History MyGodWhatHaveIDone / Literature

* Ishmael feels this way in ''[[DontCallMeIshmael Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel]]'' after [[spoiler:drunkenly kissing Sally, his best friend's girlfriend.]]

* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Age]]'', Helion tells Phaethon his origin: he had been a character in a scenario who [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds destroyed a planet]]. His MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction caused him to brood over questions of existence, and the brooding caused him to [[InstantAIJustAddWater become a self-aware personality]], no longer just a character.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Carrot has one of these moments in ''Discworld/MenAtArms''. He spends the night with Angua, and wakes to find [[spoiler: a large wolf in the room (she's a werewolf)]]. She runs away, and shortly after Carrot finds out exactly what just happened, he realizes that the first thing he did when he saw [[spoiler: "the wolf"]] was ''[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone reach for his sword]]''.

* In the DavidEddings ''Literature/{{Malloreon}}'' series it's revealed [[spoiler: Zakath]] went through this. When he was a young man of eighteen, [[spoiler: new to position of Emperor of Mallorea]] and madly in love, there was a plot against his life. The mastermind was revealed to be his lover. With the evidence against her so overwhelming as to be undeniable, he sentenced her to death. Shortly after her death, it was revealed that the mastermind was actually [[spoiler: Taur Urgas, King of the Murgos]] and he had deliberately set up an innocent young woman just to spite his sworn enemy. Utterly beside himself, [[spoiler: Zakath]] shut himself up in a room for a month. What eventually emerged from that room was an EmptyShell that spent the next twenty-thirty years trying to wipe every Murgo alive off the face of the planet.
* In Omega Rising, Jenny has one of these when she realises that [[spoiler: Knight is really Ethan]] after she helps in his capture.

* ''TheStand'' by Creator/StephenKing: Harold, after he leaves Boulder post-explosion and crashes in the middle of the desert.

* ''TheAssassinsOfTamurin'': This is Lale's reaction after she kills her would-be mugger/rapist. What stresses her out is that she didn't kill him simply in self-defense but because [[EvilFeelsGood she was excited to put her training to the test]].

* This trope also turns up in Creator/JRRTolkien's ''TheSilmarillion''. Túrin has this reaction after he kills Beleg and Brandir. [[spoiler: He kills himself after the second one]]. His father Húrin has a similar reaction when he realises his attempts to avenge his family have only helped Morgoth. [[spoiler: He too kills himself]]. Maedhros has one when his attempt to get the Silmarils from King Dior leads to the deaths of Dior's two young sons, and he and his brother Maglor have an ''epic'' one later when they realise that all the evil they committed in the pursuit of the Silmarils was for nothing because, after all the evils they've committed in search of the Silmarils, [[spoiler: [[HolyBurnsEvil the holy jewels burn them]].]]. [[spoiler: Maedhros then kills himself while Maglor spends the rest of time WanderingTheEarth singing laments.]]

* The end of ''EndersGame'' sees Ender discovering that [[spoiler: the simulations he and his team mates had run in Command School weren't simulations but ansible transmissions: the ships he sacrificed to win had contained real, living soldiers, as had the enemy ships he annihilated, and by destroying what he thought was a simulation of the enemy home planet, he had actually done just that and committed xenocide without knowing it.]]

* In JamesSwallow's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''[[Literature/BloodAngels Deus Sanguinius]]'', [[spoiler:Arkio]]'s first words (after [[spoiler: "Brother"]]) when he is DyingAsYourself. He is deeply moved by Rafen's ManlyTears, and while quite certain of his own damnation, begs Rafen's forgiveness.
* In BenCounter's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' HorusHeresy novel ''Galaxy In Flames'', after [[spoiler:Aximand]] kills [[spoiler:Torgaddon]], he [[TearsOfRemorse sobs]], asks what they did, and speaks of how they had been their brothers. [[spoiler:Abaddon]] (who merely thinks WasItReallyWorthIt) thinks he needs to be watched.
** In GrahamMcNeill's ''Fulgrim'', Fulgrim's first words after he [[spoiler: killed Ferrus Manus, were "Throne save me, what have I done?". His [[EvilWeapon sword]] lets him [[HeelRealization realize the depths of his crime]], and that his view of Ferrus Manus had been formed by spiteful misinterpretation of his deeds. ]]
* In ''MobyDick,'' Ahab has a moment like this when [[spoiler:the ''Pequod'' sinks with Starbuck aboard. Starbuck was a good man, the only man on the ship who never let himself be sucked into Ahab's mad quest or cult of personality, and therefore the only one who manifestly did not deserve such a horrible fate. Ahab himself dies moments afterward.]]
* In ''TheDarkElfTrilogy'' (the second book, ''Exile''), Drizzt ponders on this when he starts to realize that living on the run all the time, constantly paranoid, has caused him to start to lose his humanity, especially after [[spoiler:cutting off his sister's ''fingers'' and nearly killing his brother]]; however, it isn't until Gwehywvar looks him in the eye that he starts to realize it and tries to find ways to regain said humanity... or elfmanity.

