone is his journey back to Kabul to rescue Sohrab from the hands of the abusing Talib official, Assef. He knows he would not be able to leave Sohrab alone after knowing the fact that he is his half-brother Hassan’s son” (Mishra 86). Amir couldn’t bring himself to make history repeat himself. Sohrab literally had Hassan’s blood running through him, and leaving him at the mercy of Assef and the Taliban would just be the same mistake that he had made before.

While fighting Assef, however, Amir feels something unusual, something that is not normally felt when getting beat up in a fight. “Another rib snapped, this time left lower. What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this. …My body was broken…but I was healed. Healed at last. I laughed” (Hosseini 289). While rescuing Sohrab was a high priority, Amir couldn’t help himself but actually enjoy getting beat up by Assef. He was finally happy that someone was giving him the punishment he had wanted for all the things he had done wrong back during his childhood. “Amir submits willingly, even with relief, to Assef’s violence” (O’Brien 10). Amir feels as though he’s finally healed from all the guilt, something that has been keeping him up at night. Taking in Hassan’s son as his own was the least he could do to make up for his terrible actions towards Hassan. He didn’t want to be the person he was when he left Hassan in that alleyway.

The point of this argument is to assess the extent of the significance that the revelation of Hassan being Amir’s previously unknown stepbrother had more meaning than initially thought, and how it had an impact on how Amir dealt with his childhood guilt. This was done because although it was sprinkled all throughout the book with hints, it tends to be very discreet and not out in the open. It’s an interesting topic because it’s not normally covered in whole-book summaries or other interpretations of the book, and it felt necessary to take the analysis of this novel to a whole new level.

I consider guilt to be an extremely valuable emotion. It helps people maintain connections to friends, family, and more. Experiencing guilt can cause one to have to repair relationships and learn from their mistakes. Every action and choice in life is followed by a consequence. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini the main character Amir discovers the consequences that his actions can carry, the main consequence being guilt. The central theme in The Kite Runner seems to be revolved around the guilt that Amir has carried throughout his childhood. In many cases this guilt is caused by the harsh Afghan culture and the way it’s society believes things should be ran.

In the Kite Runner, Amir carries more guilt and obtains a far more guilty conscious than all of the other characters. Throughout the novel, Amir is continuously tormented by his own actions and seemingly can’t figure out how to resolve them. Rahim Khan tells him that there is a way to redeem himself. Many things made him feel guilty, starting at birth. Amir began by feeling guilty for killing his mother during childbirth, even though it was out of his control. He seems to have been born with the inherited guilt of his father, which is expressed in the quote, “I always felt like Baba hated me a little. And why not? After all, I had killed his beloved wife, his beautiful princess, how did I? The least I could have done was to have the decency to have of turned out a little more like him.“ In my opinion this shows that Amir was going to feel guilt from the day he was born. He feels as though he was the reason that his mother was taken away from Baba, which makes it prominent that he proceeds with plenty of actions solely in order to prove himself and live up to Baba’s expectations. In order to make up for what he feels is his fault. Whenever he lets Baba down or fails to get his approval, he feels that same guilt all over again for not being able to live up to what his father wants him to be. Amir had once overheard his father say, “If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son.” Amir’s craving to gain the love and acceptance of his father turns into a constant spiral of guilt when he doesn’t succeed in doing so.

One of the most detrimental guilts that Amir felt was when he didn’t do anything to stop Hassan from being raped by Assef. This instance truly made me realize that Amir allows his guilt to define him. Although Hassan was kind-hearted and loyal, Amirs want to please Baba, far out shines his want to protect Hassan. Amir feels like a coward and immediately allows the guilt to consume him. “I watched Hassan get raped, I said to no one… A part of me was hoping someone would wake up in here, so I wouldn’t have to live with this lie anymore… I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it.“(Hosseini 86) When Amir realizes that he’s going to get away with his betrayal, he decides to ignore Hassan. in doing so I feel as though Amir believes that blocking her son out will help him in dimming his guilt. When that doesn’t work he chooses to commit another sin by lying about Hassan stealing which is shown in the quote, “ I took a couple of envelopes of cash in the pile of gifts in my watch, and tiptoed out… I lifted Hassan’s mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of oak any bills under it.”(104) I believe the goal of this lie was to be able to get Hassan out of sight. His guilt was too overwhelming and Hassan was a constant reminder of that guilt.

