Synopsis

When Martha Gordon's long-time husband leaves her, she doesn't bat an eye. Always the perfect wife, she is amazingly understanding of Ted's "need" to be with a younger woman. Martha has always been a good girl, her sole act of rebellion against her parents being getting married in a church. Then she decides to take a job teaching English to inmates at a local prison. Menial housechores and other duties suddenly don't have the same lure, and Martha finds she can't wait to return to work and the excitement of being surrounded by criminals. When Ted finds her inside "his" unkempt home (he readily points out that he bought it with his money, after all), the children not properly cared for, and a glass of gin in her hand, their past comes to a head. Martha can finally laugh, though not without impunity.

"Guilt" was adapted into the short film Martha (played by Jennifer Dale, produced by Deepa Mehta Saltzman) for the CBC, and played at various festivals including Cannes in France as part of a larger, three-story film, Martha, Ruth & Edie.

Bibiliography

Canderlaria, Frederick (ed.), West Coast Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Oct 1978), Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, pp 3-15.