Guilt as a Motivation for Change

            Historically, authors and poets have been a driving force for informing the masses and encouraging ethical changes in society.  Though these literary activists used many tools to achieves their ends, one such tool was to invoke a feeling of guilt upon the reader in order to either call them to action or encourage the reader to consider altering their mindset on various issues due to new information.  Guilt as a literary device can be a powerful motivator when attempting to sway a person's actions or opinions regarding certain ethical subjects.  A normal, empathetic human being could not possibly turn a blind eye to a great injustice once brought to their attention, especially if their own actions had been unknowingly supporting a heinously unethical activity.  The reader may not be spurred to act upon the new information, but their outlook would have been forever changed for the better.  The theme of guilt as a motivation for change can be prominently seen throughout a large portion of the literature we have experienced this semester.  Whether the ethical subject be racism, sexism, or child labor, guilt has been a weapon at the disposal of many authors throughout the various eras of literature discussed in class.  

            For Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of the most noble issues she discussed in her works was the injustice of child labor.  During the British Industrial Revolution, factories sprang up and demanded more and more unskilled workers to keep them running.  Women and children were sought after as a cheap resource to fill in the gaps in the workforce.  However, conditions were horrid, and factories were an unsanitary and a highly dangerous environment for anyone, especially children, to work in.  In Browning's poem, "The Cry of the Children," the author paints the harsh realities of child labor as well as the impacts it might have on the child psyche.  Children are represented as having their childhoods stripped from them and being forced to work and act as adults well before their time.  The crying children were even depicted as going so far as to wish for an early death, as a form of release from the harsh conditions that dominated their childhood.  Sure such a mindset was meant to instill pity into the readers' hearts, but even more so, instill guilt into their hearts of the parents who sent their children to work as well as the employers to did little to improve their working conditions.  

            This type of depiction mirrored The Tone of the Times as though the industrial revolution brought about great technological advancements, living conditions plummeted and the discrepancy between classes became much more evident.  In poverty, hunger, and dirt did the working class live their lives as represented in Hood's poem, "Song of the Shirt."  This poem depicts the labor conditions women suffered as well as the oppressive mindset forced upon them.  Similarly to "The Cry of the Children." women are shown to have a damaged psychological mindset due to the monotonous factory work they had to endure.  There is no time to even daydream for an instant.  The working woman must continuously sew, stitch, and work constantly, and without repose.  In class, we discussed the repetitious use of the phrase "stitch! stitch! stitch!" in the poem as it furthers the conveyance of the monotonous lifestyle the working class lead.  Due to the monotony of even the content of the poem, the result is that the piece is not pleasant to read.   The reader is put in a sour mood reading it as well as compelled to feel bad for the women depicted.  This feeling extends to guild when the reader begins to realize that the products they enjoy as well as the lifestyle they lead are reliant on the dehumanization of the workforce, especially the women and children.  

            This type of dehumanization can also be seen via Charlie Chaplin's film, "Modern Times."  Though this film embraces comedy to express discontent rather than guilt, the provided clip does illustrate the dehumanization of the workforce to some extent. 

            William Cowper's "The Negro's Complaint" took on the serious issue of slavery as well as the task of informing the masses about the potential mindset of the subjugated race.  Cowper wrote the piece from the perspective of a slave as he illustrated the confusion a logical black man is faced with in a world where slavery exists.  Rather than show the dehumanization of the subject as the previous two works did, this endeavors to illuminate the humanization of those that many felt to be inferior.  It compels the readers to think of slaves in the same way they would another person they might pass on the street.  In addition,  the poem served to be A religious Appeal to Christians who did not speak out against slavery.  The piece argued that no religion was just for one race, and that if we believed that a religion extended certain rights to human beings, then those rights could not be hindered by the color of a person's skin.  Cowper's Complaint was that those back in Britain who enjoyed the benefits of slavery were guilty of encouraging it.  In that sense, this issue was similar to child labor as well as the harsh working conditions during the industrial revolution.  Those that embraced ignorance and inaction were made to feel guilty upon being educated.  In class, we discussed how these types of anti-slavery poems were targeted at and became popular with housewives and women.  Knowing that, I ask who could possibly be better to guilt trip the advocates of slavery than the women behind them.

            Robert Southey's "The Sailor Who Served in the Slave Trade" continues the fight against slavery with the depiction of a sailor who is forced to flog a female slave, which results in the man being overcome by his own Self Loathing in Bristol.  The poem follows the man as he falls deeper and deeper into anguish and guilt as he is overcome by the revelation that the woman he flogged had died the day after.  The man represents the reader, as a normal human being, being forced to commit such a travesty and feeling exactly what a normal person would.  The poem serves to not only inform the readers of the realities of the events which happen on a daily basis due to the slave trade, but also to disgust the readers, make them feel guilty for their country having any part of the slave trade.  From that guilt, readers are called to action against slavery, and it is because of poems such that these that public perception and opinion swayed so severely that the slave trade was eventually done away with in Britain. 

            Finally, Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" utilizes another character driven by guilt over an atrocity he had committed.  The poem features a Duke speaking to a representative of the family whose daughter he will potentially marry.  The Duke shows a painting of his previous wife to the representative and begins to tell the story of the painting as well as well as the woman it is of, his previous wife.  Throughout the explanation, the Duke's guilt overcomes him and he indirectly confesses that he was the one who had her killed after she failed to meet his expectations of her.  He wanted her to practically worship him and only pay attention to him and ignore all others.  His wife was a human being, though, and could not disregard her basic human rights.  This poem illustrates the lower standing of women at the time and how they were supposed to act.  Wives were supposed to be domesticated and be completely loyal to their husbands.  In that sense, they were expected to be less than human as they seemed to have fewer human rights married than single.  However, society was set so that women had fewer legal rights single than married.  This poem attacked that mindset, likening the lesser status of women married to the act of killing them outright.  In a sense, the Duke represents all men, and killing his wife would be the act of marriage itself.  Courtship would be similar to a game show when regarding marriage, And Behind Curtain #1.... Poison!

            Other works such as Rossetti's "Goblin Market," Coleride's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and Arnold's "The Forsaken Merman" utilize guilt to establish a point or a need for change, but with only these few, a pattern can be established which shows the reliance of this emotion through these literary eras.  This technique, however, relies on the subject to be undeniably, morally wrong in order to provoke the necessary feeling of guilt in the reader.  As such, the majority of the pieces that utilize this technique are doing so in order to right a great injustice on humanity.  Slavery, child labor, and the subjugation of women are but a few of these subjects, but no one can deny the ethical importance they have had in history.