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German properties continue to grow during Brexit. Even the rentals are constantly growing in the city and property is rather unaffordable for the local buyers. Germany offered easy citizenships to Britons during Brexit, although, the country does not allow dual citizenships. It is treating Britons as citizens during the transaction phase and there are provisions where the people who lived for more than 5 years in the country will be given the settled status and citizenship benefits such as pensions and healthcare. During Brexit, Berlin is offering opportunities in commercial investment where rents are growing for the small and midsize tenants. The markets of Germany are transparent as compared to China. China growth declined from 7 to 4.5 per cent in 2017, and in the US, the home prices rose 6.3 per cent in 2017, where, Seattle showed the highest growth of 12.7 per cent – as per Knight Frank reports.

BR-NAS bought office space for 30 million euros in Germany Düsseldorf and Essen. Finnish fund Ilmarinen invested in Berlin, Amsterdam and US. Deutsche Industries bought three industrial properties in Berlin – (Schleiz on Munich mototway, Bremen and Lower Saxony, Shortens for 8.05 billion euros). Dentan entered a partnership with real estate company René Dubois to enhance business in Germany real estate. Swiss company Swiss Life will buy Berlin-based BEOS to enhance its branches in mixed real estate business – office space, manufacturing and logistics. Singapore wealth fund bought properties in GIC Pte, bought properties in TechnoCampus Berlin with the partnership of local company for a project that transforms aging buildings to office space.

Germany property fund investment increased in 2017 by 50 per cent and there are at least 13 German open ended funds targeting institutional investors and private investors to invest in the country to gain during Brexit volatility (as evaluated by Scope). In 2017, the total investment in Germany was 2.3 billion euro.

Inflation rose by at least 80 per cent in the leading cities of Germany in the past decade as per the statistics released by the Deutsche Bank. The apartment rates in Munich doubled, while, in Hamburg it is growing at the rate of 70 per cent. Germany is showing some of the highest growth, while, UK properties are slowing in some regions. Hong Kong and Vancouver are other growing cities. Low interest rates, more jobs and growth in population in the top cities are the key reasons for the rise in property prices leading to shortage where the city such as Munich population grew several thousands in comparison to the available house units in Germany. In Berlin, the prices grew 20 per cent y-o-y and on an average, the rates of properties in Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg grew 13 per cent in the last year.

Germany office space prices are growing and the price of commercial real estate in Germany sub markets also increased. The growing demand from investors has led to the rise in price of office space three times in five years. The welcoming visa and settlement options increased inflow of young tech workers in the country.

As a playwright, William Shakespeare has few, if indeed any, colleagues of equal renown. He skillfully created works of incredible diversity; some tragic, others historical, and yet others comedic. Of this last genre, Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice is an example. Through an excerpt defining comic literature by Northrop Frye, we can carefully examine this play and more fully discern why it is considered a comedy. According to Frye, New Comedy presents a romantic intrigue between a man and a woman, hindered by an opposition controlling their present society. A twist in the plot resolves the conflict, allowing the couple to live merrily in an idyllic society.

Love has been said to make the world go around, and upon studying the contents of The Merchant of Venice, the interest in the matters of love is certainly found to be pervasive. Many references to romantic intrigues are made, establishing the play as one of New Comedy. One of the chief couples in The Merchant of Venice is that of Bassanio and Portia. The intrigue to romance is first presented through Bassanio regarding Portia. He confides to Antonio, "In Belmont is a lady.../And she is fair, and fairer than that word,/Of wondrous virtues....Her name is Portia..." (Act 1, Scene 1, ll. 161-165). Through this passage, Bassanio reveals he is smitten with Portia. In his estimation, Bassanio also feels certain he could woo the lady: "...many Jasons come in quest of her/...[were] I [able]/To hold a rival place with one of them.../I should questionless be fortunate!" (Act 1, Scene 1, ll. 173-176). Once in Portia's presence, he says to her, "Promise me life and I'll confess the truth....love/Had been the very sum of my confession!" (Act 3, Scene 2, ll. 33-36). In declaring himself, Bassanio reveals to his lady his amorous feelings for her. At yet another instance, Bassanio shows himself to be besotted with fair Portia, while scrutinizing a portrait of this last: "Yet look, how far/The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow/In underprizing it..." (Act 3, Scene 2, ll. 126-128). Confirming beyond doubt the feelings Bassanio has for Portia, are his words to Antonio: "...I am married to a wife/Which is as dear to me as life itself" (Act 4, Scene 1, ll. 280-281). From these excerpts, the love Bassanio holds for the lady Portia is virtually palpable. There is an undeniable romantic intrigue throughout The Merchant of Venice, on Bassanio's behalf.

However, Bassanio is not the only soul to be struck by Cupid's arrow. The object of his affections is, in her own turn, smitten. Portia complements the love Bassanio holds for her, with her own partiality for him. Although Portia is not as outspoken as Bassanio, she says to her maid, "I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy praise," in response the Nerissa's observation of Bassanio: "...He, of all the men that ever my/foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair/lady." (Act 1, Scene 2, ll. 108-112). Once the object of her affections has come, Portia begs of him: "I pray you tarry.../Before you hazard, for in choosing wrong/I lose your company" (Act 3, Scene 1, ll. 1-3). With these words, Portia discloses her feelings to Bassanio. She reaffirms them, when she exclaims to Bassanio: "One half of me is yours, the other half yours-/Mine own I would say; but if mine then yours,/And so all yours!" (Act 3, Scene 2, ll. 16-18). When Bassanio successfully gains Portia's hand in marriage, she says in sheer ecstasy, "O love..../I feel too much thy blessing" (Act 3, Scene 2, l. 61). Once more does Portia emphasize her love for Bassanio, telling him, "Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear" (Act 2, Scene 3, l. 313). Through the comments of an extolling Portia, there is irrefutable evidence of her amorous fascination with Bassanio. Frequent are the references to love when Bassanio or Portia speak. Thus The Merchant of Venice meets one of the requirements of a New Comedy play as defined by Northrop Frye-romantic intrigue between a man and a woman.