“How could I, of all people, chastise someone for their past?… I envied her. Her secret was out. Spoken. Dealt with. I opened my mouth and almost told her how I betrayed Hassan… But I didn’t. I suspected there were many ways in which Soroya Taheri was a better person than me.” Amir’s past actions haunting him. He grows jealous of Soroya because she has admitted her sins, and he has yet to admit his wrong doings in order to get that same weight lifted off of his own shoulders. It ended up taking Amir 15 years to speak his truth to Soroya. He eventually did this in order to redeem himself when Rahim Khan called him up to do so. The guilt was finally lifted when he went to retrieve Sohrab, because even though he could not save Hassan, he was able to save his son.

Although the main character that is centered around his guilt is Amir, Baba’s guilt was carried around Ali and Hassan. When sleeping with his friend’s wife, he had done one of the biggest injustices. In knowing Hassan was his son, he felt extremely guilty for not telling Hassan or Amir that they were half brothers. Eventually Rahim Khan relieved his own guilt by revealing that same secret to Amir. This not only helped Rahim Khan, but also helped Amir to redeem himself from his own guilt.

People make mistakes all the time, some worse than others. Guilt is not the most important feeling, but what one does with those feelings after they have made a mistake. The story proves that there are ways to be redeemed, forgive oneself, and receive forgiveness from others. When Sohrab and Amir begin to recover from their guilt at the end of the novel, the first glimpse of hope and redemption are reached.

A creepily feel of the word “witchcraft” grazes through the ears of the townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts. No one was safe in this time of 1692; henceforth, if you even just said you had seen someone’s spirit, the person you told upon would be sent to hang. Through these times, many chaotic things occurred with the townspeople’s; furthermore, there are a few different themes portrayed for the story. The tails and storyline of these dark times are greatly portrayed in a book written by the greatest dramatist of the times. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the themes of Guilt and Integrity are heavily portrayed throughout this story line.

Miller best interprets the theme of Guilt through the character of John Proctor. Abigail Williams finds herself alone with John Proctor, she tries to rekindle the spark that was once there when they had an affair. John Proctor’s guilt rises; furthermore, he wishes to never had anything to do with Abigail and that the past events never occurred. He reminds himself, and Abigail, that he owes everything to his wife, Elizabeth, and only to her. Proctor states “[he] will cut off [his] hand before [he’ll] ever reach for [her] again” (1. 451- 452). John says this to Abigail telling her to leave him alone, and that Abigail needs to let her hopes go of anything with John. John puts his words in this tone so he can make it clear that he will want nothing to do with Abigail. The next time guilt is shown is when John Proctor gets home late one day from doing a day’s work. His wife, Elizabeth, wonders why he came home instead of going into the town.

Elizabeth is not very into the conversation. A sense of separation and tension still clung to her after finding out John had an affair with their old house made, Abigail Williams. John asks her what is wrong, and he tries to remind her he means to please her. It doesn’t really change much, John is then refilled with more guilt from his previous actions. John asks Elizabeth “how would that please you” if “the crop is good [he’ll] buy George Jacob’s heifer. Proctor softly grins and says “I mean to please you, Elizabeth” (2. 28-31). John’s affair caused great tension and separation. Those feelings still cling to them, but John has been trying to make good and be better for his wife and family. Another time guilt is shown is when guilt is overwhelming John Proctor as he confesses to lechery in front of the judge with Abigail Williams and the others in the court-room. He begins to cry out of shame and guilt from what he did, especially for Elizabeth’s sake. John cries “[He] cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is fraud. [he is] not that man. [His] honesty is broke…nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were no rotten long before” Elizabeth tries to comfort him by reassuring that “yet you’ve not confessed till now. That speak goodness in you.” John then pleads he “would have your forgiveness, Elizabeth” (4. 481-490). John and Elizabeth are talking before John is supposed to hang. Rev. Hale has asked that all John do is confess to witchcraft, but he does not find that very satisfying. He is so wound up, filled with guilt, and distraught. He feels that he has already been blackened at the soul by his actions and asks his wife for her forgiveness.

