The Last Chronicle of Barset

The madness of innocent guilt

Dear Friends of Online Literature: In The Last Chronicle of Barset, what most impressed me was the reaction of Mr. Crawley to being falsely accused of having stolen £20. Specifically, after having suffered intensely for several weeks over this matter, he began to believe he must be guilty. Once, when I was falsely accused of something, being incapable of clarifying matters, time passed and I started feeling guilty! I thought, "I must be guilty for something, otherwise they would not accuse me." In psychology, there must be something which explains how this is possible. Perhaps because our own self-image depends much more on other persons' opinions of us than on our own introspection. I was eventually cleared of the misunderstanding. But, while I was going through the torture, like Crawley I was incapable of clearly separating fact from fiction.

Posted By carpentermap at Thu 30 Oct 2008, 4:18 AM in The Last Chronicle of Barset || 2 Replies