The Themes Of Crime And Guilt

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Crime and Guilt: Society’s Essential Opiate From a very young age people are taught that making mistakes was often indictable, but as time progresses we realize that making mistakes is only human nature, and without learning those lessons we wouldn’t be the people we are. Crime and guilt have always been two very significant factors of how our society works. Without guilt after committing a crime, we never truly learn. Charles Dickens and J.K Rowling communicate the idea that without committing crimes and feeling guilt, you can not properly mature and learn the necessary morals that keep a balanced society. One way that the story of young Harry portrayed the issues of crime and guilt was through setting. The setting created the moods and …show more content…

Living so far away from people, it was difficult for him to have effectively learned about crime and the guilt that follows it. The settings in Great Expectations are very reflective about how location affects way of thought, which Dickens portrays with the quote “I consumed the whole time in thinking how strange it was that I should be encompassed by all this taint of prison and crime; that, in my childhood out on our lonely marshes on a winter evening I should have first encountered it; that, it should have reappeared on two occasions, starting out like a stain that was faded but not gone; that, it should in this new way pervade my fortune and advancement.” (Dickens, 468). In this, Pip is confused by his excessive thoughts about crime. Even during his time while isolated in the forge, crime had come into his life and had a big enough impact to make a ‘stain,’ which influenced his current situation. “The mist was heavier yet when I got out upon the marshes, so that instead of my running at everything, everything seemed to run at me. This was very disagreeable to a guilty mind. The gates and dykes and banks came bursting at me through the mist...” (Dickens, 26). The heavy mist and gates coming at him resemble his guilty conscience racing towards him as he ran through the marshes. Although Pip was very young at the time and his mind wasn’t quite developed, he was still learning a lot …show more content…

In both Great Expectations and Harry Potter, the characters undergo a significant change which alters their personalities, and grow up in two contrasting settings that lead them to commit different types of crimes. Making mistakes is what makes one human, and although it seems to be the end of the world at the moment, they are necessary to

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