Life is not always a bowl of cherries, and within the texts of The Merchant of Venice, this fact becomes startlingly clear. The play is beset with pitfalls and obstructions, which are solved by an intricate pattern of entangled events. These hindrances, imposed upon the lovers Bassanio and Portia, and their resolutions, help identify this drama as one of New Comedy. Initially, the largest impediment facing Bassanio was his lack of funds: " 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,/How much I have disabled mine estate" (Act 1, Scene 1, ll. 122-123). As a result of his self-professed poorness, Bassanio cannot afford to try and win Portia. Again to Antonio, he confides, "...had I but the means/...I have a mind presages me such thrift/That I should questionless be fortunate!" (Act 1, Scene 1, ll. 173-176). Upon hearing this, Antonio offers aid to Bassanio: "...my credit.../Shall be racked even to the uttermost/To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia" (Act 1, Scene 1, ll. 180-182). In this fashion, Bassanio is able to obtain enough money to make worthy suit to Portia. Coincidentally, however, Antonio's generosity to Bassanio blocks the latter's happiness further on in the play. To loan Bassanio the amount he needed to woo Portia, Antonio borrowed from Shylock, who agreed to take for collateral: "...an equal pound/of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken/In what part of your body pleaseth me" (Act 1, Scene 3, ll. 145-147). Antonio sealed to that bond, (Act 1, Scene 3, l. 148), and was held to it when he was unable to repay Shylock by the set date. Bassanio received news of the forfeiture, and in distress tells Portia: "When I told you/My state was nothing, I should then have told you/That I was worse than nothing; for indeed/I have...Engaged my friend to his mere enemy/To feed my means" (Act 3, Scene 2, ll. 258-263). Antonio's one wish is to see Bassanio before he dies from the forfeiture of his bond. (Act 3, Scene 2, ll. 317-319). In haste Bassanio departs from Portia, who he'd not yet wed when Antonio's letter arrived. The forfeiture of Antonio's bond is yet another barrier to Bassanio's peaceful and contented life. This is resolved with a twist when unknown to all, his new wife, Portia, disguises herself as a judge and presides over Shylock's case. She uses the illusory quality of language against Shylock, and succeeds in saving Antonio's life. (Act 4, Scene 1, ll. 322-334). Were it not for the twist in the plot where Portia, acting as judge, saves Antonio from certain death, Bassanio would have forever been denied the happiness he sought. He would have been plagued by the death of his dear friend, "I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er/On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart" (Act 4, Scene 1, ll. 209-210). Having resolved the conflict, Portia makes her way back home, where she greets Bassanio and Antonio, both free of any debts, to live in tranquility and love. The above quotes of characters in The Merchant of Venice point steadily to the play being one of New Comedy.

As fortune might have it, life often presents more than one trial to be overcome by poor hapless individuals. It is no different in The Merchant of Venice. While Bassanio has his own financial difficulties, Portia is disallowed her freedom of choice, and therefore her contentment, in the matters of love. In his will, her deceased father explained the way in which Portia would find a suitor. Portia chaffs under the restrictions imposed upon her, and she makes it known while complaining to Nerissa, "If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste/as Diana unless I be obtained by the manner of my/father's will" (Act 1, Scene 2, ll. 98-100). Though Nerissa reminds her lady that "...the lott'ry/that [your father] hath devised.../will no doubt never be chosen by any rightly but/one who you shall rightly love" (Act 1, Scene 2, ll. 27-31), Portia remains unhappy. This is evident through her words: "...I/may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I/dislike, so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will/of a dead father....I cannot choose one,/nor refuse none" (Act 1, Scene 2, ll. 21-25). Though many suitors come to try their luck for Portia's hand, none are successful. Portia exclaims, "O these deliberate fools! When they do choose,/They have the wisdom by their wit to lose" (Act 2, Scene 9, ll. 79-80). She implies that all of those potential suitors were egotistical idiots, and therefore unlike the one who would choose correctly. He turns out to be Bassanio, who has wisdom enough not to make the same mistakes as earlier suitors: "There is no vice so simple but assumes/Some mark of virtue on his outward parts" (Act 3, Scene 2, ll. 81-82). Sent to his fate by Portia's words, "If you do love me, you will find me out" (Act 3, Scene 2, l. 41) Bassanio remarks to himself while regarding the three caskets, "The world is still deceived with ornament" (Act 3, Scene 2, l. 74). Bassanio's choice is affected by his wisdom and humbleness: "...thou meager lead/Which rather threaten'st than dost promise aught,/...here choose I" (Act 3, Scene 2, ll. 104-107). Due to his prudence and humility, Bassanio is awarded the hand of Portia: "You that choose not by the view/Chance as fair, and choose as true./... Turn to where your lady is,/And claim her with a loving kiss" (Act 3, Scene 2, ll. 131-138). If not for the twist in the plot preventing another suitor of equal intelligence and modesty from first winning Portia's hand, she and Bassanio would have been denied sharing the love they held for each other. The flow of events allowed Bassanio to turn up at the right time, and to possess the qualities desired by Portia's dead father in a husband for his daughter. As a result, Bassanio wins Portia's hand according to her father's desires, and they are happily married. The fashion in which the difficulty imposed by Portia's father is resolved, leads to the conclusion that The Merchant of Venice is indeed of New Comedy genre.

Returning to Northrop Frye's definition of New Comedy, it "presents a romantic intrigue between a young man and a young woman...blocked by some kind of opposition" (Frye, The Anatomy of Criticism). There is no shortage of indications that these conditions exist between Bassanio and Portia during the entire play, as shown through their disclosures to each other and to others. The romantic intrigue presented, and the obstacles the two lovers must overcome before retiring to a haven of peace and happiness, allows Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice to characterize perfectly Frye's New Comedy.

Bibliography

Frye, Northrop. The Anatomy of Criticism. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1972.

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Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1987.

Educational Technology, Summer 2018

Not only is technology evolving at a rapid pace, but the ways that individuals and workplaces utilize technology on an everyday basis as also quickly changing. Technology is becoming for most individuals in the modern world a necessary tool for communication and learning. Ultimately, as a teacher, my goal to enhance my classroom instruction methods by integrating technological tools that add to curriculum and prepare students to be technologically aware, but upon which a students success or understanding of material is wholly dependent. My vision is to integrate technology into the lives of my students, while avoiding overwhelming them (and myself!) by utilizing technology simply for the ‘novelty’ of it. By using technology judiciously, and primarily as a learning and communication tool, my hope is that students will be able to function effectively and efficiently in a technological world and utilize technology while not allowing it to overwhelm their daily existence and/or inhibit their academic performance and social interactions. My mission is to provide students with an education that will prepare them for their futures, enable them to communicate and operate in society, and instill in them the critical thinking skills necessary to use technology in a socially and academically responsible way.