* DaleBrown:

* In ''AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'', Jim strikes a little girl for not listening to him when he told her to close the door. It turns out she couldn't listen ''at all''. She was deaf.

* In JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Age]]'', Helion tells Phaethon his origin: he had been a character in a scenario who [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds destroyed a planet]]. His MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction caused him to brood over questions of existence, and the brooding caused him to [[InstantAIJustAddWater become a self-aware personality]], no longer just a character.

* In ''Literature/OverTheWineDarkSea'' Sostratos tells Menedemos a story of a Pancrationist(one of the nastiest combat sports invented) in Athens who kills his opponent (a very easy thing to do in Pancration) and goes mad with rage because of it.
* In AdrianTchaikovsky's ''[[ShadowsOfTheApt Dragonfly Falling]]'', Fenise asks "What have I done?" as she realizes why she won't kill Thalric.

* Invoked by Tessa in [[Literature/InfernalDevices Clockwork Princess]]when she realizes exactly why and how Mortmain wishes to use her.
* In TheUnderlandChronicles, Hamnet has this when [[spoiler: while trying to drive the rats out of the Garden of the Hesperidies, he permanently floods the garden, destroying the apple trees, drowning countless rats, bats, humans, and even the rat pups who had been taken into the cave to escape the fighting]], leading to him fleeing Regalia to live in the jungle,

* This trope also turns up in Creator/JRRTolkien's ''TheSilmarillion''. Turin has this reaction after he kills Beleg and Brandir. [[spoiler: He kills himself after the second one]]. His father Hurin has a similar reaction when he realises his attempts to avenge his family have only helped Morgoth. [[spoiler: He too kills himself]]. Maedhros has one when his attempt to get the Silmarils from King Dior leads to the deaths of Dior's two young sons, and he and his brother Maglor have an ''epic'' one later when they realise that all the evil they committed in the pursuit of the Silmarils was for nothing because, after all the evils they've committed in search of the Silmarils, [[spoiler: [[HolyBurnsEvil the holy jewels burn them]].]]. [[spoiler: Maedhros then kills himself while Maglor spends the rest of time WanderingTheEarth singing laments.]]

----

** And in the film version of ''GobletOfFire'', when Harry doesn't resurface from the Hogwarts Lake for a minute or so after being given his underwater breathing apparatus (Gillyweed), Neville gasps, "Oh my God- I've killed Harry Potter!" Harry then promptly does a spectacular backflip out of the water, making everybody know he's quite alright.

** Brambleclaw also thinks this when he accuses Leafpool of revealing to the other medicine cats of the badger attack. Bonus points for realizing that he made things worse by telling Hawkfrost, who told [=ShadowClan=] in return.

-->'''Graneet''': Stand by. Stand by.

* Susan's aunt from ''[[TheDarkTower Wizard And Glass]]'' may have ''died'' of this trope, as it's speculated that her fatal heart attack occurs when she comes out of her enraged trance and realizes that [[spoiler: she's just gotten her innocent, and pregnant, niece burned at the stake]].

* Cassie has one of these way too many times to count in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. "The Departure" is one, where she comes down hard on herself after tearing out the throat of a Hork-Bajir controller.

** Also, Ax, in the aftermath of his threat to bomb the Yeerk Pool in "The Deception".

* In ''DeathStar'', MCPO Tenn Graneet, chief gunner for the [[EarthShatteringKaboom superlaser]], is hit with the enormity of what he has done, and when he is called to fire on Yavin 4, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath desperately stalls for time]].

** Off-page in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', [[spoiler: Mammon Hoole]] performed an experiment that unleashed a WorldWreckingWave on the planet he was on; only he and his coworker escaped the devastation, which killed all life on Kiva. Utterly horrified and [[ItsAllMyFault blaming himself]], he hid for four years and came out of it as an emotionally crippled [[TheAtoner Atoner]], determined to try and make ''some'' good of his life. It all came crashing back in when he was forced to return to Kiva and saw the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent furious Kivan wraiths]], who blamed him just as much as he blamed himself. [[spoiler: He didn't think the experiment would turn so catastrophic; his coworker knew but didn't tell him, wanting to see it happen.]]
*** In the last ''GalaxyOfFear'' book, an ApocalypticLog made by someone stranded on Dagobah is found. The last entry has this.