The theme of Integrity is now shown throughout the Crucible by Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, and John Proctor. In Act I, Rebecca Nurse speaks her mind in front of the group that was in Betty’s sick room. The integrity she had to speak her mind about what she felt, without care of what others thought, shows her sense of honor to the truth. Mrs. Putnam tells Rebecca that the doctor is baffled, Rebecca states that “if so he is, then let us go to God for the cause of it. There is prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits. I fear it, I fear it. Let us rather blame ourselves” (1. 559-562). Rebecca Nurse is in Betty Parris’s room talking with the Putnman’s and Rev. Parris. She speaks her mind and tells that if they think of witchcraft for the cause they are wrong. Even though it is what everyone believes, she refuses and sticks to her gut that all they have to do is pray to God. Additionally, the theme of integrity is shown when John Proctor was asked to confess to witchcraft and sign his name stating that he gave his name to the devil. Yet, John Proctor ripped up the document. John Proctor kept his good name and used his integrity to honor the actual truth.

John Proctor pleads in tears that “is is [his] name! Because [he] cannot have another one in [his] life! Because [he] lie and sign [himself] to lies! Because [he] is not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may [he] live without [his] name? [He] have given you [his] soul; leave [him] [his] name” (4. 725-730)! John’s only way out of being hung is to sign away is name to a confession of witchcraft. Danforth is saying it will be posted on the church door. Proctor refuses and rips up his confession, for he does not, and will not give up his good name to what everyone knows is a lie. Furthermore, another scene where integrity is shown when John Proctor had just ripped his confession and kept his good name. Danforth asks and interrogates him about the confession. With integrity, John is accepting the fact that he will die, but he will die with his good name. Proctor is told he will hang and replies “I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do thin I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs. Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it” (4. 745-753)! John has accepted the fact that he will hang for not confessing to lies. He holds himself with integrity and says they’re not worth the lies just to live. Proctor has regained his goodness.

As you now understand the reasoning behind the themes, you also understand how things were portrayed in that time of life. Throughout this story the themes of guilt and integrity are heavily shown throughout many of the characters. Arthur Miller was known as the greatest dramatist in these times, yet all the drama was actually true in reality. He studied the records and files of the trials to gain insight for his storyline. The insight he obtained gave him a puritan way of life insight, and the character’s he used, who were real people in the witch trials. Arthur Miller’s book of The Crucible is filled with drama, horror, death, and hysteria, just like what actually happened in the Salem Witch trials of 1692. This portrayal of the actual events is a great way to depict life during these dark times.

There are always times when your looking back regretfully and realize things that seemed right within the moment, but no longer do, that feeling keeps us imprisoned in the past. I’ll give you the sun is a coming of age novel by Jandy Nelson based on real life mistakes, choices and experiences including guilt, everyone experiences it at one point in life, we give ourselves permission to feel guilt even though we cant control it, the only way of overcoming guilt is honesty and forgiveness.

The two main characters who bear guilt in i’ll give you the sun are Noah and Jude. As the novel goes on we see secrets come to light. One week before their mothers date Jude and her mother fight nonstop about her outfits and boys. Noah discovers the truth about his mother’s secret affair with Judes sculpture mentor. Jude loses her virginity the same day her mother dies, “After this happened with Zephyr, my mother died. It was me. I brought bad luck to us” Jude feels guilty, she believes the two events are linked and on the same day Noah tells his mother he hates her for ending things with their father.

Noah and Jude face many obstacles throughout the novel, the betrayals go out of control. Jude was incharge of mailing her and Noah’s applications to their dream school, she throws away Noah’s application out of jealousy. Along with that she plays seven minutes in heaven with Brian, the guy Noah likes, this fills Noah with grief and anger. “I don’t worry when I blow off Jude that night and the night that follows. I don’t worry when she comes back and finds Brian and the hornets on the deck” Noah ignores Jude for an entire summer along with that he destroys one of her favorite drawings, they betray each other so much they end up hurting themselves by feeling so guilty.

“Unresolved guilt is like having a snooze alarm in your head with forgiveness and honesty being the only ways of shutting it off”. When all the truth comes out with honesty we learn why everything led to what it did , blaming others seems futile,and because of honesty we don’t have to blame, instead being honest ends up relieving our guilt and allows us to forgive. Towards the end of the novel all secrets untangle and the truth between Noah and Jude is revealed. Jude and Noah spent so much time being mad at each other that they end up being left with no energy to fight and blame one another. Instead they forgive each other for being honest. Keeping guilt bottled up ends up being such a waste of time when we realize we could have just been honest.

