Crow Lake
Harseerat Khaira
ENG3U0-C
23/11/2013
A Guilty Conscience “Guilt is the hilt of the knife that we use on ourselves, and love is often the blade; but it's worry that keeps the knife sharp, and worry that gets most of us, in the end” (G. Roberts).Guilt is the strongest and most corrosive of feelings. Like acid, it can eat away at your insides and render you numb, just like it did to Kate. In the novel Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, the theme of guilt has a persistent presence and impact on Kate, Luke and Matt. To begin with, Kate Morrison is plagued by the guilt of her bother, Matt’s broken dreams. As a consequence, the guilt causes many emotional problems in her life. For instance, the constant mental pressures of guilt causes Kate’s “crisis” during one of her zoology lectures. “Because if things had turned out differently, it would have been Matt standing in front of them” (Lawson, pg. 200). During a lecture, Kate has a flashback about a childhood visit to the ponds with Matt. It is clear that Kate feels guilty for leaving Matt, who was her idol as well as her brother, behind. He taught her not only to see nature but to observe and understand it; and Kate feels that it is injustice that she should be teaching others when Matt taught her “everything” she knows. Furthermore, Katie is always in an emotional battle with her own mind due to the guilt she felt for Matt’s situation. “I had betrayed him, that was how I felt” (Lawson, pg. 201). Even though she knows Matt had caused his own demise, deep inside her mind, she feels that it was her own fault. This feeling causes her to fight with herself. Her situation shows that Kate could never come to terms with what had happened to her family and what had become of the Morrison dream. Finally, Kate’s guilt causes her to lose communication with Matt, which hurts their relationship. “What are you actually researching Kate? I don’t think you’ve ever said” (Lawson, pg. 274). It is plainly obvious that Matt is interested in
ENG3U0-C
23/11/2013
A Guilty Conscience “Guilt is the hilt of the knife that we use on ourselves, and love is often the blade; but it's worry that keeps the knife sharp, and worry that gets most of us, in the end” (G. Roberts).Guilt is the strongest and most corrosive of feelings. Like acid, it can eat away at your insides and render you numb, just like it did to Kate. In the novel Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, the theme of guilt has a persistent presence and impact on Kate, Luke and Matt. To begin with, Kate Morrison is plagued by the guilt of her bother, Matt’s broken dreams. As a consequence, the guilt causes many emotional problems in her life. For instance, the constant mental pressures of guilt causes Kate’s “crisis” during one of her zoology lectures. “Because if things had turned out differently, it would have been Matt standing in front of them” (Lawson, pg. 200). During a lecture, Kate has a flashback about a childhood visit to the ponds with Matt. It is clear that Kate feels guilty for leaving Matt, who was her idol as well as her brother, behind. He taught her not only to see nature but to observe and understand it; and Kate feels that it is injustice that she should be teaching others when Matt taught her “everything” she knows. Furthermore, Katie is always in an emotional battle with her own mind due to the guilt she felt for Matt’s situation. “I had betrayed him, that was how I felt” (Lawson, pg. 201). Even though she knows Matt had caused his own demise, deep inside her mind, she feels that it was her own fault. This feeling causes her to fight with herself. Her situation shows that Kate could never come to terms with what had happened to her family and what had become of the Morrison dream. Finally, Kate’s guilt causes her to lose communication with Matt, which hurts their relationship. “What are you actually researching Kate? I don’t think you’ve ever said” (Lawson, pg. 274). It is plainly obvious that Matt is interested in