The use of technology to enhance classroom instruction is becoming more prevalent in recent decades, and teachers are expected to integrate instructional technology into their lesson plans in order to enhance student learning. As such, it is necessary that teachers keep up with technological developments in the classroom, as well as the technological know-how of their students, who are often highly dependent upon computers and other technological tools (Merç, 2015). While I do believe that technology integration is of utmost importance, I also feel that it is absolutely necessary that the use of technology be judicious and wholly relevant to curriculum. Though I will not be integrating new technologies simply for the purpose of “using” them, I certainly will choose to use technological tools that enhance my materials, and make curriculum more accessible to students. The tools that I find to be most relevant cross-curriculum, that are most readily accessible to students, and that consistently are met without apprehension in the classroom are email, text messaging, Google Classroom, Google Slides, Powerpoint, Google Earth, Interactive ‘Smart’boards and Kahoot.

By using technology as a social tool teachers, parents, and students can communicate and collaborate quite effectively and efficiently. I would like to teach my students technological skills that will enable them to function, operate and communicate with their teachers, peers and (later) employers, and email is most certainly one of the tools that I will utilize. Email is a readily available and simple-to-use tool that teachers can use to enhance communication between parents, students, and the school community. Emails are a quick, convenient, and effective form of communication that can be used with both parents and students, and the technology is accessible to many individuals in the home, or at work, in recent decades. Emails can be sent discreetly to inform a parent about behavioral or emergency issues concerning a child, and are often less disruptive to classroom and work or home environments than phone calls. Emails also give parents time to process written information before completing a response. Communicating by email has been suggested by researchers as a way to improve students’ academic progress in the classroom, and also to create conditions that aid the completion of homework and other classroom assignments. It has also been suggested that communicating by email may even help teachers to deal with behavioral issues, by providing immediate contact with parents which allows for continuity of care and transparency/collaboration. (Chernyshova & Kosaretskii, 2014).

Text messaging is also valuable tool that teachers can use to enhance communication between parents, students, and the larger school community. Much like email, text messages can be sent quickly and discreetly, with very little disruption to classroom instruction time and activities. They also provide for faster response times than emails typically do, and are accessible to a larger number of parents and families than email/internet. While communicating by email can be very effective in the classroom, some families do not have access and/or are not accustomed to utilizing this form of communication. A fact that teachers must remember is that a large majority of parents and families in low-income school districts do not have Internet access at home and/or outside of work hours. A greater number of families have access a cellular phone that is capable of receiving and sending text messages than they do to internet and email (Chen & Pakter, 2013). For families that do not have access to a cellular phone, there is even a program that provides cellular phones with limited minutes (and unlimited texting) that can be suggested to parents, which is called Safelink. All that is required to qualify for these phones is an acceptance letter for food stamps, or one for the free school lunch program and families may receive a free telephone for texting and a limited number of calls each month. Some students love electronic textbooks and readings. Other students have an affinity for social media, and yet others prefer online lectures, videos or podcasts. The bottom line is that while a majority of students today are adept at using technology, not all will find the same technological resources engaging and beneficial to their learning. Therefore, it is incredibly important to include variety in the technology utilized in the classroom. One of my favorite classroom tools, ’SMART’ Boards, are used in many modern classrooms and consist of a white board, computer, and projector that use touch commands to operate. SMART Boards are, in my experience, a highly effective tool for implementing whole group instruction, and for maintaining student engagement during lecture/style teaching. Though I am still learning to utilize all of the features on a SMART Board, I find them to be particularly useful for slideshows and for group work. The information is visibly accessible to students, it is simple for teachers to use the touch screen to move through slides without having to leave the front of the classroom, embedded videos and activities are readily accessible without additional technology, and it is possible to integrate material from the internet into lecture and activities without switching tools.

Teachers can also use educational apps in the classroom, and through their use can communicate and collaborate with students in ways that were not possible just a few decades ago. These apps are often free, and have rapidly become valuable tools for instructors to enhance classroom learning. Teachers can use these apps to practice vocabulary and skills, reinforce curriculum, and keep learners engaged. If implemented properly, the “use of technology in instructional activities plays an essential role for engaging students in learning” (Merç, 2015, p. 229). By using technology to facilitate learning and engagement, instructors are using tools that their students understand and relate to. One of my favorite educational tools, Kahoot, allows for teachers to create online quizzes and true/false games that can be used as formative assessments in the classroom, and provide feedback to the instructor regarding the absorption of classroom material. Presentation makers are also valuable tools that teachers can use in the classroom. Presentation makers such as PowerPoint and Google Slides allow teachers and students alike to create and present original work. These tools can be used cross-curriculum, and students may create their own presentations/materials for a given topic. One significant benefit of these tools is that they are easily shareable. Because of this, teachers may save the materials to use again and again, edit them, and/or tailor to a specific learning group. They may also share the materials with students on a platform such as Google Classroom, so that materials may be revisited, printed or viewed by individuals who may have missed class. These materials may also be worked on by multiple individuals at the same time, facilitating group work and collaborative planning amongst instructors. While not all students have a computer or internet in their home, many utilize technological devices at school, with friends, and in larger society. The downfalls of educational apps in the classroom should also be addressed, as technology can very easily become a distraction for students, and without proper implementation and instructor monitoring, they may be inclined to go off topic or push the limits of rules regarding technology use in the classroom. Another negative aspect, which has been mentioned above, relates to accessibility. A significant concern for economically disadvantaged students is access to digital tools, Internet and computers in the home (Cobb, 2010). Many schools in low-income districts also have the limited access to digital tools when compared with higher-income districts. Additionally, technology is not always reliable or predictable. As a result, teachers must always be prepared with a back-up plan, pre-prepared materials, and a significant understanding of classroom material and topics. In conclusion, it is my interest to implement a technology plan that will improve upon and deepen student understanding, increase information accessibility and promote communication among parents, students and instructors. I will utilize the technological resources that have been provided by my employing school which are most relevant to my style of instruction and stated purposes, but will also try new technologies that may be helpful to students. I will use educational apps, presentation makers and other digital tools to reinforce instruction, and to maintain student engagement.

