Death, Dying, Grief, and Mourning in Western Literature
Accidental - Animals - Assassinations - Biblical - Burial Rites - Criminals - Children - Friend - Funerals - Grief - Group/Genocide - Heroes - Lover/Spouse - Martyrs - Metaphoric - Mourning - Murder - Mysterious - Noble - Old Age
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Accidental: | Victor Hugo, Hunchback of Notre Dame | Priest |
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime & Punishment | Friend | |
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy | Roberta | |
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God | Tea Cake | |
Nevil Shute, Trustee from the Tool Room | John Dermott and wife |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Animals: (Sacrificial) | Bulfinch Mythology, Legends of Charlemagne | Rinaldo |
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis | Gregor Samsa | |
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises | Bull | |
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible | African Gray Parrot | |
Monique Truong, The Book of Salt | “Old Man” |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Animals: (Pets) | John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga | Balthasar |
Katherine Mansfield, The Canary/ Dove’s Nest | The Canary | |
Farley Mowat, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be | Mutt | |
Monique Truong, The Book of Salt | Bird & Mother | |
Jennifer Lash, Blood Ties | Birkin |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Assassinations Murder Criminals | Homer, The Iliad | Patroklos |
Euripides, Alcestis | Alcestis | |
Bulfinch Mythology, Legends of Charlemagne | Rinaldo | |
Shakespeare, Othello | Othello | |
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans | Cora & Magua | |
Alexander Pushkin, Queen of Spades | Countess & Ghost | |
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime & Punishment | Pawnbroker | |
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray | Dorian Gray | |
Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands | Willems | |
Franz Kafka, The Trial | Herr K | |
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy | Roberta | |
William Faulkner, Light in August | Joe Christmas | |
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men | Lenny | |
Albert Camus, The Stranger | The Arab | |
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood | Hickock | |
John le Carre', Smiley’s People | Leipzig | |
Toni Morrison, Beloved | Sethe | |
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain | Inman | |
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones | Susie Salmon |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Biblical | King James, The Bible, Deuteronomy 32 & 34 | Moses |
King James, The Bible, Ecclesiastes 9 & 12 | Humankind | |
Unknown, Book of J. 177 & 178 | Moses | |
King James, New Testament | Jesus | |
John Milton, Paradise Lost | Redeemer |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Burial Rites Funerals Rituals after Death | Unknown, Gilgamesh | Enkidu |
King James, The Bible, Deuteronomy 32 & 34 | Moses | |
Unknown, Book of J. 177 & 178 | Moses | |
King James, New Testament | Jesus | |
Modern Text, Beowulf | Beowulf | |
Snirru Sturluson, Prose Edda, The Death of Balder | Balder | |
The Sagas of the Icelanders, Viga Glum’s Saga | Thorvald Tafald | |
J. Bedieren, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult | Tristan & Iseult | |
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron | Salvestra & Girolamo | |
Johathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travel’s | Burial Rites | |
Marie Henri Beyle (Stendhal), Red & Black | Julien Sorel | |
Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall | Arthur Huntingdon | |
Emile Zola, Nana | Nana | |
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace | Prince Andrey | |
Leo Tolstoy, Death of Ivan Ilych | Ivan Ilych | |
James Joyce, Ulysses | Patty Digham’s Funeral | |
Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March | Emperor Francis Joseph & Von Trotta | |
Harold Robbins, A Stone For Danny Fisher | Danny Fisher | |
Farley Mowat, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be | Mutt |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Child Children | Euripides, Medea | Alcestis |
Euripides, The Trojan Women | Astyanax | |
Mary Shelley, The Last Man | Son & Wife | |
Victor Hugo, Hunchback of Notre Dame | Esmerelda | |
Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop | Little Nell | |
Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Match-Seller | Match-girl | |
George Eliot, Mill on the Floss | Tom & Maggie | |
Walt Whitman, Death of a Pennsylvania Soldier | Frank H. Irwin | |
Mark Twain, The Death of Jean | Jean, Daughter | |
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis | Gregor Samsa | |
Thomas Mann, Magic Mountain | Joachim Ziemssen | |
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy | Roberta | |
Harold Robbins, A Stone For Danny Fisher | Danny Fisher | |
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones | Susie Salmon |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Friend | Unknown, Gilgamesh | Enkidu |
Homer, The Iliad | Patroklos | |
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron | Salvestra & Girolamo | |
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote | Don Quixote | |
Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop | Little Nell | |
Emile Zola, Nana | Nana | |
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace | Prince Andrey | |
