What is guilt?

What is guilt? This question was proposed in our English Literature class to get thinking about the prominent themes in the book, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. When asked this question, I thought of the most basic definition that I could think of; guilt is the remorse you feel when you recognise that you have done something morally wrong. But from this definition stemmed another question; is the definition of guilt universal? Does it have a different meaning depending on whom you ask? Personally, I stand on the side that says guilt is defined individually more than it is collectively. Guilt, for one person, could be something they feel for that they did; “I feel guilty because I borrowed this book and never returned it”, or it could be something they feel for what they didn’t do; “I feel guilty because I didn’t spend enough time with him, maybe things would be different if I had”. People associate guilt in different ways, too. To someone whose only felt guilty for comparatively small things, such as littering, would feel a different degree of guilt when compared to someone who felt guilty for something big, perhaps someone spending time in jail for murder. The baseline of guilt for the murderer is on a completely different level than the baseline of guilt for the litterer. Both parties see and experience guilt through a different lens, therefore how can one think guilt is universal? No one experiences the same guilt, therefore no one could have the exact same definition. Despite the general description of guilt is mostly universal, the specifics are individual.