Death Scenes in Literature from the Nineteenth Century to Current Fiction

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Abstract: This paper considers five elements found in the nineteenth-century depiction of death scenes. Dying characters have the benefit of being in a comforting place before they die, and they have contact with a caring human being. Removal of pain of the individual dying is a significant concern; material goods, in contrast, are insignificant to the dying. Finally, spiritual solace can be found in the death scenes. After showing how these elements are depicted in significant passages in Dickens novels, the paper then documents how the elements can be discovered in early twentieth-century novels; by century's end, however, the elements were almost completely absent. The paper examines contemporary twenty-first century novels whose death scenes include the five elements and suggests that future research is needed before a literary trend of novels rediscovering the nineteenth-century standard can be established.

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