Guilt and Innocence: A paradox in Oedipus at Colonus

A common theme throughout the Oedipus Cycle is that of guilt coinciding with innocence. In Oedipus at Colonus however in separate instances Oedipus claims to be innocent of his wrong doings as in his fight against Laius he acted in self-defense, and he also insists he was ignorant of his sins so he cannot be punished for committing them,” I bore most evil things, strangers! I bore them involuntarily, let the god know! None of these things was chosen by myself.” (521-23).

However upon meeting Theseus, Oedipus refuses his assistance claiming that he is too impure for Theseus to touch him. Oedipus, like all people has the unfortunate fate of being damned for sins he did not choose to commit. Which causes a paradox in his mind where he know he is not in the wrong, but yet feels the societal shame of his ‘wrong doings’ and therefore knows that he is condemned by society and cannot let Theseus touch him as he will then also be refuting the societal norms that make Oedipus impure.

If we’re going by gods’ laws Oedipus has committed unspeakable acts of abomination in murdering his father, and marrying his mother. Although the gods’ take sister-wives it is a thing banned to mortals. Murder is seen as a terrible act even to the gods. In these ways Oedipus unknowingly sins against the gods. However at the end of Oedipus at Colonus it appears the gods have taken pity on Oedipus, as they make his final resting place a hallowed barrier for the city of Athens. In this way is he absolved of his godly wrongs, and is validated as being innocent by reason of ignorance.

By the world’s standards however Oedipus is not blameless. The sin against his father is twofold as it is murder, but also an act against his sire; a costly error in a patriarchal society. Although he was acting in self-defense society holds a stigma against the ac simply because someone’s life was ended which is a chief thing of importance.

When confronted then with the affront of his incestuous marriage he also attempts to blame the city of Thebes, “To an evil marriage bed the city bound me—I who did not know--To a disaster that came from a marriage. With your mother, as I hear, Did you fill your infamous bed? OEDIPUS. Alas, it is death to hear these things [. . .].” (525-29). This last line Oedipus speaks tells us that it is like death to hear the truth of situation. As he knows it is too horrible of a thing to say; that one begot four children from his mother.

Conclusion

The paradox between ignorance, innocence, and guilt is a tumultuous theme in Oedipus at Colonus. It is a result of a man who in his mind is absolved of his crimes in the sight of gods, but can never be clean in the light of society.

Many aspects of life affect mental stability, such as a family history of mental illnesses, a sudden psychotic breakdown, or even a gradual development of symptoms. Mental illness is common amongst our society, and literature frequently uses it as a focus in stories. One famous example of mental disease occurs in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The play tells the story of a hero falling from grace when he becomes greedy with power. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth seems completely healthy in his psyche at the beginning of the play, but he soon transforms into a man whose shame makes him hallucinate and become hysterical. By the end of the play, the witches, hallucinations, and his hunger for power all have caused Macbeth’s descent into madness. There are various aspects of life that can impact a person’s mental stability.

The play opens with the introduction of supernatural characters, which are a major key. The witches spur Macbeth’s mental deterioration because, without their prophecy, Macbeth would probably have never sought out to kill Duncan. First witch: “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!” Second witch: “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!” Almost immediately after Macbeth’s meeting with the weird sisters, he has a hallucination of a knife. This becomes the first of many hallucinations he has after meeting the witches. Later on in the play, Macbeth pays a visit to the witches again and they give him more prophecies about his ruling. Second Witch: “By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.”  The second witch indicates that something wicked comes their way, Macbeth keeps approaching the witches about prophecies. If fate isn’t a sure thing, then it isn’t fate, however, Macbeth is going to kill Macduff in order to assure that fate keeps its promises. The witches warn Macbeth that it’s in his best interest if he doesn’t ask any more questions, but he flies into a rage and demands that they answer. Macbeth doesn’t want to look, but he can’t help himself. It appears like every time Macbeth sees the sisters, his mental stability noticeably worsens because these predictions distort his thinking further, and he starts to think that he is invincible.

Macbeth’s hallucinations progressively worsen throughout the play, and they showcase the amount of guilt that affects him. Macbeth’s first hallucination occurs during the beginning of the play; he sees a dagger with blood and believes it to be real until he realizes it does not exist: “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch Thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still”. The dagger is only seen by Macbeth, and when he told Lady Macbeth about what he had just encountered, she waved it off and thought he was silly. “‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine.’” Paranoia has clearly gotten to Macbeth’s head after killing Duncan, in this scene he speaks these lines when he meets his wife right after taking care of his business. When he talks about the blood he refers both to the literal blood on his hand but also to the burden that is placed upon him due to his huge sense of guilt. This is a hyperbolic statement, he implies that the blood would stain the entire ocean red. His conversation with his wife implies that the consequences of his actions can’t be easily hidden, although his wife tells him that it can be simply washed away. He’s going to be a changed man forever as a result of what he did. Macbeth’s second hallucination occurs after he kills Banquo. Macbeth’s vision of the ghost reveals his culpability over ordering the murder of Banquo and Fleance. His sense of guilt is powerful enough to make him lose his sense of reality. In doing so, Macbeth reveals that his tormented soul is causing him to begin to lose his hold on sanity; ‘O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’ Later, he claims that he hears voices that say, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”. He sees hallucinations, he has killed more than one person, and he cannot sleep. Macbeth’s guilt is slowly ruining him, but Macbeth goes on and tries to keep his title as king. Although Macbeth suffers the most, later in the play, Lady Macbeth also hallucinates that she has blood on her hands and is unable to get them clean, symbolizing her sense of guilt. Both characters’ guilt affects their lives to a point that they cannot function. Their guilt will ruin them eventually, and their wrongdoings will not be worth the negative consequences. Banquo: “And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray us In deepest consequence cousins, a word, I pray you.”

Overall, the mental deterioration of Macbeth as the play progresses plummets. The witches, hallucinations, and his greed for power ultimately cause Macbeth’s downfall. As an honourable man, he started the game, but by the end, he becomes a broken man whose shame eats him alive. To exchange for power, he sacrifices his mental stability because his shame won’t let Macbeth enjoy his victories. Macbeth makes stupid decisions, and eventually, the consequences are not worth it. 