* The DaleBrown novel ''Act of War'' has Kelsey quite distraught after she realises that she had unwittingly ordered [[spoiler: Carl Bolton]] to his death.

* ''ThePoisonwoodBible'': Nathan, after [[spoiler:Ruth May dies unbaptized]] due to his desire for a dramatic conversion of the village.

* Creator/CSLewis observed that Creator/JaneAusten loves to have characters suffer a dramatic, emotionally devastating disillusionment where they realize how blind and misguided they've been about a certain topic:

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[ProsperosDaughter Prospero Lost]]'', Miranda leads a boat that is pursuing hers on a route that ends with his crashing and dying. In ''Prospero In Hell'', she learns he wasn't an enemy. Nearly has TearsOfRemorse.

* Tsion Ben-Judah's reaction in in the LeftBehind book ''Desecration'' when he realizes he has given away the location of where the Israeli Jews would flee to according to what the Literature/BookOfRevelation says about the matter (the deserted city of Petra), fearing that he has messed up God's plan. He gets some reassurance from one of the Tribulation Force members that God may have intended for Tsion to let slip the location of where the Jews would flee to in order to lure Nicolae Carpathia's forces into a trap God has set up for them, which is all according to the Word of God.

* In the final book of the Literature/InheritanceCycle, [[TheHero Eragon]] [[spoiler: uses a non-verbal spell in order to defeat Galbatorix. Galbatorix holds both Eragon and his half-brother Murthag captured, using magic, and prevents them from using the ancient language. The spell Eragon then uses literarly makes Galbatorix realise what he has done, by telepathicly giving him the viewpoint of the situation that Eragon sees.]]

* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''LordOfTheRings'': Boromir's moment, when he realizes how badly he screwed up by attempting to take the Ring from Frodo, leads directly to his RedemptionEqualsDeath.

* In ''HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', after Harry, panicking and about to be Crucio-ed by Draco, unwittingly tries out his new "Sectumsempra" spell for the first time in the bathroom. The result is Draco being slashed to bits. Whoops.

** Ginny Weasley's attempt to destroy [[MailerDaemon Riddle's diary]] in ''ChamberOfSecrets'' was ([[http://alicia-chan.deviantart.com/art/HP-Penpal-problems-44206083 probably]]) a reaction to this trope. In any case, she was in full mode of this trope after being saved by Harry at the end. Poor Ginny. It must be... devastating doesn't even describe it... for an eleven-year-old to realize her actions have very nearly caused the deaths of half her friends and her crush. [[FridgeBrilliance Maybe that's why she was so sympathetic to Harry after the "Sectumsempra" incident.]]

* ThePoisonwoodBible: Nathan, after [[spoiler:Ruth May dies unbaptized]] due to his desire for a dramatic conversion of the village.

* [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea "Almighty God! Enough! Enough!"]]

** ''PrideAndPrejudice'': Elizabeth's turn comes when she reads Mr. Darcy's letter and realizes how flawed her judgment of Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham has been and that she herself is guilty in this area of the pride and vanity she so abhors.
** ''MansfieldPark'': Sir Thomas (the heroine's uncle) deeply regrets how he raised his daughters to be spoiled, vain, [[BrainlessBeauty Brainless Beauties]] and what a stern, cold father he was when he sees the effects such an education has had on them.
** ''{{Emma}}'': Emma is horrified over the mischief and pain her matchmaking efforts cause.
** ''{{Persuasion}}'' provides a subversion (in the correct use of the term): Near the beginning, Anne looks back with regret on breaking her engagement to Captain Wentworth, but the book ends with her realizing she was wrong and deciding IRegretNothing. Captain Wentworth himself plays it straight when he realizes what a mistake he made never coming back to ask Anne to marry him again after he began to make his fortune.

* In OverTheWineDarkSea Sostratos tells Menedemos a story of a Pancrationist(one of the nastiest combat sports invented) in Athens who kills his opponent (a very easy thing to do in Pancration) and goes mad with rage because of it.

* StephenFry's ''The Stars' Tennis Balls'' has its vengeance-obsessed hero break free of his island prison and return to Britain to pursue a drawn-out violent campaign against those whom he sees responsible. After various horrific killings, he looks forward to reuniting with his college sweetheart. ''But she knows what he's done''. The close of the book has him voluntarily returning to the prison he escaped, in all likelihood to stay there until he dies.

