When we talked about Nietzsche in class we discussed a lot about the second essay, which talks about guilt and punishment. Here are two brief overviews of what Nietzsche describes as punishment and guilt. Guilt is being responsible and accountable for the action you took. You feel guilty because you could have done something in the right direction instead. Nietzsche states that if free will is linked to responsibility, then it cannot be linked to guilt. It is based on a debt you have acquired that needs to be repaid. Punishment depends on the offender's decision to act the way he does. The reason this person deserves punishment is because they have the ability to act differently all along, they chose to act the wrong way, and they have to accept the punishment they receive. Nietzsche says that if someone does not act freely (accident, madness, etc.) then he is considered exempt from punishment. Below I have attached two articles about the same story, the story is about a medical technician named David M. Kwiatkowski, who traveled to some states and stole fentanyl syringes. He would then inject the syringes, replace the fluid inside with saline, and put them back for use on patients. Kwiatkowski is infected with hepatitis C which has made this one of the largest epidemics of the disease in recent decades. He was given a 39 year sentence because of the impact of what he did and the many people who were affected by it. Some facts from the article to know the extent of what happened are that 45 people in total were infected by these syringes and one of them has already died. Linda Ficken said in Mr. Kwiatkowski's trial: “You have handed us a potential death sentence... middle of paper... an obligation. In this case Mr. Kwiatkowski was obligated to be punished for what he had done, even though it was not done maliciously to harm others and only to satisfy his drug addiction. Mr. Kwiatkowski told an investigator while discussing his plea deal: “I'm going to kill a lot of people for this.” This is a very serious case to show what Nietzsche's punishment and guilt are. I'm sure we've all had a situation when we were young or recently where we did something where we hadn't considered the consequences of what was going to happen. Then, when more people get involved because of something you did and it affects them, you start to feel nervous and emotional guilty about what you did. Only guilt can leave a memory in your head and make you not do the same thing twice. The punishment was a great affirmation to make sure the memory or message stays.