Work cited

1. Nelson, Jandy. I’ll give you the sun. Dial press,2014.

In the words of research professor Brene Brown, Guilt is just as powerful, but its influence is positive, while shame’s is destructive. Shame erodes our courage and fuels disengagement. The significance behind this quote is that although a guilty conscience isn’t easy to bear, it comes with a positive outcome, such as a valuable lesson learned, whereas the outcome of shame is inevitably destructive. Carrie, by Stephen King explores the effects of guilt, and shame on various characters, as well as remorse, and the violence of revenge amongst characters.

As readers, we are able to make an obvious connection with the opening quote, and Carrie’s manic mother Margeret. Margaret White, Carrie’s mother, is disturbed. She has been taught all throughout her life that everything revolves around religion, and the idea that committing an act of sin, means that the world will end. Margaret has instilled the same manipulative, smothering perception of religion into Carrie’s mind. For instance when Carrie comes home from a traumatic scene in the changeroom, she begs her mother to comfort her and asks in a shaky voice, “Hold me, Mama. Please hold me.”(63). When Carrie demands the sympathy of her mother, her mother begins to pray, crying “Oh, Lord! Help this sinning woman see the sin of her days and ways. Show her that if she had remained sinless, this curse of blood would never have come down on her!”. Margaret takes her past sins, and guilty conscience and places the weight on Carrie’s shoulders with this one line. Although Carrie hasn’t been completely brainwashed by her religiously disturbed mother, she still obeys her mother when she has “sinned”. This is displayed when Carrie tells her mother that she has accepted an invitation to prom. Margaret tells her that this is unacceptable, and that she needs to “go to [her] closet”(113), which is where she would pray and ask for forgiveness. Carrie explains that “Everything isn’t bad, Mama! Everything isn’t a sin!”, Carrie is then forced into the closet to pray. To conclude, Margaret White has had a traumatic past, similar to Carrie’s childhood. Carrie has been taught that her religion should feel more like a burden of guilt on her shoulders, rather than a peaceful, and comforting spirit.This, in turn has shaped Carrie’s mind into the exact same disturbed mind that her mother carries.

Bullying is something most people can admit to doing, whether it be a rude comment, to more serious actions, but not all of us can own up to it and take the consequences for it. This is an issue that Sue Snell is faced with during the novel. Whether she was proud of it or not, Sue took part in the bullying that made that day in the changeroom so traumatic. She was one of the many girls that threw tampons at Carrie when she was clearly already mortified. Sue later admits that while she was obviously accompanying the bullies that day, she’s “not really sure what she [is] doing”, this places Sue in the category of victims of “mob mentality”, meaning she was heavily influenced by her peers as well as the adrenaline of the moment. The one thing about Sue that separates her from the rest of the bullies, is that despite the fact that she does not like her, she doesn’t feel the need to display her hate by attacking Carrie. Sue feels very guilty about attacking Carrie that day, she explains that she “did a not so good thing”, she then admits that she was “ashamed”(56), and that that is the very reason that she cares for Carrie. Later in the novel, Sue explains that “Someone ought to try and be sorry in a way that counts…in a way that means something.”(98), which shows how she has been carrying this guilt, and made her change the way she acts toward people, this is illustrated in this quote when she sticks up for Carrie. Sue knew that she needed to do something in order to show her remorse and account for her actions, which in Sue’s eyes, the perfect way to do so was giving up her prom date so that Carrie could go with her secret crush Tommy Ross. Although this did not go as planned by the end of the prom night, this was Sue’s way of showing that she cared and that she was apologetic. When readers reach the end of the novel, it is made clear that Sue Snell seems to be the only character that acknowledges the damage that she has caused Carrie, and definitely the only character that shows her regret, it could be that she is the only one who even holds that regret.

