How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[Tom] didn't feel like a hero anymore--he just felt sorry for this poor, hideous girl, and guilty at being the one who had trapped her here. (3.11)
Tom's much more likely to feel guilty than he is to feel like a hero. This is a persistent characteristic, and we'll see a lot of evidence of it as we go through here. Think about why Tom beats himself up so much. Does this possibly make him, in a way, more heroic?
Quote #2
"I don't like this slaving lark any more than you do, but times are hard." (9.21)
People seem to pass the "times are hard" buck a lot in this novel. Is "times are hard" a valid excuse for doing things that are worse than amoral? Does this excuse absolve anyone of blame?
Quote #3
"He was going to make me everything I ever wanted: no memories, no feelings. [...] Oh, why do you keep interfering?" (22.34)
"Yeah, Tom, it's all your fault Hester isn't dead. How could you?" Sorry, we're just kicking the kid while he's down, but Hester blaming him for stupid stuff doesn't help his guilt complex at all.
Quote #4
I killed Grike, [Tom] thought. All right, so he was dead already, technically, but he was still a person. He had hopes and plans and dreams, and I put a stop to them all. (24.12)
Grike is the first person (or near-person) Tom kills, and he feels bad about it. Considering that Grike would have killed him given half a chance, is Tom being unfair with himself?
Quote #5
"I supposed I should thank you for saving my life, too." (26.12)
Looky here. Little Miss Angry Pants, a.k.a. Hester, feels a little guilty for blaming Tom for saving her. While it's not quite an apology, it'll have to do.
Quote #6
If Hester killed [Valentine], Tom would have betrayed his whole city... (28.4)
Tom even holds himself responsible for other people's actions. Are Hester's actions in any way under Tom's control, and should he blame himself for any of this? Tom seems pretty conscientious. What does this tell us about his actions in the novel? Is he more like Hester or like Katherine?
Quote #7
Valentine was the cause of all this! It was Valentine who had ruined [Tom's] life, and Hester's, and put an end to so much more. (29.5)
We're finally glad Tom is blaming someone other than himself for the world's problems. And you know, he might actually be right this time: Valentine has screwed up more than he can possibly imagine.
Quote #8
Valentine hung his head, angry, despairing, ashamed. (30.16)
Wow, we're pretty shocked to discover that even Valentine feels shame at what he's done. But why does he? Is it merely because his daughter now looks down on him, or does he truly feel guilty for all the pain he's caused?
Quote #9
It was [Tom's] fault! People must be dead down there. [...] He wished he had never fired those rockets. (35.2)
Once again, Tom finds himself in a kill-or-be-killed situation, and he feels bad for saving himself. To complicate matters here, however, innocent people died, too. Maybe Tom does bear a bit of the blame for this one. Did he have a choice?
Quote #10
"It was Valentine's fault, and Crome's. It was the Engineers' fault for getting the thing to work and my mum's fault for digging it up in the first place. It was the Ancients' fault for inventing it. It was Pewsey and Gench's fault for trying to kill you, and Katherine's for saving my life..." (37.4)
Here, Hester finally gets to the root of the blame game... and these roots are long and twisted. Who's to blame? There's no end to the question, and no beginning. But does that absolve people of all responsibility? We're skeptical.