Steven Crane, The Red Badge of Courage | The Tall Soldier | |
Henry James, Portrait of a Lady | Ralph Touchett | |
John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga | Old Jolyon & Balthasar | |
James Joyce, Ulysses | Patty Digham’s Funeral | |
Katherine Mansfield, The Canary/ Dove’s Nest | The Canary | |
Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop | Fa. Jean Marie Latour | |
William Faulkner, Light in August | Joe Christmas | |
William Faulkner, Delta Autumn | McCaslin | |
Helen Zenna Smith, Not so Quiet on the Western Front | Women - WWI | |
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall | Granny | |
Joseph Roth, The Tale of the 1002nd Night | Von Taittinger | |
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men | Lenny | |
Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Francaise | Charlie Langelet | |
Simone De Beauvoir, She Came to Stay | Xaviere | |
Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood | Mr. Motes | |
Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory | Cousin | |
Carson McCullers, Clock Without Hands | J. T. Malone | |
Joseph Heller, Catch 22 | Snowden | |
John le Carre', Smiley’s People | Leipzig | |
Adam Zameenzad, My Friend Matt | Golam et.al. | |
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient | English Patient | |
Jennifer Lash, Blood Ties | Birkin | |
Monique Truong, The Book of Salt | Mother & Pigeon |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Grief Mourning | Unknown, Gilgamesh | Enkidu |
Sophocles, Oedipus The King | Jocasta | |
Euripides, Alcestis | Alcestis | |
King James, New Testament | Jesus | |
Snirru Sturluson, Prose Edda, The Death of Balder | Balder | |
Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat | Omar Khayyam | |
J. Bedieren, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult | Tristan & Iseult | |
Dante Alighieri, La Vita Nuova | Beatrice | |
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron | Salvestra & Girolamo | |
Geoffrey Chaucer, Knight’s Tales | Arcite | |
Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur | King Arthur | |
Shakespeare, Richard II | Richard | |
Shakespeare, Henry V | Falstaff | |
Shakespeare, King Lear | Lear | |
Johathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travel’s | Burial Rites | |
Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor | Lucy | |
Marie Henri Beyle (Stendhal), Red & Black | Julien Sorel | |
Anton Chekhov, The Bishop | The Bishop | |
Mark Twain, The Death of Jean | Jean, Daughter | |
D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers | Mother | |
James Joyce, Ulysses | Patty Digham’s Funeral | |
Katherine Mansfield, The Canary/ Dove’s Nest | The Canary | |
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall | Granny | |
Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider | Adam | |
Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools | Echegaray, The Basque | |
Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March | Emperor Francis Joseph & Von Trotta | |
Audous Huxley, Brave New World | Linda | |
Farley Mowat, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be | Mutt | |
Monique Truong, The Book of Salt | Mother & Pigeon | |
Jennifer Lash, Blood Ties | Birkin |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Group Mass Genocide | King James, The Bible, Ecclesiastes 9 & 12 | Humankind |
Thucydides, Pericles, The Funeral Speech | Greek Soldiers | |
Theodoret, Of the Massacre of Thessalonica | Towns’ people | |
John of Apamea, Ecclesiastical History (Fragments) | Soldiers | |
Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias | Martyrs | |
Helen Zenna Smith, Not so Quiet on the Western Front | Women - WWI | |
Adam Zameenzad, My Friend Matt | Golam et.al. | |
Sebastien Japrisot, A Very Long Engagement | French Soldiers | |
Harold Pinter, Death etc. | Anonymous Body |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Heroes Heroic Noble | Unknown, Gilgamesh | Enkidu |
Unknown, Book of J. 177 & 178 | Moses | |
Homer, The Iliad | Patroklos | |
Aeschylus, Agamemnon | Agamemnon | |
Thucydides, Pericles, The Funeral Speech | Greek Soldiers | |
King James, New Testament | Jesus | |
Theodoret, Of the Massacre of Thessalonica | Towns’ people | |
Bulfinch Mythology, Legends of Charlemagne | Rinaldo | |
Arabian Nights, Angel of Death | The Proud, The Devout | |
The Battle of Maldon | Brythnoth | |
Beowulf | Beowulf | |
Snirru Sturluson, Prose Edda, The Death of Balder | Balder | |
Unknown, Chanson de Roland | Roland | |
The Sagas of the Icelanders, Viga Glum’s Saga | Thorvald Tafald | |
J. Bedieren, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult | Tristan & Iseult | |
Geoffrey Chaucer, Knight’s Tales | Arcite | |
Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur | King Arthur | |
Shakespeare, Henry V | Falstaff | |
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote | Don Quixote | |
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans | Cora & Magua | |
Walt Whitman, Death of a Pennsylvania Soldier | Frank H. Irwin | |
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace | Prince Andrey | |
Steven Crane, The Red Badge of Courage | The Tall Soldier | |
Thomas Mann, Magic Mountain | Joachim Ziemssen | |
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby | Gatsby | |
William Faulkner, Light in August | Joe Christmas | |
Helen Zenna Smith, Not so Quiet on the Western Front | Women - WWI | |
Joseph Heller, Catch 22 | Snowden | |
Sebastien Japrisot, A Very Long Engagement | French Soldiers | |
