Judah's Wife Merriam example essay topic

The Guilt of Committing a Crime or Misdemeanor In the movie Crimes and Misdemeanors, the main character, Judah Rosenthal, make a life changing decision when he decided to kill his mistress. For Judah, there were no other alternatives to keep his affair a secret. His mistress, Delores, wanted to confront Judah's wife Merriam to tell her about the affair that had been going on for the last past three years since Judah could not tell her himself. He knew that if Merriam found out she would not forgive him and he could not stand to see her suffer and his life crumbled to pieces. The public finding out about the affair would also had created problems for his buisnesse. He is known as a successful ophthalmologist who is well respected by his patients.

Hiring a hit man to kill Delores is the only option to keep his affair a secret. For three years Judah and Delores carried on an affair. Their relationship had all started when they met on an airplane. She was a flight attendant and he was a rich ophthalmologist sitting in first class attending a business trip.

The moment they started talking, they hit it off which soon led to an affair. She got an apartment in New York City so that she could be close to Judah. Of course, the affair was just a convenience thing for Judah, but on the other hand Delores starts to feel true feelings about him. She wanted him all to herself. One day, when Judah came home from work he found an unopened letter on the living room table sent to Merriam from Delores. Judah quickly looked around and opened the letter.

The letter was about Delores confessed to Merriam about the three year love affair between her and Judah and how she wanted to meet up with Merriam. Judah was furious and put the letter into the fire. He went to Delores's apartment and confronted her about the letter to ask her why she would do such a thing. He also told her that thankfully that he got to the letter before Merriam did. She told him that it was time to put this affair to an end so that she and Judah could be together.

Judah mentioned that he never made any promises of them being together and he would certainly tell his family about his secret. On occasions, Judah felt like he needed to talk to someone about this so he turned to one of his patients Ben who was a Jewish Rabbi that was steadily going blind. Judah told him about his affair and how his mistress wanted to tell his wife and he did not know what to do. Ben told him that the best thing to do is tell his wife the truth. His wife might not forgive him but that is a consequence that he would deserve for his actions. Judah respected Ben's advice but was not strong enough to confront his wife and tell her the truth so decided to take a different approach.

Judah sought advice in his brother to see what he thought he should do about the situation. His brother gave him two options. He could told his wife about the affair in hoping that she might forgive him or he knows of someone that could "get rid of" Delores so that Judah's secret would never be revealed. Judah thought that his brother was crazy and knew he could never do such a thing, but decided later to actually go through it.

Judah got a call late at night from his brother saying how perfect the murder went through and there was nothing that Judah could now worry about. Judah began to cry because he was shocked at the fact that he had killed someone to better himself. Throughout the first couple of weeks and months of Delores death he was constantly nervous and uptight towards his family and friends. Then his family starts to see how different he was acting. The emotions of when a person commits a crime such as murder would be unquestionable.

Some people have a heart and might care for their mistakes but some do not and they feel no emotion whatsoever about their mistakes. Judah surprisingly had a heart though because it was obvious that he felt guilty and sick to his stomach that he took someone's life. He then started to enjoy life a little better now that he starts to spend a lot of time with his wife and family. He felt that connection of love between his wife and him again. Judah and his wife attended Ben's daughters wedding. Judah walked into a back room and discovers a man who he had never met before, Cliff, who is an upset lonely man who is bummed out about a woman he loved who is in love with another man who he despised.

Cliff began to tell Judah how he was making a film about a murder but could not think of a perfect plot. Judah suggested the exact murder plot that had occurred in his very own life but of course did not mention that it really had occurred. Cliff went along with Judah's plot but then asked him how someone could live with the guilt of killing someone for their own mistake and never taking the blame for it. Judah says that you just got to cope with it somehow and that life goes on. Cliff accepted his response and they shrugged the conversation off when Merriam arrived outside of the room.

At the very end Judah received a call from his brother stating that someone else has been charged for Delores's murder and now he can go on with his life without the worry of getting caught for the murder. Of course, the news made Judah feel at ease but the guilt would always be apart of his life from now on. Even though someone else may physically be serving for his horrible choice in life, Judah will always have to know inside what terrible decisions he had made and how they could be accounted for..