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**Visit - Study Questions 4** 4. Of what crime or crimes is Ill guilty? Does he ever achieve redemption?

Ill is accused of betraying Claire when they were both young. He got her pregnant and then bribed two men, Koby and Loby, to lie to a judge and say that they had slept with her, freeing himself of any responsibility for the child. Claire was in love with him, but he left her to marry his current wife to avoid the responsibility of the child he fathered. Heartbroken, she left Gullen and became a prostitute at mercy of the world, where she became rich and powerful with help of all the husbands she acquired as the years past. She was never able to find true love after Ill, which made her bitter and filled with revenge towards what he had done to her. After the townspeople murder Ill, it is questionable weather he ever achieved redemption. As the play itself takes the similarities of a Greek tragedy, it is indeed arguable that Ills death was heroic, hence achieving redemption. Then again, the play is set in recent times, therefore his death looses that heroic sense and becomes a rather insignificant thing. Never the less, Ill does feel genuine remorse for what he has done to Claire so he decides he will accept the peoples choice, which turns out to be a unanimous vote, for his death.