As Charlotte Bronte once wrote, “Remorse is the poison of life.” It is true that regret and remorse are inevitable in living a full life, but it also remains true that remorse can actually be poisoned – so poisoned, in fact, that it can prevent a person from leading the life they intended to lead. In the short stories “Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood and “The Closing Down of Summer” by Alistair MacLeod, both main characters experience repentance regarding their lives, particularly when they think about death. When Atwood's Lois thinks about Lucy's death, and the unnamed narrator of “The Closing Down of Summer” anticipates her inevitable death, one can see how remorse plays a significant role in limiting these characters from being truly happy. Lois is constantly haunted by her past and perpetually keeps her past alive through landscape paintings, never fully accepting what happened nor moving on after the death of her childhood friend Lucy. Likewise, the narrator of “The Closing Down of Summer” lives a solitary life as a miner, and throughout the story and through Gaelic songs he implies that he regrets the unspoken words and mistakes in his presence around his family . Through these two stories we see how remorse can be so overwhelming that it prevents an individual from moving forward with life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Lois and the unnamed narrator in “Closing Down of Summer” both experience something similar that instills remorse in both characters: death. In "Death by Landscape", Lois is the best friend of a girl named Lucy who mysteriously disappears in the forest. The cause of her death remains unknown, but it appears that perhaps Lucy committed suicide because she appeared to be dissatisfied with her life. Lucy has become “slower, more languid. She is no longer interested in sneaking around after dark… She is thoughtful and difficult to wake up in the morning” (Atwood 274). When Lucy then says she has to pee, she goes over a cliff and Lois leaves Lucy alone to do her business. Lucy screams and when Lois tries to look for her, she is somehow gone. Then, when Lois returns and tells Cappie that Lucy is missing, Cappie accuses Lois of pushing Lois off the cliff. This incident marks the moment when Lois begins to feel guilty about what happened. Even though she claims innocence, she is still haunted by others' accusations. On page 283, the narrative explains, “This is what she was left with: the knowledge that she had been singled out, condemned for something that was not her fault” (Atwood 283). With this in mind, one can see that Lois' guilt begins to affect her life beyond her public image. His existence is therefore limited, haunted by Lucy's death, and the memory never truly fades. His family life is also strained by survivor's guilt. Once again, it remains a mystery whether or not Lois pushed Lucy off the cliff. On page 283, her guilt affects how she thinks about her family and how she interacts with her family: “She can barely remember, now, having her two children in the hospital, nursing them as babies; she can barely remember getting married or what Rob looked like. Even then he never felt like he was paying full attention. She was very tired, as if she were living not one life but two: her own, and another dark life that hovered around her and could not be realized – the life of what would have happened if Lucy had not disappeared from time. (Atwood 283). His sense ofguilt seems to prevent her from living a life in which she is fully present. Rather, he is leading “two lives,” one of which is simply a hovering shadow. This feeling indicates that he is not really living, but rather existing; not really feeling, but simply doing. In this statement, she suggests that she does not remember breastfeeding her boys as children, even though such an action should be one of the defining moments of a mother's life, and she could not remember what her husband nor her marriage looked like. He claims not to remember the most important moments or events of his life; something seems to keep her from being truly happy – and that something seems to be Lucy's death. Lucy's death had prevented her from "giving full attention" to her life. The guilt over her death seems so burdensome that her family life is almost ruined. The fact that she was not “fully present” also implies that she was probably not fulfilling her vital role as a mother to her children and family. Ultimately, the remorse resulting from Lucy's death drove Lois away from her family and kept her at a standstill in her life. Similarly, in “The Closing Down of Summer,” the narrator experiences deep regret for what happened. it happened in his life. The narrator chooses a solitary life of mining that keeps him away from his family, something that makes him regret the things he has done. In this tale, the narrator attempts to “tell the nature of his work and perhaps some of his buried feelings to those he would love.” Unlike “Death by Landscape,” it is in anticipating his inevitable death that he begins to regret his family relationships. As he thinks about death, he becomes aware of things in life that arouse feelings of remorse. By calling attention to his detachment from his family, he implies that he could have said or done more for his wife and children. He