With

reference to at least two set texts, analyse the impact of guilt on the characters.


In Othello, Lord of the Flies and the Painted Veil, characters experience guilt to varying
extents at different points in the text, from a complete lack of remorse, to moderate or an
overwhelming feeling of guilt. Guilt is a product of ones conscience, arising from ones
recognition of ones responsibility in committing wrongful acts against morality or social norms.
A total absence of guilt is an indicator of the characters loss of conscience and vice versa. A lack
of guilt, and thus, the loss of conscience, unleashes characters unlimited capacity for evil.
Conversely, a feeling of guilt fosters characters greater self-knowledge, which may either offer
the opportunity for redemption or prove to be self-destructive. In Othello, Iago is portrayed as a
remorseless villain, as opposed to Othello, the fallen general, who is impelled to commit suicide
out of his extremely heavy conscience. In Lord of the Flies, Jack and Roger, the key members of
the formers tribe, are free from remorse despite of their many evils whereas Ralph, the leader
of civilised society, is tormented by guilt over his suspected participation in the murder of
Simon. In the Painted Veil, Kitty and Walter betray and punish each other to no end without any
feeling of guilt before their spiritual journey of awakening in the cholera epidemic in Mei-Tan-
Fu, after which they discover their guilty conscience and reconcile with each other in light of
their new self-understanding. This essay aims to examine the opposite impact of the absence
and presence of guilt on characters in these three set texts.



To begin with, in all three set texts, the absence of guilt due to a blinded conscience
accelerates characters with evil or cruel tendencies along their path of moral degradation,
resulting in progressively evil acts committed by these characters.

In the play, Iagos potential for cruelty develops to the maximum as a result of his
complete lack of guilt. The most evil aspect of his double knavery is Iagos attempt to destroy his
victims through their own goodness in an inverted version of morality plays, which makes his
plotting to be a case of extreme cruelty. He is free to do so since he despises all goodness in
others, and does not feel the slightest necessity to cultivate any sort of goodness in himself. For
example, he says to Roderigo: Virtue? A fig!. In this quotation, he compares an individuals
virtuous qualities to a worthless tree branch. This implies that Iago despises everyone who
possesses moral integrity. As a result, he has no reservation to turn Othellos free and open
nature against him and lead him to his downfall as asses are. In other words, Iago is ready to
abuse his generals naturally trusting and generous personality to deceive him with his lies about
Desdemonas infidelity to incite his unfounded jealousy and compel him to act irrationally to
destroy his own good name. Moreover, in his second soliloquy, he proposes that he will turn
[Desdemonas] virtue into pitch/And out of her own goodness make the net/That shall enmesh
them all. This suggests that Iago plans to exploit Desdemonas virtues including her
helpfulness and sense of love and loyalty which compels her to promote Cassios reinstatement
for the lieutenant and her husbands benefit to frame her and Cassio as adulterers and turn
Othello into a madly jealous husband at the same time. Therefore, Iagos absolute lack of guilt
allows him to prey on his victims virtues and use them to his own advantage in his plan to bring
them down.

Unlike Iago who is evil from the very beginning, Roger sheds all his sense of guilt during
their isolation from civilisation, which makes him capable of extreme cruelty against the
vulnerable members of the island society. At the beginning, freshly arrived at the island from
their domesticated home life in England, the two boys are still governed by the rules laid down
in their former civilised life. For instance, in Chapter 4, Roger, a bigun, throws stones at Henry, a

littlun, but threw to miss because round the squatting child was the protection of parents and
policemen and the law [] Rogers arm was conditioned by a society which knew nothing of him
and was in ruins. This shows that Roger is reluctant to actually harm the littlun because of a
feeling of guilt originating from his upbringing in British civilisation. As his conscience is attached
to his link with the adult world, Rogers sense of guilt gradually fades as the boys stay on the
island extended indefinitely. In addition, Jacks mask which he compares to the militarys
dazzle paint covers up the faces of his tribesmen (including Roger) which is a mark of their
identity back in the civilised world. This further distances Roger from his conscience as it
liberates him from shame and self-consciousness. His blinded conscience paves the way for the
climax in his moral degradation, when he kills Piggy by rolling a boulder down Castle Rock with a
sense of delirious abandonment. The derision refers to the savagery in Jacks tribe of children
which is unthinkable in the adult world, and the abandonment implies the desertion of ones
conscience as one descends into primitive savagery. Thus liberated from the last vestiges of
guilt, in Chapter 11, Roger is granted a nameless authority as an emissary of the beast who
derives sadistic pleasure from torturing Samneric who are captured from Ralphs side.
Therefore, Rogers lack of guilt unlocks his unlimited potential for evil.

In similar fashion, in the film, Walter and Kitty experiences no guilt due to their self-
righteousness. This makes each of them capable of acts of immorality and cruelty without any
reservation. Kitty accepts Walters proposal even though she does not really know or love him.
The vivacious Kitty naturally finds her serious, quiet husband unappealing. Feeling trapped in
her unhappy married life in the exotic Shanghai, she readily engages in an adulterous
relationship with Charlie Townsend. Her lack of guilt over her transgression is shown in her
selfish self-defence when Walter reveals his knowledge of the affair. She tells him that he might
as well get used to it because [theyve] fallen in love. Instead of showing guilt, she blames
Walter for failing to satisfy her in their marriage to justify her mistake (If a man has not what it
takes for a woman to love him, then its his fault, not hers). Her lack of guilt prevents her from
seeing the folly in her own actions. On the other hand, Walter fails to recognise his complicity in
his wifes dissatisfaction. In his tirade against Kitty, he claims that it is comic when he thinks of
how hard [he has] tried to make her happy without realising that his workaholic, insensitive
personality makes it impossible for him to truly satisfy her needs. Since he is convinced that the
fault lies entirely with Kitty, he proceeds to punish her severely for her betrayal. He forces her to
venture to the middle of a cholera epidemic in the backward Mei-Tan-Fu, which is no place for a
woman in the words of both Kitty and Waddington. In such a way, Walters lack of guilt allows
his wounded male ego to take over completely to judge and torture Kitty for a mistake for which
he is partly responsible. Therefore, the couples initial lack of guilt enables them to commit
unjustifiable actions under the illusion that their decisions are perfectly just.