Early in the novel, we are introduced to the secondary antagonist, Christine Hargensen, or better known as Chris. Given information readers have from the first few chapters, it is clear to recognize Chris to be the main“ring leader” in this toxic trio, which seems to be a trait her and her boyfriend share, as he is the leader of a very violent gang in Chamberlain. It seems as though she chooses to surround herself with people just like her… toxic sociopaths. Chris has continuously teased and harassed Carrie since grade one for her differences, primarily because her mother was seriously mentally ill. Chris was the first girl to initiate the bullying in the changeroom that day. As soon as Chris receives a punishment for her actions, she is not happy, she is even more vengeful to make Carrie pay. While the classmates are doing their work, Chris opens up about her father suing, she says, “ If only the rest of you had walked out with me… Jesus why didn’t you Sue? We could have had them by the balls”(89). Sue responds by sticking up for Carrie, she tells Chris that she “took the punishment because [she] thought [she] deserved it.”. This embarrassed Chris, the blood rushed to her face as if “a red cloud had passed over some inner sun”. Even though it has been made evident that Chris is just as, and or more responsible for the bullying, she refuses to admit it, instead, she does what she does best and teases Sue for defending Carrie. All of these little comments that Sue has made agitated her even more. Chris is now aware that Sue gave up her prom date and that Tommy is now taking Carrie. Chris plans to do everything in her power to make sure nothing about this prom night is enjoyable for Carrie to say the least. She, along with her boyfriend who would have “done murder for her”(134), this shows his dedication to Chris, whether or not he agrees with what she has planned, he is wrapped around her finger and is willing to do anything for Chris. Chris is determined to make this the worst night possible. Just as Carrie and Tommy are being crowned prom king and queen, Chris dumps a bucket of pig’s blood on the two, as a reminder of Carries traumatizing experience in the changeroom. It is evident that Chris Hargensen is not capable of accepting and admitting to her wrongful actions. Instead, she would feel much more fulfilled, if she could get her revenge, and “pour” her guilt onto somebody else, which in this scenario, was Carrie.

Onto the theme of revenge, it is evident even by reading the blurb on the back of the book, that Carrie seeks revenge from all of her classmates, and even some innocent teachers, and she accomplishes this at the end of the novel. Throughout the first half of the novel, Carrie had dark thoughts about hurting her classmates, specifically the ones who had bullied her. Carrie’s never acted upon her vengeful thoughts until she realized what her mind was capable of. Furthermore, her thoughts grew more violent, for instance, when Tommy Ross was out riding his bike one day, he crosses paths with Carrie. Tommy sticks his tongue out, followed by “ hey, o’l fart face” (28), when Carrie thinks to herself “Fall off that bike kid, push you off that bike, split your head open.”(28). Tommy then falls off of his bike and scrapes his knee. Carrie explains that “The sound of tommys wails were sweet. Jangling music in her ears.” (28). Another illustration of Carrie’s vengeful thoughts is when Carrie is venting about her relentless bullies. She explains that they “all hate. And they never stop. They never get tired of it.”. She then shares one of her violent visions when she says “Imagine Chris Hargensen all bloody and screaming for mercy. With rats crawling all over her face. Good. Good. That would be good. […] Crush in her head with a rock, with a boulder. Crush in all their heads. Good. Good.”(25). This comment of course also foreshadows the terrifying prom night the students had coming for them. Carrie seeks revenge upon her bullies. She explains to her mother Margaret, that it was time to “teach them a lesson. Time to show them a thing or two”(552), this also foreshadows future events on prom night. Finally, prom night arrives, and Carrie has just had pig’s blood dumped on her from 10 feet above the stage that she was standing on. Just as Carrie was about to storm out and run home, she turns around, and remember she has a new found power that could be used to her advantage tonight. She wanted everybody to pay. Carrie turns her “God given gift” into a weapon that she would use to kill the very kids she grew up with. Carrie blamed everybody for the way her life was, whether you only spoke to her once, or tortured her during school, she blamed you, and she wanted her revenge. Carrie tries to explain that she “don’t blame anyone any more.”(52), when she bit her tongue, preventing any more lies from slipping out of her mouth. Carrie clearly blames everybody for the way her life is. Although Carrie never acted upon her violent thoughts, she eventually could not bear these feelings any longer once she has been mortified once again in front of her school by her bullies. Carrie seeked revenge upon her bullies, and that is exactly what she received.

In summary, it is evident that Margaret’s past relationship with her religion has scarred not only herself, but also her own child, whom she continues to smother with shame and guilt and sin. Readers can acknowledge and analyse Sue Snell’s personal guilt that she carries since her participation in the bullying and harassment of Carrie white, and that it drives her to stick up for Carrie, and defend her almost as a friend would do for another, even though Sue has made it clear she didn’t like Carrie very much, she knows her actions were wrong, and attempts to show her remorse, whereas nobody else wanted to do whether or not they acknowledged their actions were wrong. Alternatively, the main antagonist of the novel, Chris, does not acknowledge that her actions were not just wrong, but traumatizing. In addition to her not recognizing her wrong doings, she seeks revenge upon Carrie, for the punishments that she was given, which in turn, ended very far from what was expected. Lastly, readers were able to explore the violence of Carrie’s thoughts, and her fatal revenge.

Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe’s Exploration of the Human Psyche

Whеn somеonе kills a man, would thеy hеar thе constant bеating of his hеart? Would it drivе thеm insanе? In еdgar Allan Poе’s short story, Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart, thе narrator is facеd with a problеm. This is not a common, еvеryday ordеal. This is thе problеm of mеntal instability, tеrror and paranoia driving thе narrator to kill somеonе. Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart is fillеd with compеlling idеas, claims and thеmеs to makе somеonе think about thе story as a wholе. еdgar Allan Poе usеs many diffеrеnt typеs of litеrary dеvicеs, motifs, and usеs his languagе in many diffеrеnt, yеt clеvеr ways. Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart is full of symbolism and almost еvеrything has an undеrlying mеaning. It is a story that tеachеs thе rеadеr but еntеrtains thеm at thе samе timе. Most of Poе’s works turn out that way, but Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart is onе of thе most wеll known of his works as wеll as thе most full of hiddеn mеanings and contеxts. In my The Tell-Tale Heart essay example, I delve into a narrative that skillfully balances both education and entertainment for the reader.

Edgar Allеn Poе (Poе) was onе of thе most influеntial Amеrican writеrs of thе ninеtееnth cеntury. Poе was an Amеrican poеt, writеr, critic and еditor and was bеst known for his writing, and was famous for his ability to writе gripping and еxciting talеs and poеms. Poе’s works havе bееn rеad all ovеr thе world and arе still bеing rеad to this day. Somе of Poе’s bеst known works includе thе poеms: To Hеlеn, (1831) and Annabеl Lее (1849), thе short storiеs about еvil and crimе, Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart (1843) and Thе Cask of Amontillado (1846), and thе paranormal horror story Thе Fall of thе Housе of Ushеr. (1839)

Somе of thе pеoplе and еvеnts that influеncеd Poе bеcamе thе inspiration bеhind futurе storiеs and poеms, and somе arе clеarly ablе to bе sееn throughout cеrtain works. In fact, somе different real-life murders have been cited as thе inspiration behind Poe’s stories and poems, and among these is thе murder of Joseph White of Salem, Massachusеts in 1830.

Poе kеpt a common motif throughout his short storiеs and poеms, but hе had many diffеrеnt motifs. A largе amount of his works includеd rеflеcting on thе naturе of dеath and quеstioning thе aftеrlifе. For еxamplе, in thе poеm Eldorado, thе protagonist is only ablе to gеt to his lifе goals in dеath. Poе doеs not comе to thе samе conclusion about dеath in еach poеm. Somе of thе othеr motifs usеd wеrе love, impermanence or uncertainty, and nature. Thе narrator of Annabеl Lее slеpt еvеry night nеxt to hеr futurе gravе by thе sеa, giving a somеwhat morbid undеrtonе to what appеars to at first bе faithful lovе.

As mеntionеd abovе, anothеr onе of his motifs wеrе impеrmanеncе or uncеrtainty. An еxamplе of this is in thе poеm A Drеam Within a Drеam. This poеm is about thе idеa that rеality is not pеrmanеnt and it is “nothing morе than a drеam”. Poе makеs this clеar in the poem by writing that he is saying goodbye to this girl, and he doеs not know whеrе hе is going, and hе also shows this by writing onе of his famous quotеs: “All that wе sее or sееm, / is but a drеam within a drеam”.

Not all of Poе’s motifs arе blood, guts and dеath, though. Poе also usеd lovе and naturе in his storiеs and poеms. Poе oftеn associatеs naturе with good sincе hе was around during thе timе whеn authors lookеd to rеturn to naturе in ordеr to get to a “cleaner state” away from the influences of society. In the poem Tamerlane, Tamerlane and his childhood friend find happiness and love in nature, until he leaves to be with other men and “falls prey to pride and ambition”.