says: “It's difficult to explain these things to my wife and as the years went by we grew further and further apart. Rarely meeting as shy strangers, communicating mostly over great distances through ineffectual letters or checks that say nothing that replace money with what was once conceived of as love” (MacLeod 244). From the way the unnamed narrator talks about his family, it's obvious that there is a hint of remorse and guilt for choosing the mining life over being there for his relatives. His lack of communication with them leaves him speechless, as he finds it “difficult to explain” these things to his wife. Furthermore, remember that he was not there for his children, such as when two of his children died, and to some extent he neglected the achievements of his other five children. Regarding his wife, he states that "there are moments when, even now, he can almost physically feel the summer of their marriage, of their honeymoon, and of her singing" (MacLeod 245). You can sense the regret he has for not being able to communicate. He seems to long for the time he was there with his wife, as the memory of their wedding and honeymoon remains clear in his memory – so clear, that he can "physically feel it, even now." This story is ultimately about a man who wishes to communicate what has not been said to those he loves; through his touching narration, anyone can see that he regrets the lack of communication he has with his family. When the narrator leaves for Africa on a mining expedition, he states, “We said farewell also to our children and our wives, and I offered kisses, and looked into their eyes, and wept outwardly and inwardly for all that I have not said or done and for my clumsy failure to communicate. I failed, as young people say, to 'say thingshow are they,' and perhaps now I never will” (MacLeod 253). Realizing his impending death, he realizes his remorse for not being there for his children and wife. As the quote indicates, he not only cries outwardly but also inwardly for all the things he didn't say or do. This sentiment shows how much he truly regrets not having been there, and as he looks back on his life, he realizes how isolating it truly is to lead a life of mining. Both Atwood and MacLeod's characters are stuck in a place full of regrets from which they cannot move forward in life. This miner seems to know that he is stuck in this mining life, and has even come to terms with it and the regret that comes with it, because he has also come to terms with death. In both stories, you can also see how the main characters' remorse and remorse are perpetuated throughout their lives, showing how they can never truly overcome the guilt they feel for what happened. Lois has her landscape paintings in her house that seem to perpetuate the guilt and keep the memory of it alive. It is obvious that her guilt prevents her from moving forward because these paintings simply remind her of Lucy. She clearly hasn't moved on from what happened because she can't seem to let go of these paintings. On page 284, the narration describes Lois: “She looks at the paintings, looks into them. Each of them is a photo of Lucy. She is there, behind the pink stone island…” Atwood further writes, “Everyone has to be somewhere, and that is where Lucy is. It's in Lois' apartment, in the inward-opening holes on the wall. She is here” (Atwood 284). Through these quotes you can see how the remorse for what happened still lives within her and around her, through landscape paintings and through her mind. The reason she has all these paintings, and the reason she refuses to go north or anywhere with "wild trees and wild lakes" is because she is forever haunted by the memory of Lucy and her guilt. Notice how Lois imagines nature as wild: "She would never go north, or anywhere with wild lakes, wild trees, and the calls of grebes" (Atwood 283). As a child she loved nature; he now sees it as a negative element of the world, as the landscape is dangerous, wild and unruly. This is because his guilt has changed his entire perspective on life; he no longer wants to be in nature and his life is simply a reflection of the guilt he feels over Lucy's death. Once again, this guilt is perpetuated by the use of landscape paintings in which he sees Lucy. The unnamed character in "Closing Down of Summer" instead uses Gaelic songs to perpetuate his guilt and keep memories alive. He always seems to listen to Gaelic songs because he says such music "speaks to us in the private and familiar." As articulated in Gaelic songs, he yearns and longs to be able to communicate with his loved ones. Again, it's because he didn't tell his family enough that he feels remorse; he may never get another chance to say what he wants to his family. He says, “I would have liked to move beyond the tape recorders and the faces of the uninvolved to something that might prove more substantial and lasting” (MacLeod 247). In this quote you can see how he wishes to communicate something to other people, something more meaningful through the singing of Gaelic songs. In this story the narrator wishes to be remembered for something; he wishes to be a legacy to his family and his children, like the old Gaelic songs. He wants to be remembered for something that will last long after he is gone. It is through Gaelic songs that he realizes that