Works Cited

1. Shakespeare, W. (2010). Macbeth. Simon & Schuster.
2. Boesky, A. (2012). Macbeth and the Shape of Tragedy. Palgrave Macmillan.
3. Greenblatt, S. (2010). Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. W. W. Norton & Company.
4. Mowat, B. A., & Werstine, P. (Eds.). (2009). Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library). Simon & Schuster.
5. Elam, K. (2007). The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. Routledge.
6. Holland, P. (2018). Shakespeare Survey: Volume 70, Volume 70: Creating Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press.
7. Nelson, L. (2013). Hamlet and the Politics of Secularism. University of Toronto Press.
8. Weimann, R. (2014). Shakespeare and the Power of Performance: Stage and Page in the Elizabethan Theatre. Cambridge University Press.
9. Bamber, L. (2008). Comic Women, Tragic Men: A Study of Gender and Genre in Shakespeare. Stanford University Press.
10. Wells, S., & Orlin, L. C. (Eds.). (2014). Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide. Oxford University Press.

Table of contents

1. Abstract
2. Causes of Insomnia
3. Characteristics of Insomnia

Abstract

In the movie The Machinist, the character Trevor Reznik suffers from primary insomnia as a result of his guilt. In addition to his guilt, anxiety, stimulants, and irregular sleeping patterns also contribute to his inability to sleep. His insomnia causes him to have an inability to sleep, hallucinations, delusions, inability to focus, and accident prone behavior.

Insomnia is a recurring problem in falling asleep and staying asleep. There are two types of insomnia, primary insomnia that is associated with psychological factors and secondary insomnia that is associated with physiological factors. In the movie, The Machinist, the character Trevor Reznik suffers from primary insomnia due his guilt. Trevor’s insomnia debilitates him because it causes him to have hallucinations, delusions, inability to focus, and accident prone behavior.

Causes of Insomnia

Trevor feels extremely guilty about an accident that happened where he hit and killed a young boy with his car and drove off after. Although he does not remember this accident, it is the source of his insomnia. Trevor also has anxiety because of the guilt he feels due to the hit and run. Anxiety and guilt can cause insomnia because the “quiet and inactivity of the night often brings on stressful thoughts or even fears that keeps a person awake” (“What Causes Insomnia, n.d.).

Although Trevor insomnia is primarily due to psychological factors, there are also physiological factors that contributes to Trevor’s insomnia. Trevor is often smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. Caffeine in coffee and nicotine in cigarettes are stimulants that excite neural activity and speeds up body functions. While caffeine can temporarily increase alertness, too much caffeine causes insomnia and nicotine also causes insomnia with withdrawal symptoms similar to caffeine (Stewart, 2013).

Trevor stays awake every night because he cannot sleep. He employs his nights constantly cleaning. He also attempts to sleep during the day, but with no success. This is a disruption of his circadian rhythm. Symptoms of irregular sleep-wake cycles include excessive daytime sleepiness and insomnia (Cataletto, 2015).

Characteristics of Insomnia

Trevor is unable to fall asleep and stay asleep although is is always tired. For example, in the movie, when Trevor is seen falling asleep, he will always snap awake again. Since insomnia, is a problem with falling asleep or staying asleep, people with insomnia have sleep problems. People with insomnia have symptoms of difficulty falling asleep, waking up often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep, waking up too early in the morning, and feeling tired upon waking (“An Overview of Insomnia”, n.d.).

Ivan is a hallucination that is a result of Trevor’s lack of sleep. He also has delusions because of his lack of sleep, such as his belief that his co workers were out to harm him when there was almost an accident at the factory that could have seriously injured him. When sleep deprivation becomes great enough, “the effects mimics those of psychosis”, with includes hallucinations and delusions (Coren, n.d.)

Trevor’s insomnia causes him to have an inability to focus and accident prone behavior. Trevor’s inability to focus caused an accident in the factory where his co-worker Miller’s arm was mutilated. He decides to throw himself in front of a car, which is an example of his accident prone behavior. A sleepy fatigued person is accident prone, judgement impaired and more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions (“Sleep Deprivation”, 2014).

There is an enigmatic quality to Art Spiegelman’s survival guilt, a guilt which presents itself subtly in Book I and much more palpably in Book II. This ambiguity, so to speak, stems from a perplexing notion. That is, how could one of the only characters in Maus not to have been in the Holocaust have survival guilt? How, out of all those portrayed throughout the work who watched their friends and families slaughtered, could Art Spiegelman be the one who is guilty for surviving? It is, ironically enough, the fact that Spiegelman was not in the Holocaust that violently facilitates his survival guilt. His assumed inability to grasp the genocide, combined with the daunting task of representing the millions of unheard victims, creates guilt within him for not being there, which is only augmented by Vladek’s burning of Anja’s diary. Of course, this guilt is also manifested prominently in the ghost of his brother. In the end, he could never be Richieu, benevolently set in stone, and he would always represent that which the father could not have back—his family.

While this discourse will deal mostly within the confines of Book II, it is important to note the catalyst in Book I that not only magnifies the guilt felt by Spiegelman, but also increases the very nature of his guilt, a nature which moves undecidedly between self-pity and outward aggression towards others. This catalyst, of course, is the revelation at the end of the first part of the series—that of the diary burning.

To understand the importance of the diary burning, one must first address the author’s uncertainty about approaching his topic. How can he grasp, in any way, the most tortuous and debauched display of humanity in history? This is, as one frequently sees, a predicament faced by many who have written of the Holocaust, Primo Levi perhaps being the best example. For Spiegelman, though, this uncertainty is exacerbated by his distance from the Holocaust. That is, he never experienced the camps, the stealing, the bitter cold, the smell of burning flesh. In this way, only two things can connect Spiegelman to Auschwitz—his father and his mother’s journal. The former of these sources is the more subjective, especially given the relationship Spiegelman has with Vladek. The latter, however, is an objective piece of empirical footage he can use to effectively portray his parents’ ordeal. Thus, when Vladek reveals he burned the journal, Spiegelman bellows, “You Murderer!” not only because the father murdered Anja’s memory, but because he massacred the last chance the author had to completely understand what so many say no one ever could (Maus I 159).

Within the first few pages of Book II, and therefore directly after the burning of the diary is divulged, the reader is given the first clear portrayal of Spiegelman’s survival guilt. The uncertainty that is alluded to through tone within the first book is now made apparent with Spiegelman’s questioning, “How am I supposed to make any sense out of Auschwitz?” (Maus II 14). His tortuous conversation with his wife—covering anything from which parent he would have saved to how diligent, even somewhat psychotic, his parents were in their search for Richieu—is a testament to his now overwhelming guilt. The guilt, though, is now moving from one of passive self-consciousness to one of violence and blame. His father “drives him crazy,” and it is this strained relationship which causes him to think so aggressively. Naturally, this strain is stretched to a precarious length by his father’s burning of the diary. His reaction, thus, is certainly one controlled more by emotion than by true culpability (the culpability of his father that is), and he could have, or rather should have taken the burning as a sign of his father’s own pain, rather than selfishly seeing how it affected his own guilt and even writing.