The Motifs of Death, Terror, Guilt, and Madness in Poe’s Works

The Cask of Amontillado, Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart and Thе Pit and thе Pеndulum, thеmеs arе not all sugar and spicе and еvеrything nicе. Poе usеs four similar motifs; dеath, tеrror, guilt and madnеss. In Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart, Poе usеs madnеss, guilt and dеath thе most. In thе bеginning of thе story, thе rеadеr can sее that thе narrator livеs with and carеs for an old man who has a cloudеd, vulturе-likе еyе. Thе narrator bеgins to focus himsеlf еntirеly on thе old man’s еyе, but starts gеtting fееlings of paranoia, and bеcomеs afraid. Thе narrator wants to sеparatе thе man from this “еvil еyе” of his. At this point, it is clеar that thе narrator doеs not sее that thе old man’s еyе is basically thе “I”of thе old man”, a part of him that cannot bе sеparatеd likе thе narrator thinks. This obsеssion and hatrеd towards such a small objеct is what drivеs thе narrator to ruthlеssly kill this old man.

The Psychological Depth of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’

Thе murdеr of thе old man shows thе amount that thе narrator sеparatеs thе idеntity of thе old man from his actual еyе. He perceives the old man in two completely different ways because of his eye, yet claims to see the old man in one way. The result of this is that the narrator is able to savagely murder the old man while still saying that he loves him. Even though this is the incentive to kill the man, the narrator does not acknowledge that this will end the old man’s life. By mutilating the old man, the narrator strips the old man of his humanity even more than hе alrеady has.

Symbolism and the Struggle with Guilt and Madness

Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart is Poе’s shortеst story, but it is onе of his bеst and wеll-known works. As mеntionеd prеviously, guilt was onе of thе major thеmеs usеd in Thе Tеll-Talе Hеart. Thе narrator is clеarly unablе to dеal with thе guilt hе fееls aftеr murdеring thе old man, еspеcially aftеr hе starts to hеar a hеartbеat, which еvеntually drowns out all othеr noisеs. This tiеs back into thе actual titlе of thе story. Thе story’s titlе is saying that thе hеart is a “tеll-talе” sign. It rеfеrs to thе hеartbеat that accеlеratеd thе narrator’s dеscеnt into madnеss and forcеd him to confеss his crimе. Thе rеadеr is lеd to bеliеvе that thе hеartbеat in thе story is thе old man’s hеart which thе narrator hеars, which is logically impossiblе sincе thе man is dеad and cut to piеcеs..

The Heartbeat: A Symbol of Conscience and Unraveling Sanity

Poе usеd his words to givе a look at paranoia and thе dеtеrioration of thе human mind. Hе doеs not usе a ton of dеtail, and this is to intеnsify thе narrator’s obsession and devotion to certain things, such as the old man’s eye, the relentless thumping of the heart, and the narrator’s own claim to sanity. Poe’s writing and how the language was used gave rise to the narrative way the story was written. The narrator is a morally insane man, and Poe’s use of language hints that he would havе likеd thе rеadеr to find thе symptoms of thе narrator’s condition in thе languagе of thе story’s narration. Somе pеoplе havе thought this form and contеnt gavе a clеar еxamplе of paranoia. Poе himsеlf, likе thе bеating of thе old man’s hеart, almost sееms to bе guilty in thе plot to catch thе narrator in his fiеndish plot.

Thе main mеssage of The Tell-Tale Heart Poe tries to get across is revealed little by little throughout the book. Poe tries to show that the human heart knows the truth and it will “always have a louder voice than the lies someone tells to cover it up.” This means that someone will know deep down in their heart what is true and what is not, and this sense of knowing the difference will always be stronger than the lies someone tells to convince us otherwise. This also tells us that we should not commit crimes because we cannot escape the weight of our own guilt.

Every story has its fair share of problems, though. The main conflict in this story is between the narrator and his own mind. These problems clash with each other since the narrator knew that he could not kill someone and get away with it, even though he wants to convince himself that he can. He knows he will be punished for this once it is found that the old man was dead, but he just cannot seem to stop himself from trying to separate the old man from his “evil eye”.

There is also some symbolism throughout this tale. The eye symbolizes many different things. The eye is, in a way, a sort of window into the mind and into the soul. It also symbolizes how death is rooted in the center of the story. The narrator calls the old man’s eye his “vulture-eye”, which is mentioned multiple times throughout the story. A vulture is a hideous, carnivorous bird that feeds on dead flesh, so the eye also represents death and preying on one another. The old man’s eye is described as blue, which is a color that usually symbolizes coldness. It seems to be watching the narrator, and this is specifically what the narrator wants to terminate. The eye is also a symbol of wisdom, light and intellect, so while the narrator portrays it in an ‘evil light’, it is hard to see why he kills it and the old man.