Conversely, characters guilt leads to insight into themselves and their actions, bringing
either a chance for redemption or a trigger for self-destruction.

In the play, Othello is overwhelmed by guilt for his murder of Desdemona. His guilt is so
great that it proves to be self-destructive as it leads to his suicide. After the truth about Iagos
double knavery is revealed, Othello exclaims that it is a heavy and insupportable hour. This
shows the overbearing nature of his guilt. In contrast to Iago who feels no remorse and runs
away from his prosecutors, Othello asks to be punished with hellish suffering: Whip me, ye
devils! Blow me about in the winds! Roast me in sulphur!. His extreme self-reproach is a clear
indication of his guilt. Before he stabs himself to death, he says the following to Desdemona,
who lies dead on their bed: I kissed thee ere I killed thee/No way but this, to die upon a kiss.

This implies that Othello kills his wife out of his love for her, which associates love with death.
His guilt, which arises also from his love for Desdemona, thus leaving him no other choice but to
kill himself as well to redeem himself from his violent act against his beloved wife. After his
suicide, Lodovico comments that he has known that it is likely to happen for Othello is great of
heart. This is a reference to the generals strong sense of justice and his acute awareness of his
conscience. Just as his conviction that Desdemona is immoral persuades him to kill her despite
of the pain it causes him, when this conviction is directed towards himself in the form of guilt,
he decides to kill himself. Therefore, guilt is a force of self-destruction in this tragedy.

However, in the novel and the film, guilt leads not to destruction but rather redemption,
in the sense that it inspires characters to discover insightful knowledge into themselves and
each other. In the novel, Ralphs guilt over his participation in the murder of Simon helps him to
recognise mankinds innate evil. The morning after the boys frenzied murder, Ralph speaks to
Piggy with terror about his role in the mob kill. He confesses that he is afraid of us [himself and
the boys] and [shivers] at the human contact when Piggy touches him. This suggests that his
uneasy realisation of his complicity in Simons death allows him to register, perhaps
unconsciously, of the terrifying evil all men including the boys and himself are capable of. As
a result, at the assembly where he discusses the previous nights events with Piggy and
Samneric, he does not sit on the chiefs log, likely because he does not consider himself worthy
of the respect commanded by his chieftainship. Due to his guilt, Simons death continues to
haunt him when the naval officer arrives at the end. He reflects on his experience on the island,
mentioning particularly that Simon was dead. His reflection causes him to weep for the
darkness of mans heart. This shows that Ralph acquires knowledge of mens inherent evil,
which is resident in each of their hearts, through experiences which provoke feelings of guilt.
Through recognising his impulse for savagery, Ralph redeems himself as he rises above the Lord
of the Fliess mocking grin at mankinds ignorance of their own evil. Therefore, guilt is Ralphs
source of insight into the evilness in human nature conveyed through the novel.

Similarly, in the film, guilt allows Walter and Kitty to gain insight into their relationship
and each other by knocking down their pride, a veil which prevents them from recognising their
own faults. In Mei-Tan-Fu, surrounded by the pressing life threat which is the cholera epidemic,
the couple realise the puniness of their existence, voiced through Kittys acknowledgement of
her uselessness to the nuns and Walter and Walters admission of his lack of any ready solution
to solve the villagers water supply issues after he shuts down their town well (I dont know).
As a result, they begin to realise their own errors and asks for the others forgiveness.
Apologising to Walter for the disappointment she has caused him, Kitty says: Im sorry Im not
the perfect young woman you want me to be. Im just ordinary. I never tried to pretend that I
was anything else. Kittys apology shows her guilt for letting Walter down, and her realisation
that she is flawed instead of the faultless person she thinks she is, blameless even as an
adulteress. Inspired by Kitty, Walter says: It was silly of us to look for qualities in each other
which we never had. This shows that he recognises that his unrealistic expectations on Kitty is
partly to blame for his unhappiness, and their unhappy marriage as a whole as he insists on
tying the knot with a woman who is clearly a mismatch for his disposition. As a result, Kittys
guilty confession fosters the couples insight into the cause of the dissatisfaction in their
marriage, as well as their recognition of their own flawed nature. This knowledge encourages
them to be more accommodating towards each other and actively improve their relationship
through understanding each other by communication, thus redeeming their past errors.
Therefore, guilt, which instigates the acquisition of such insights, offers an opportunity for
redemption for Walter and Kitty.



To conclude, guilt impacts characters in the three set texts mainly in two contrasting
ways. The lack of guilt leads to more evil carried out at the hands of characters and thus the
decimation of their morality, whereas a guilty conscience shoves characters towards a discovery
of new aspects of themselves, their relationships with others and so, redeem their past wrongs
or in its most overwhelming form, engulf the characters and bring about their self-destruction
when such mistakes are perceived to be irredeemable. Ultimately, guilt is a yardstick which
measures characters moral strength as it directly reflects the degree to which they are aware of
their conscience, which instructs them to behave according to mores. It checks their evil
impulses and guides them along the path of personal discovery and growth.