The Guilt of Committing a Crime or Misdemeanor

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 buisness. 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