Art Imitates Death

Not to sound morbid, but I love to see how writers handle the deaths of their lead characters. Here are some of my favourites:

Death by Aria

Most of us are pretty quiet when we’re on our deathbeds. Not so in opera, which frequently ends with the heroine’s death. Even lying down and dying of tuberculosis, these gals can belt it out.

The Sentimental death

The story is that Dickens fans stormed the docks in New York City, eager for the final installment of The Old Curiosity Shop. It’s probably not true, but the story does show the popularity of the unbelievably sweet heroine Nell Trent. Oscar Wilde nailed it for me when he said “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing.”

Death by Procedural

One of the several reasons I can no longer watch cop shows on TV is the necessity to put lead characters into peril of death EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. Mind you, it is good for a cynical laugh to see these ersatz cops or FBI agents run through a hail of bullets. Machine guns are apparently the most useless weapons in human history.

The Hero’s Death

No true hero can simply die in a random accident. They can’t stub a toe and develop blood poisoning. Take Beowulf. In a 3000-line poem, he spends nearly a thousand of them battling the dragon. There’s plenty of time, after the dragon is dead and he’s been mortally wounded, for the hero to boast about how great a king he’s been and predict that everything will fall apart once he’s gone.

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Bones and Keeps: https://www.amazon.com/Bones-Keeps-Dena.../dp/1773170147

Painting: Yoann Lossel (Beowulf | Funeral)