The Verdict is Guilty

After finishing Wieland, or The Transformation, I struggled with determining whether or not I believed Wieland to be guilty, or responsible for his own heinous actions. Upon further reflecting on this subject, as well as gathering evidence in the novel, I came to what I believe to be a very solid conclusion. Wieland is in fact guilty for the crimes of murder committed against his very own family.

Sure, Carwin was an outside force that influenced Wieland to murder his wife and children. Wieland believed he heard a voice that was a higher power ordering him to murder his family, and in turn believed it to be a holy and just action. Evidence of this is found on where Wieland is quoted as saying, “The purity of my intentions…the deed enjoined by heaven, extinction of selfishness and error.” (Brown 170) These were the reasons in which I began to not fully blame Wieland for his actions.

Upon further debate, I began to realize that it is Wieland’s failure to question the voice in which he was hearing, and his own assumptions that the voice was in fact the Diety, as to why he immediately turned to murdering his loved ones. Even Wieland’s very own sister Clara is quoted as saying “If Wieland had framed juster notions of moral duty and of the divine attributes.” (Brown 234) Wieland was too easily influenced. Many people have outside forces that may tempt them to commit acts in which they would normally never do. Today this is seen mostly with substance abuse, or the wrong group of friends. But ultimately the decision is still the individual’s to make, and the responsibility of actions still lie with the actual person who commits the act. This is the major reason why I find Wieland to be guilty.

Ultimately, Wieland ends up ending his own life with the penknife. Why, if one found themselves to be innocent and, in turn, free of guilt, would they end their own life? Upon realizing that it was Carwin’s voice, I believe Wieland realized that he could no longer morally justify his own actions, and without justification how can one claim to not be guilty? Furthermore, immediately after he committed his actions he states that, “This was a moment of triumph.” (Brown 165) Triumph?! After murdering his own wife he feels triumphant. This shows a lack of empathy in which a normal person would feel. He then states “I gazed upon it (the corpse) with delight.” (Brown 166). Surely someone who was innocent, who did not WANT to murder his family, would never gaze upon their dead wife in delight. Not only was it Wieland’s own hand by which his family died, but his actions afterwards further prove him to be guilty.

In conclusion, there was too much evidence in the novel proving Wieland’s guilt rather than proving his innocence. Although I cannot definitely know the author’s intentions in creating the character Wieland to be guilty or innocence, I personally found him to be guilty and responsible for the death of his family.