Existential and spiritual issues in death attitudes

Lisey's Story

Stephen King

Twee jaar na de dood van een schrijver ruimt zijn weduwe zijn bezittingen op, waardoor het verleden weer boven komt.

A Doll's House

Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen portrays Nora, the wife, as a "doll," beautiful, unsophisticated, childlike, well-meaning, but ignorant of the adult world and affairs. All of her friends see her as a doll. Her husband Torvald treats her as one, calling her childish names. He tries to control all of her behavior, not because he is mean, but because he loves her and he realizes that she is unable to do so. IN "A Doll's House, Torvald" tells Nora what to eat so that her teeth will not be spoiled from sugar and how much she should spend because she does not understand much about money. And it is the latter, the money, that gets Nora into trouble. Torvald was sick some years back and needed to travel and stay in a warmer climate for some months, but the couple had no money. She, out of childish but ignorant love, borrowed money from an unscrupulous man who insisted that she have her father countersign the loan. Her father was dying, so she forged his signature on the loan document. She was certain that this was not wrong because her intentions were pure, she wanted to save her husband's life. She did not tell her husband about the loan because she childishly wanted to surprise him someday in the future and show him that she acted wisely and that she, who he thought of as childlike, saved his life. She laughed about her cleverness often when she was alone. Now the unscrupulous lender is demanding something from Nora, or he will reveal the forgery to her husband and his employer, and this will affect her marriage and her husband will lose his job. The tragedy in Henrik Ibsen's "The Doll's House" probably would not have occured if the people would have treated women properly as human beings rather than dolls.

Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy

Hardy's masterpiece traces a poor stonemason's ill-fated romance with his free-spirited cousin. No Victorian institution is spared - marriage, religion, education - and the outrage following publication led the embittered author to renounce fiction. Modern critics hail this novel as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought.

To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf

In To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf draws on her childhood experiences to create an autobiographical novel with universal themes; a masterpiece in the tradition of Proust and Joyce.