Theme of guilt in Hamlet and Fifth Business

A society contains people with various personalities. No two people are the same, but they can have similarities if their personality types classify them. Categorizing them can actually show the real faces of people, their actual emotions and if they fit in with their specific group itself. Emotion itself plays an imperative role in the development of a person’s character. These emotions can affect each person very differently; they are the root causes for why people behave a certain way. They mask their identities, hide their realities, contain themselves in ambiguous world, and only think about their personal selves. In the texts, Fifth Business by Robertson Davies and Hamlet by William Shakespeare, a multitude of emotions are seen among the characters. However, there is one dominant emotion that affects our conscience, and leads us to behave and act irrationally. It is this strong emotion that affects us, like a worm eating away unseen under the skin of a fruit and as time passes, it ruins one’s life and one’s truthfulness. It is better known as guilt. Both texts examine the theme of guilt by comparing four characters -Dunstan, Claudius, Hamlet, and Boy.

Dunstan and Claudius are two characters with very different personalities that have experienced guilt. Guilt has affected their lives, through their actions, or through their emotions, which is as self-perpetuating as it is uncontrollable. Dunstan, in Fifth Business, understands his limitations in the society and hence expresses his emotions in a very different way. Although, he has not committed any crime, he still feels guilty, as he believes the snowball was meant for him, and this is because of the emotions that dominate his judgement of what guilt really means to him. Gro...

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... in emotions. Hamlet’s guilt is different from that of Boy because he has a reason for the guilty actions – avenging his father’s murder. Considering Hamlet’s point of view, it can be expected for him to behave the way he did, knowing that Claudius is the murderer. Guilt resides in the heart of the play. Boy and Hamlet too are different from each other, as seen in the two texts.

The theme of guilt, as perceived by readers and felt by the characters is demonstrated by both Davies and Shakespeare. This emotion of guilt, affects a person like a drop of acid that corrodes anything it meets. Through these two texts, the authors suggest to the readers that this emotion is part of life, and that there is no way one can eradicate it. Although, there lies some negative effects, it always benefits one after admitting to or paying for mistakes, as seen in both of the texts.