A literary analysis of the novel veronika decides to die by paulo coelho - Detailed Review Summary of Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

In doing so, the narrative thematically explores the nature of insanity, the importance of living a genuine life, and the threats to individual identity imposed by closed communities and the rules under which they function. The narrative begins with Veronika's taking four packets of sleeping pills and with a description of her reasons for wanting to end her life and for choosing this particular method of doing so.

Veronika Decides To Die Summary

As she waits for the pills to take effect, Veronika reads an article from a magazine that triggers Literary essay love in the time of cholera a strong reaction in her that she decides to write a letter of protest to the magazine's editor, realizing as she does so that the letter will probably be taken as her suicide note.

At first she finds the thought amusing, but then as the sleeping pills begin to take effect, she becomes less amused and more uneasy, finally reacting with fear to the idea that she is about to die. Veronika does not die, but comes to consciousness in the notorious lunatic asylum, Villete, where she is told by Dr. Igor that her attempt to kill herself, initially unsuccessful, will inevitably succeed.

She has damaged her heart to the point where it will be unable to sustain her life for much longer than five days.

Veronika Decides to Die Summary & Study Guide

Locked in a ward with other "insane" people, Veronika struggles to come to terms with both her failure and her impending success. Over the days that follow, Veronika's questions Domestic violence against women a longstanding moral debate whether she is truly insane are met with varying responses by several of the institution's nurses, by Zedka, a fellow patient whose soul travels outside her body in a process narration refers to as "astral projection," and by Mari, a member of a highly functional group of inmates known as The Fraternity.

Veronika also experiences a gradual awakening of interest in experiences both new and old, finding herself attracted to a schizophrenic patient, Eduard, and drawn to a piano in the asylum's common room.

There, under the night of the new moon, she returns to her first love, music, and as Eduard watches, finds herself playing in ways she never had before. Igor told her that she could return home, Mari said she wanted to stay to give her husband time to recover for the months of stress prior to her institutionalization.

As she, cured of her symptoms, gets ready to leave and resume her life, a colleague tells her that she was being forced to resign. Mere days later, a lawyer visits her and informs her that her husband is seeking a divorce.

Devastated, she lies and tells Dr.

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho (Book Analysis)

Igor that her symptoms have returned and asks to stay. Though he knows she is lying, he agrees, and Mari becomes exactly the type of reality-avoiding patient she begged her colleague to spare her from embodying.

Another patient, Eduard, is getting treated for schizophrenia. However, after an accident and a stay in a hospital he developed an ambition to paint. His father strongly disapproved, and pushed him to continue his path toward becoming a diplomat.

Veronika Decides to Die

However, in the wake of this decision Eduard loses his grip on reality and becomes diagnosed with schizophrenia and ends up at Villete.

She finds herself playing the piano again, a Nicomachean ethics happiness essay passion that she had abandoned, and her sonata attracts Eduard, with whom she falls in love as she never has before.

Though married with children, she became fixated on tracking him down, and was convinced he was seeking her as well.