Moving on, Spiegelman’s guilt in relation to his brother is perhaps the most telling and yet ambiguous feelings the reader sees in the writer. Spiegelman is, in the end, Richieu’s doppelganger, and yet he is also his foil, at least in the father’s eyes. Vladeck sees Spiegelman as the physical representation of his first born, but never the emotional or familial representation. In fact, regarding the latter, Spiegelman is the antithesis of Richieu. If the implementation of smoking throughout the books shows anything, it is that Vladeck, whether intentionally or not, tells his son he would never have survived the camps. Constantly cigarettes save Vladeck’s life as bartering tools, which apparently implies, given Spiegelman’s habitual smoking, that the writer would not have lasted if put in the position of his father. Spiegelman’s prodigality, too, is something Vladeck comments constantly about, most notably in his son’s poor purchase of a tape recorder (Maus I 73).

All of these shortcomings, shortcomings that make Spiegelman human, never existed within Richieu. For this, the writer feels Vladeck is more Richieu’s father than his own. This unsettling feeling culminates in Spiegelman’s most clear and literal admission of survival guilt. As his wife relates and stresses that “Vladeck’s your father,” the author is brought to a climactic release, yelling “Stop! I feel guilty enough already!” (Maus II 120).

Spiegelman’s guilt is, in the end, ineffable and undefinable. Throughout his story he is constantly faced with the unquantifiable pressure of telling humanity’s most regrettable story. All the while, he is tormented by his dead mother, neurotic father, and ghost of a brother. These coalesce on a psychological level to effect a daunting and alarming survival guilt, a guilt that the writer, one could assume, will never truly be free from.

References

1. Schuldiner, M. (2002). Writer's Block and the Metaleptic Event in Art Spiegelman's Graphic Novel," Maus". Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-), 21, 108-115. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41205963)
2. Hathaway, R. V. (2011). Reading Art Spiegelman's Maus as postmodern ethnography. Journal of Folklore Research: An International Journal of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 48(3), 249-267. (https://www.academia.edu/22256968/Art_Spiegelmans_Maus_An_EthnoGraphic_Memoir)
3. Schuldiner, M. (2002). Writer's Block and the Metaleptic Event in Art Spiegelman's Graphic Novel," Maus". Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-), 21, 108-115. (https://culturalstudiesandcomics2018.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/writers-block-and-narrative-metalepsis-in-maus/)
4. Tabachnick, S. E. (2004). The religious meaning of Art Spiegelman's Maus. Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 22(4), 1-13. (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/170723)
5. Donoghue, O. (2017). The “replacement child”: On adoption, haunting, and the unlived life. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 18(4), 313-317. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15240657.2017.1383072)

The pressures of society can drive the mind crazy, and the fall into this madness is a major theme in the focus texts of this essay. Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a well-known play, written in 1606, whereas The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story written in 1842. Shakespeare’s tragedy tells of the guilt and insanity plaguing a nobleman, Macbeth, while Gilman’s tale follows the slow decline of an unnamed narrator’s mental conscience. The background, conventions and features of these texts piece together to underpin this theme, and these elements can be compared and contrasted for a deeper understanding of the complexities of one’s sanity.

Unusually, a relatively common purpose is shared between the two texts, though they were written over 200 years apart. Shakespeare’s Macbeth was written as a cautionary tale in response to The Gunpowder Plot against King James VI, promoting the haunting guilt pressing upon Macbeth in order to warn his audience of consequences that come with betrayal of the throne. Gilman’s text, unlike this, was more a personal story based on her experiences with feminist activity and post-natal depression. Gilman’s goal was to express the pressures of a women’s domestic livelihood, displayed by the increasing instability of her narrator, ‘trapped’ inside the bars and walls of her bedroom. While these purposes differ, they are similar in raising awareness within their audience. Gilman’s audience was told her story, whereas Shakespeare’s nation-wide viewers were warned of the consequences of actions portrayed. Ultimately, Macbeth warns the audience of the danger in betrayal, and The Yellow Wallpaper warns the readers of the turmoil felt by repressed women. Both of these warnings are achieved by the authors with an illustration of insanity, which allows for comparison of the methods each author used to create this image.

The text conventions are vital to portraying the descent into madness present in both focus texts, particularly in exploring the degree of insanity developed. Firstly, the text structure each author displays shows the form of descent the characters pursue. Shakespeare’s Macbeth follows the patterns of a tragedy, meaning the performance’s climax occurs early on and that Macbeth’s gradual demise into murder and power, and his eventual downfall, is a long series of falling action. Differently, Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper doesn’t reach its climax until the narrator has reached peak insanity, and her previous gradual disconnection from reality is a long string of rising action. Both texts display a decline in condition, but Shakespeare writes of an inevitable fall to madness where Gilman highlights the protagonists’ gradual escalation to mental instability.

Following this descent, many behaviours and symptoms of madness appear within Macbeth and the narrator, displayed by the thoughts of these characters. Gilman’s story most obviously uses this method as her text is written in diary entries, a literal structure of internalised thoughts. Instead, Shakespeare displays the thoughts of Macbeth through soliloquies. One of these soliloquies, the dagger, is a passage in which Macbeth sees ‘a dagger of the mind’, a manifestation of his guilt ‘from (his) heat oppressed brain’. This occurs just before the murder of King Duncan and is designed to give a first warning to the guilt and insanity that will lead to Macbeth’s downfall. A key passage from Gilman’s narrator can be compared to this, in which the narrator speaks of her investment in the wallpaper and how she finds more interest in it ‘than most children could find in a toy-store’. This behaviour demonstrates both the obsession of the narrator and her dangerous sense of creativity, which, like Macbeth’s soliloquy, gives a warning to the eventual nadir of the main character.

