Is it plausible for someone to kill in self defense, then feel guilt afterwards?

[Addison]

It's human nature to feel guilty even when you're in the right. Whether it's beating a friend or co-worker for a promotion, reporting your brother for a crime, or causing physical injury(or death) in self-defense. It's a sign of having humanity, compassion. Of course everyone feels guilty about different situations for different reasons.

In the case of killing in self defense. Are they feeling guilty/terrible because they took a human life? Or was it someone they knew? Was it a dear friend of someone close to them? Depending on the character the could feel more or less guilty if the person's death impacts someone else more than themself. So really think about the who, why, what and so forth of why your character is feeling that way. And remember, our characters aren't 2D drawings we make of ink and pulp, or data, but 3d, deep, relatable humans we're presenting to other such humans.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I honestly believe it wouldn't just be plausible. It would be realistic, and actually refreshing.

I'm always irked when I read about characters killing people and feeling no remorse or horror or any kind of distress or emotion at all about it. Killing someone would realistically affect someone psychologically. If someone didn't feel anything after killing, it would make me wonder about the state of that person's mental health.

 

[Roughdragon]

It's human nature to feel guilty even when you're in the right. Whether it's beating a friend or co-worker for a promotion, reporting your brother for a crime, or causing physical injury(or death) in self-defense. It's a sign of having humanity, compassion. Of course everyone feels guilty about different situations for different reasons.

In the case of killing in self defense. Are they feeling guilty/terrible because they took a human life? Or was it someone they knew? Was it a dear friend of someone close to them? Depending on the character the could feel more or less guilty if the person's death impacts someone else more than themself. So really think about the who, why, what and so forth of why your character is feeling that way. And remember, our characters aren't 2D drawings we make of ink and pulp, or data, but 3d, deep, relatable humans we're presenting to other such humans.

Thank you for the advice; In this case, she feels guilty simply because of the act of killing someone and watching them die. At that moment, she realizes that she had taken the life of someone else, and she wonders if she could have done anything different that could have injured him instead of killing him.

 

[FifthView]

Then it would seem that the fantasy genre should be renamed to the sociopath genre!

I don't remember Molly Weasley melting into a puddle of guilt after killing Bellatrix Lestrange.

I think the question of whether the minimization of the psychological effects of killing in popular entertainment says something horrible about us...could lead to an interesting conversation, but ultimately it would go nowhere. At least, the genre(s) wouldn't change much. Besides, public executions and the like have been a staple of public entertainment since before history was written—most likely. Our modern variety in Western culture may have fictionalized public executions; but there's still the thrill from seeing killings, at least enough of a thrill to ensure the continued depiction in entertainment.

Seeing a killing versus doing a killing: another interesting consideration, because these are two separate things. So the POV character who kills is not exactly like the reader who reads about that killing; but I do wonder about the vicarious nature of fiction. Do readers want their characters to be just like them? Is there some enjoyment in being able to imagine killing Bellatrix Lestrange ourselves, or at least seeing "our own mother" doing that to save us, and feeling a rightness rather than horror?

I do think that some approaches can successfully leverage a reader's own discomfort regarding killing another person. So that can work too.

I honestly believe it wouldn't just be plausible. It would be realistic, and actually refreshing.

I'm always irked when I read about characters killing people and feeling no remorse or horror or any kind of distress or emotion at all about it. Killing someone would realistically affect someone psychologically. If someone didn't feel anything after killing, it would make me wonder about the state of that person's mental health.

 

[ShadeZ]

Not only plausible but extremely realistic unless she is a warrior, a cold-blooded killer, or psychopathic.

This might help.

https://www.quora.com/Have-you-kill...-psychological-burden-came-with-this-decision