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient | English Patient | |
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain | Inman |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Lover/ Spouse | Sophocles, Oedipus The King | Jocasta |
Euripides, Alcestis | Alcestis | |
Ovid, Metamorphoses | Pyramus & Thisbe | |
Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Macrina | Macrina | |
Theodoret, Of the Massacre of Thessalonica | Towns’ people | |
Dante Alighieri, La Vita Nuova | Beatrice | |
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron | Salvestra & Girolamo | |
Geoffrey Chaucer, Knight’s Tales | Arcite | |
Shakespeare, Othello | Othello | |
Shakespeare, Hamlet | Ophelia | |
Shakespeare, Macbeth | Lady Macbeth | |
Wolfgang Von Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther | Werther | |
Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor | Lucy | |
Mary Shelley, The Last Man | Son & Wife | |
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans | Cora & Magua | |
Victor Hugo, Hunchback of Notre Dame | Esmerelda | |
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist | Nancy | |
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre | Bertha Rochester | |
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights | Catherine | |
Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall | Arthur Huntingdon | |
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary | Madame Bovary | |
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime & Punishment | Marmeladov | |
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace | Prince Andrey | |
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina | Anna Karenina | |
Leo Tolstoy, Death of Ivan Ilych | Ivan Ilych | |
Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands | Willems | |
D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers | Mother | |
Henry James, Portrait of a Lady | Ralph Touchett | |
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie | Hurstwood | |
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy | Roberta & Clyde | |
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway | Septimus | |
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying | Addie | |
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall | Granny | |
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God | Tea Cake | |
Caroline Slade, The Triumph of Willie Pond | Willie Pond | |
Simone De Beauvoir, She Came to Stay | Xaviere | |
Harold Robbins, A Stone For Danny Fisher | Danny Fisher | |
Carson McCullers, Clock Without Hands | J. T. Malone | |
C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed | Wife, Helen Joy | |
Toni Morrison, Beloved | Sethe | |
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera | Dr. Juveral Urbino | |
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient | English Patient | |
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain | Inman |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Martyrs Sacrificial Religious Person | King James, The Bible, Deuteronomy 32 & 34 | Moses |
Unknown, Book of J. 177 & 178 | Moses | |
King James, New Testament | Jesus | |
Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Macrina | Macrina | |
Jacob of Sarug, The Fall of the Idols | Martyr | |
The Holy Qur’an | Believers | |
Bulfinch Mythology, Legends of Charlemagne | Rinaldo | |
Arabian Nights, Angel of Death | The Proud, The Devout | |
Roswitha, Dulcitus | Irena | |
Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias | Martyrs | |
John Milton, Paradise Lost | Redeemer |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Metaphoric | Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat | Omar Khayyam |
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis | Gregor Samsa | |
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises | Bull | |
Adam Zameenzad, My Friend Matt | Golam et.al. | |
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible | African Gray Parrot | |
Monique Truong, The Book of Salt | Mother & Pigeon | |
Harold Pinter, Death etc. | Anonymous Body |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Mysterious | Unknown, Gilgamesh | Enkidu |
Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor | Lucy | |
Alexander Pushkin, Queen of Spades | Countess & Ghost | |
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray | Dorian Gray |
Accidental: | ||
---|---|---|
Old Age | King James, The Bible, Deuteronomy 32 & 34 | Moses |
Unknown, Book of J. 177 & 178 | Moses | |
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote | Don Quixote | |
Anton Chekhov, The Bishop | The Bishop | |
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice | Gustav Aschenbach | |
Marcel Proust, Guermantes Way | Grandmother | |
Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop | Fa. Jean Marie Latour | |
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying | Addie | |
William Faulkner, Delta Autumn | McCaslin | |
Vita Sackville-West, All Passion Spent | Lady Slane | |
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall | Granny | |
Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March | Emperor Francis Joseph | |
Caroline Slade, The Triumph of Willie Pond | Willie Pond | |
Conrad Richter, The Town | Mother Sayward | |
Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood | Mr. Motes | |
C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed | Wife, Helen Joy | |
Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine | Great-grandma | |
Jennifer Lash, Blood Ties | Birkin | |
Monique Truong, The Book of Salt | Mother & Pigeon |