Guilt In Fifth Besiness

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Guilt is defined as a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime or wrong committed. Guilt is a major theme in the novel Fifth Business. As this essay will argue, although nearly all of the main characters have ties to this theme, in "Fifth Business", Dunstan is most significantly affected by it and even more importantly, the guilt that stems from events in youth seem to shape the entire course his life takes. The second character that felt guilt entire his life is Paul because he thinks that his mom simple mindedness was his fault. Boy is the last character that felt guilt at the end of his life. That is how guilt rids the character in the novel “Fifth Business”. Dunstan is the first of the characters to experience the guilt. Dunny Ramsay feels extremely guilty because the snowball that Boy threw was intended for him, but he dodged it and it hit the pregnant Mary Dempster. Fears and guilt in Dunny rid him even when he wants to sleep he thinks that he is going to hell for his involvement. For example, “I fear to go to sleep and prayed till I sweated that God would forgive me for mountainous crime.” (22) This quote shows how Dunny feels guilty and fear because of what had happened to his permanent neighbor. Although, the guilt Dunny experiences remained forever throughout the book because later in the book, Dunny said, "I was determined that if I could not take care of Mrs. Dempster, nobody else should do it. She was mine." (180) the guilt in Dunny makes him feel responsible for Mrs. Damester and he is the one that should take care of her. After taking care of her throughout her life, he stops visiting her. That is happened when he said “But I did go once, driven by guilt, and though I did not see her.” (233) this quote shows that he is controlled by guilt. Even though Paul was not born at the time of the snowball incident, Paul Dempster
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