The character qualities of both Macbeth and the narrator have also become visible through these conventions, and they too contribute to the descent into madness present. Macbeth is an extremely ambitious character, who has a clear obsession with reaching the height of royalty. This ambition in combination with the paranoia and guilt discussed above was what led to the climax of Duncan’s death, putting Macbeth in an unhealthy position. This status of power with Macbeth’s ambition sent him into a state of confidence in which he’d ‘never shake with fear’, the source of his downfall. Similarly, Gilman’s narrator was also driven to madness by obsession, though this time in conjunction with creativity. The imagination of the narrator with the catalyst of repression is what sent her into delusion. These things together turned her focus to the wallpaper, causing her obsession and leading to her downfall to believing there were people behind this wallpaper, ‘shaking the pattern’.

As well as just displaying the degree of insanity attained by Macbeth and the narrator, Shakespeare and Gilman have used many stylistic features to allow the audience to empathise with the characters. Symbolism and imagery are two features used across both texts that paint a picture of the character's feelings to the audience. This is evident in Macbeth with constant speak of blood which cannot be ‘clean(ed) from hand’, which symbolises the irremovable psychological stain on Macbeth’s mind. This is also shown in The Yellow Wallpaper by the ‘revolting; smouldering unclean yellow’ wallpaper, representing the family and tradition that has caused the narrator's confinement.

Repetition is also frequent across both texts, which is used to convey importance to the audience and also to display episodes of obsession. Both Shakespeare and Gilman have used repetition to emphasise the symbolism in their texts. The Yellow Wallpaper puts an extreme repetitive focus on the bedroom wallpaper, a feature used to display the severe obsession of the narrator and build to the climax. Similarly, Shakespeare brings back the ideation of blood stains to display the guilt and obsession of Macbeth. In the case of this text, the repetition of guilt is also relevant to the purpose discussed.

In conclusion, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper share many similarities and differences. Many common techniques are used across the texts to achieve each author’s desired moral. The descent into madness of the two main characters was displayed uniquely across both texts. The audience was not only shown, but able to feel the stories of these characters. Both authors, using unique techniques throughout their texts, successfully captured the true essence of insanity.  

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien discusses the physical and emotional burdens that come along with war. The “things” that the soldiers carry are both literal and figurative. They carry sentimental items to remind them of home, food, weapons, survival gear, and even physical wounds. However, they also carry grief, longing, and terror. O’Brien focuses on the most prevalent of these emotions, guilt.

O’Brien, who is both the narrator and protagonist of the text, discusses his experiences in the Vietnam War. O’Brien uses his storytelling as comfort for dealing with his painful past and to mourn, “Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story” (246). He allows his fellow soldiers to be remembered by turning his memories into stories. In addition, by telling the stories, Tim overcomes some of his guilt. Tim is a pacifist, who when was first drafted, tries to talk himself out of going based on that fact that he opposed the war in college. He could think of no way to get out of the war as they would not let him go to graduate school and he could not fake an illness. He went to the Canadian border, thought about how “we make our choices or fail to make them” (60) and decided that running across the border was wrong, rationalizing that he had an obligation to his family and country. O’Brien felt guilty about fleeing. He did not want his family to look upon him with shame, and he did not want to be seen as a coward. It felt wrong to him that others had to leave for war and that he could just run away. Tim left for war a scared, young man, and would later return as a guilt-ridden man who is forced to tell stories about Vietnam to cope with the painful memories of war.

O’Brien’s main source of guilt comes from killing a young soldier. One night, he saw a soldier in the distance and could make out that he was wearing an ammunition belt. He felt in his stomach what was happening, thinking there could be an attack, and he pulled the pin of his grenade automatically, without thinking. The young soldier died. Tim felt guilty because “he did not hate the young man; he did not see him as the enemy; he did not ponder issues of morality or politics or military duty” (132). He thought to himself that it was not even a matter of life or death. Tim experiences extreme guilt, thinking that if he had not pulled the pin, the man could have just passed by. It is a difficult question because for one, it is O’Brien’s job as a soldier to fight and to protect. One would argue that it was his duty to throw a grenade at the opposition. Kiowa, a fellow soldier, even reminded Tim that the soldier would have probably died anyway. However, to Tim, it was the wrong move, and he deeply regrets it:

Even now I haven’t finished sorting it out. Sometimes I forgive myself, other times I don’t. In the ordinary hours of life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I’m reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog. (134)

Years after the war, he still cannot get over the guilt and appears to be a little haunted by the experience. Even if he attempts to forgive himself, he will never forget, and will still see the “the young man coming out of the morning fog” (134). He even tries to imagine what the young soldier’s life would have been if he had not killed him.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross also experiences guilt due to his experiences in Vietnam. He is responsible for all of his men on the Alpha Company, but as his soldiers start to die one by one, he begins to feel responsible. First, Ted Lavender died when he was shot in the head leaving the bathroom. Cross is unsure of how to lead his men and feels that is obsession and preoccupation with his love, Martha, caused his death. Instead of focusing on the war, Cross focuses on a girl who he is unsure if she even loves him back. He carries her letters and always thinks of her, wondering if she is a virgin. After Lavender is shot and his body is carried away, Cross sat in a foxhole crying. He knows that it is his lack of attention that caused Ted’s death. The lieutenant “felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (16). He does carry the guilt with him, but unfortunately it is not the only guilt that Lieutenant Cross would leave the Vietnam War with.

Lieutenant Cross makes another fatal mistake later in the war. A group of Vietnamese women warm the soldiers not to settle in a field along the river, but Jimmy Cross orders the men to stay there anyway and tells the girls to leave. Once the soldiers set up camp, rounds of mortar fell on the camp, and the field seemed to boil and explode. Then, Kiowa sunk into the muck. He had “lost his weapon, but it did not matter. All he wanted was a bath” (149). Cross thinks of Kiowa and the crime that is his death. He concludes that although the order to camp came from a higher power, he made a mistake letting his men camp on the dangerous riverbank. Jimmy Cross was trained to think of the soldiers as “identical copies of a single soldier, interchangeable units of command” (163). However, he preferred to view his men as human beings. Cross refused to see Kiowa as just another soldier who would die eventually, but as a person whom he feels directly responsible for his death. Jimmy’s guilt was so great, he felt as though he had committed a crime. Just as the soldiers carry burdens, Jimmy Cross carries compasses, maps but also the responsibility for the men in his charge. Jimmy Cross confides in O’Brien that he has never forgiven himself for Ted Lavender’s or Kiowa’s death.

