Charles Dickens Guilt

Guilt is a soul sucking feeling of remorse after having committed a crime whether it was on purpose or not. Every person who ever lived has committed a crime at some point because these crimes are what make us human. Guilt almost always follows behind a crime and makes people realize the mistake made. It’s the emotionally strong people who can take responsibility to the crime and make it right. Charles Dickens, has sculpted his book “Great Expectations” around the idea of crime and guilt along with how his characters handle guilt. The statement Dickens is trying to present is, everyone in their life will commit a crime, big or small and will experience guilt; there are people who let it consume them but a truly strong person will overcome their guilt and redeem themselves.
The result of a crime can have a earth shattering impact on a person’s life and can change them for better or for worse. Depending on the person and the crime, the consequence could be as good as nothing or as bad as death. Magwitch got sent to jail for a crime he hadn’t committed, even though he has committed many crimes that should have put him in jail anyways. He isn’t a perfect person after he escapes from jail but in a …show more content…
Throughout “Great Expectations” crime and guilt is a recurring concept that every character encountered. Dickens purpose for this is to help stop these selfish acts in the future. Even today crime and guilt along with stereotyping social classes are things still struggled with. As shown in “Great Expectations” higher class people are shown as heartless and lower class people are shown as kind but Pip shows that is not always the case. In every social class there will always be the strong and kind people who can overcome anything that comes their