* The original {{Frankenstein}} had the titular doctor experience this after he had created his monster.
* In the DavidEddings [[TheBelgariad Mallorean]] series it's revealed [[spoiler: Zakath]] went through this. When he was a young man of eighteen, [[spoiler: new to position of Emperor of Mallorea]] and madly in love, there was a plot against his life. The mastermind was revealed to be his lover. With the evidence against her so overwhelming as to be undeniable, he sentenced her to death. Shortly after her death, it was revealed that the mastermind was actually [[spoiler: Taur Urgas, King of the Murgos]] and he had deliberately set up an innocent young woman just to spite his sworn enemy. Utterly beside himself, [[spoiler: Zakath]] shut himself up in a room for a month. What eventually emerged from that room was an EmptyShell that spent the next twenty-thirty years trying to wipe every Murgo alive off the face of the planet.

* The concentration camp commander in ''TheBoyInTheStripedPyjamas''. [[spoiler: Losing your son because of his naivete in regards to the camp ''you commanded'' can't be a good experience for anyone.]]

** Nadine too, after she's pregnant with Flagg's baby-she has one so hard that she throws herself out of a high-rise window to kill herself and the baby.

* Appears near the end of JeanDeFlorette for Papet. [[spoiler:He discovers that Jean, the man who he had ruined in the first part of the duology, was actually his son. Florette hadn't rejected him, as he thought, but was pregnant and had tried to move on when he didn't respond to her letter (a letter he obviously never received). Watching the look on Papet's face when this fact sinks in will quickly show the viewer why this movie launched Yves Montand to worldwide critical acclaim.]]
** Actually this comes at the end of Manon Des Sources, if you want to be picky. The ending of Jean De Florette is more [[spoiler: TheBadGuyWins]].

* This trope also turns up in Creator/JRRTolkien's ''TheSilmarillion''. Turin has this reaction after he kills Beleg and Brandir. [[spoiler: He kills himself after the second one]]. His father Hurin has a similar reaction when he realises his attempts to avenge his family have only helped Morgoth. [[spoiler: He too kills himself]]. Maedhros has one when his attempt to get the Silmarils from King Dior leads to the deaths of Dior's two young sons, and he and his brother Maglor have an ''epic'' one later when they realise that all the evil they committed in the pursuit of the Silmarils was for nothing because, after all the evils they've committed in search of the Silmarils, [[spoiler: the holy jewels burn them.]]. [[spoiler: Maedhros then kills himself while Maglor spends the rest of time WanderingTheEarth singing laments.]]

** Off-page in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', [[spoiler: Mammon Hoole]] performed an experiment that unleashed a WorldWreckingWave on the planet he was on; only he and his coworker escaped the devastation, which killed all life on Kiva. Utterly horrified and [[ItIsAllMyFault blaming himself]], he hid for four years and came out of it as an emotionally crippled [[TheAtoner Atoner]], determined to try and make ''some'' good of his life. It all came crashing back in when he was forced to return to Kiva and saw the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent furious Kivan wraiths]], who blamed him just as much as he blamed himself. [[spoiler: He didn't think the experiment would turn so catastrophic; his coworker knew but didn't tell him, wanting to see it happen.]]

* Arguably Judas Iscariot's reaction after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He later hung himself or [[ContinuitySnarl threw himself off a cliff]] out of guilt.
** Judas really shouldn't beat himself up. After all, without the crucifixion there'd be no resurrection, and do you think Jesus didn't ''know'' that?
*** Peter betrayed Jesus too [[DirtyCoward In a different way]]. However Judas never came back to seek forgiveness.

** And Erek, after he uses the Chee crystal to reprogram himself and goes BadassAutomaton to thrash a bunch of controllers and save the team.

* JoWalton's ''[[Literature/SmallChange Ha'penny]]'': Inspector Carmichael, after [[spoiler:saving Hitler's life]].

* In the final book of the InheritanceCycle, [[TheHero Eragon]] [[spoiler: uses a non-verbal spell in order to defeat Galbatorix. Galbatorix holds both Eragon and his half-brother Murthag captured, using magic, and prevents them from using the ancient language. The spell Eragon then uses literarly makes Galbatorix realise what he has done, by telepathicly giving him the viewpoint of the situation that Eragon sees.]]

* [[TheAtoner Jean Valjean]] of LesMiserables has a HeroicBlueScreenOfDeath based on this trope after he robbed a child. The robbing happened right after his encounter with [[TheMessiah Bishop Myriel]], who gave him a second chance at freedom after Valjean betrayed the Bishop's trust and robbed from him. The combination of these two events cause a guilt trip several pages long.