Tn The Things They Carried, O’Brien discusses the physical and emotional burdens that come along with war including the most prevalent, guilt. After the war, the psychological burdens the men carry during the war continue to define them. Two people, soldier O’Brien and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross walk away from the Vietnam War guilt-ridden. Tim struggles with the circumstances of killing a young soldier. It was his job to defend and fight, but he believes that the soldier would have just walked away and that he could have spared a life. He did not have anything against the soldier, and feels that he took an innocent life. On the other hand, Lieutenant Cross feels guilty for not leading his soldiers well. He feels responsible for the deaths of two of his men, Ted Lavender and Kiowa. Ted died at his expense because he was too busy focusing on his love Martha, rather than his men. Kiowa died because he made a bad judgment call. All in all, these men had to deal with their guilt post-war. However, through The Things They Carried, O’Brien shows that is possible for people to deal with their grief and overcome their guilt.

Works Cited

1. Heberle, M. A. (2006). Mourning in the Things They Carried: Traumatic Reenactment and the Creation of the Imagination. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 47(2), 141-152.
2. Korb, R. (2008). The Things They Carried and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Ghosts and Shadows. Journal of American Culture, 31(2), 209-219.
3. McCarron, K. (2002). War Story and Trauma Narrative in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 43(3), 249-257.
4. O'Brien, T. (2009). The Things They Carried. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
5. Purcell, W. (2014). Consciousness, Memory, and the Tragedy of Being in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. College Literature, 41(3), 28-51.
6. Selig, M. (2001). The Things They Carried and the Fiction of Ethics. Twentieth Century Literature, 47(2), 207-224.
7. Smith, P. A. (2006). Ethical Embodiment and the Obligation of Witnessing in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 48(1), 25-35.
8. Starnes, T. F. (2003). The Things They Carried: Emotional Truth and Fictional Technique. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 44(2), 157-165.
9. Stewart, J. B. (1997). Vietnam as Narrative and Cultural Displacement in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, 30(3/4), 207-222.
10. Valentine, D. (2006). O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Explicator, 64(2), 108-110.

Frankenstein is a novel characterized by an unusually layered narrative structure. Narrators exist within narrators, narratives are passed from one character to another, and a distinct gap exists between the telling of the story and the historical unfolding of events. This patchwork narrative structure enables Victor Frankenstein to tell the tragic events of his life and to interrupt his tale with reflections on his fate. Initially, Frankenstein’s interruptive comments serve to insist that his destiny has been irrevocably determined and to deflect moral culpability for his actions. As the novel progresses, however, these metanarrative comments demonstrate his cognizance of his guilt, occurring with increasing frequency at moments in the tale in which Frankenstein exhibits escapist tendencies.

In the opening chapters of his narration, Frankenstein uses metanarrative comments to warn Walton of his (Frankenstein’s) doom and to frame his argument that he is not responsible for the tragedy he has experienced. These opening interruptive comments do not occur when Frankenstein exhibits escapist tendencies. Rather, they occur when he makes choices that he believes seal his fate. He describes his decision to study natural philosophy at an early age as “the genius that regulated [his] fate” (67) and “the fatal impulse that led to [his] ruin” (68). His decision to follow his father’s wishes and attend the University of Ingolstadt is memorable to him, for it was “the day that decided [his] future destiny” (77). To Frankenstein, these decisions are not choices; they are impulses that cannot be repressed. His fatalistic reflections in the opening chapters illustrate his acquiescence towards his fate and his ardent belief that he is not responsible for his -- and others’ -- misfortunes.

With the creation of the creature, however, it becomes increasingly difficult for Frankenstein to argue he is guiltless. Confronted with the monstrosity of the creature and his horrific deeds, Frankenstein attempts to escape his reality through the literal act of fleeing. However, his escapist tendencies cannot overcome his guilty conscience. Upon fleeing the courtroom after Justine’s conviction, he attempts to rationalize his silence about the existence of the creature. He interrupts his narrative, defiantly proclaiming to Walton, “The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence, but the fangs of remorse tore my bosom, and would not forego their hold” (111). By comparing himself to Justine and passionately arguing that she is innocent, it would seem that Frankenstein accepts responsibility for his misfortune. However, he stops short of labeling himself guilty, implying that his belief in his cursed destiny still outweighs his moral remorse.

The execution of Justine still weighing heavily upon him, Frankenstein flees to the summit of Montanvert. His escapism is again futile; the creature confronts Frankenstein atop the mountain and tells Frankenstein his tale. Seeing the creature as sensitive, intelligent, and distinctly human augments Frankenstein’s cognitive dissonance. He can no longer simply deflect blame onto a soulless, unfeeling monster. However, the creature’s physical return, his confession of the murder of William, and his demand for a female companion all contribute to Frankenstein’s belief that he (Frankenstein) is cursed. The dissonance created by the creature’s return is evident as Frankenstein laments to Walton, “I was guiltless, but I had indeed drawn down a horrible curse upon my head, as mortal as that of crime” (187). Although Frankenstein still attempts to argue his innocence, his belief in a decided destiny is waning. In admitting that he drew his curse upon his own head, we see a new image of Frankenstein as a character aware that his choices carry consequence. However, his assertion that he is guiltless reminds the audience he is still unable to fully accept the realities of his creation.

In attempting to create a female companion for the creature who has destroyed his life, Frankenstein again attempts to escape his reality. After months of working on this new creation, however, Frankenstein freely abandons his pursuit. Destroying the female companion is a point of no return for Frankenstein; he realizes he can never rectify the terrible situation he has created. After the creature murders his best friend and wife, he finally abandons his belief in destiny and makes a conscious resolution. “My first resolution was to quit Geneva forever” (223), he tells Walton. For the first time, Frankenstein chooses fight over flight. In his tireless hunt for the creature, we see Frankenstein as a man who runs towards his reality, not away from it. Although he never describes himself as a guilty man, his decision to destroy the creature is a resolution that suggests he is finally cognizant of his guilt.

Frankenstein’s interruptive comments throughout his narration provide insight into his moral struggle to confront the catastrophe he has created. His inability to accept his culpability in the first half of the novel is reflected in his recurring tendency to flee in moments that are morally challenging. However, these escapist tendencies always fail Frankenstein. By forcing Frankenstein to confront his reality again and again throughout the novel, Shelley argues that it is impossible to outrun guilt. Through his metanarrative comments to Walton, we see Frankenstein gradually come to grips with this fact and accept responsibility for his tragedy.