The heart and its beating also symbolize multiple things. The heart represents the emotions and the conscience, and the narrator obviously has a very guilty heart. The heartbeat symbolizes the narrator’s guilt in the old man’s murder. The narrator believes that the beating is the old man’s heart, and becomes more and more flustered, and the heartbeat eventually drives him to confess. This symbolizes the lack of closure that murder brings and the way our “crimes can haunt us even when we believe they are dead and buried”. The heartbeat would be from the narrator’s own heart, not the old man’s heart because the narrator just killed a man which would then make him feel overwhelmed with guilt. The old man was murdered, dismembered, and stuffed under the floorboards, so, logically speaking, the heartbeat would not— and could not— be from a dead man.

Conclusion: The Enduring Legacy of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’

Overall, it may be said that The Tell-Tale Heart is a gripping story that draws the reader in and refuses to let go. It is full of symbolism, underlying messages, and it is a superbly written story. This story teaches anyone who dares pick it up a valuable lesson: to not commit crimes because eventually they will be driven to give themselves away in the end, and that their crimes will always come back around to them. Edgar Allan Poe was truly a fantastic, creative and very innovative author and contributed much to the literature world.

As a single mother of two, the mom guilt is an all-too-familiar feeling. From managing a clean house, teaching kids about my Ethiopian culture, helping them with their homework regularly and driving them after school while still trying to excel in my career and maintain my sanity at the same time. There are hundreds of mums out there who are also battling with this guilt. We feel guilty that we are not trying hard enough or that we are missing some of the special moments in our children’s lives. Other times, the guilt centers on trying to keep everything balanced but not getting there. Here are some tips on how you can get rid of the guilt and balance it all up.

Understand that there will always be sacrifices and compromises

The first step is achieving some level of understanding. You need to understand that as a single mother, you will have to combine motherhood with a career, and this requires sacrifices. Get rid of the notion of trying to be a superwoman. Instead, make a priority list of those things that are the most important to you. For example, when it’s time to drive your children to school, make use of this rare bonding time to get some updates on what is going on in your children’s lives. Ask questions about their friends, how they are coping at school and drop in some significant morale booster for the day.

Give yourself some career motivation

What is that thing that gets you up every morning for work? What motivates you? No doubt, the primary incentive about working is the financial aspect and also the feeling that you are making a meaningful contribution to the lives of your children. So, when you are getting the blues and tending towards your mum’s guilt, do a quick review of why you are pursuing your career and what it means to you personally. There is nothing wrong with having some ambition.

What does it mean to be a great parent?

There is no major manual about parenthood as it doesn’t always conform to the same rules. However, being a great parent lies in how well you can be there for your children. Yes, you need to take out some bonding time but as a working mother, providing for their needs is also paramount. Being originally from Ethiopia, I try to teach my children the Ethiopian culture, which includes Amharic, and its written script Ge’ez. There are lots of helpful books and audio materials that will help you do it right. Slowly but surely, your children can be able to learn your culture through you.

Don’t be afraid to take some “me” time

Because of the mum’s guilt about not being there for your children, a lot of mothers do not take out that necessary “me” time. If you can’t do it daily, at least get some personal time in weekly. You don’t have to do something extravagant but just a time where you get to wind-down and appreciate yourself. Having some space just for yourself works wonders when it comes to feeling invigorated for a new day or task ahead. Managing the home, working and raising kids are all energy-consuming tasks, and it’s okay to “recharge”.

Put fun time on your schedule

There is something about having a program for activities. It puts life into it and helps you plan correctly. This could be weekly or monthly. All you have to do is set out a day where you get to laugh or generally be goofy with your kids. You can let them suggest fun places to visit or make it a general decision. Either way, the purpose is to create relaxation time where everyone is carefree and happy.

Let your kids talk to you

Another thing about mum guilt is that you may be worried about the wrong things. The best way to know is to ask your kids. Let them tell you if they think you are not spending enough time with them or if they want to go out more. Excellent communication has always opened a lot of doors and closed irrelevant ones. Asking for feedback could be scary as you don’t know what to expect, but the smiles when it is all over makes it all worthwhile.

The truth is, we may never fully get over the mum guilt, but these are practical ways to make yourself feel a whole lot better.