Spoiler warning: death of some of literature’s most beloved characters.
Death is a tool as versatile as the ink used to write. For as long as literature has existed, deaths have too, seeping into the paper like ink. For some authors, death moves the story forward. For others, it carries symbolism or nudges a character to grow.
Let’s look at the many forms of fictional deaths, and how they impacted their stories. Before we start, please be warned: everyone dies.
- . BETH MARCH FROM LITTLE WOMEN
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You saw this one coming, didn’t you?
We can’t have a list of sob-worthy deaths without including the heartbreaking loss of our third March sister. We’ve all probably gotten close to tears reading the reactions of her closest family as they found out the news. It hurt then, and it hurts now.
In chapter 13 of Castles in the Air, the four sisters, plus Laurie, discuss their “castles” or aspirations and dreams. Jo wishes to be an author, she writes stories and owns a whole stable of horses. Amy wishes to live in Europe as the most famous artist in the world. Meg wishes to live in a grand house with all the riches and fancy clothes in the world, complete with servants. Laurie aspires to be the most famous musician, living in Germany and creating music for himself. Beth dreams of staying at home and supporting her family. It only took death for her family to realize that her dreams, albeit different, weren’t any less valid.
Little Women is all about showing the growth of four young women, who chose different paths in life and still ended up happy in their own way. For Beth, her path in life wasn’t the chosen one, but from the excerpt below, we can see that she seemed less attached to earthly ambitions, almost ready for something beyond life.
“Jo talks about the country where we hope to live in some time; the real country, she means, with pigs and chickens and haymaking. It would be nice, but I wish the beautiful country up there was real, and we could even go to it,” said Beth musingly.
“There is a lovelier country even than that, where we shall go, by and by, when we are good enough,” answered Meg, with her sweet voice.
“It seems so long to wait, so hard to do; I want to fly away at once, as those swallows fly, and go in at that splendid gate.”
“You’ll get there, Beth, sooner or later, no fear of that.”
There’s more irony in that statement than the girls realized at the time. It’s clear Meg is talking about heaven, and Beth, with childlike impatience, longs for it. None of the girls realize then how soon that longing will become reality.
- . MATTHEW CUTHBERT FROM ANNE OF GREE GABLES
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“Many people have told me that they regretted Matthew’s death in Green Gables. I regret it myself,” wrote Lucy Maud Montgomery in her autobiography, The Alpine Path.
“If I had the book to write over again, I would spare Matthew for several years. But when I wrote it, I thought he must die, that there might be a necessity for self-sacrifice on Anne’s part, so poor Matthew joined the long procession of ghosts that haunt my literary past.”
Matthew was Anne’s father, in everything besides blood. The bond that he and Anne shared made his abrupt death all the more heartbreaking. His death gently reshaped the household, drawing Marilla and Anne closer together and marking the moment Anne must grow up. More than a plot point, it becomes the emotional turning point of her childhood.
Matthew Cuthbert will always be remembered as a kind-hearted man. Forever loving and forever loved.
- . BRUNO AND SHMUEL FROM THE BOY IN STRIPED PAJAMAS
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This is one of the only novels I’ve read in which the main character dies, and strangely, it feels necessary. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a work of historical fiction set against the horrors of the Holocaust, and its ending, though left unstated, is painfully clear.
The death of our two most beloved characters from this cherished novel is this: to show that this has happened. Yes, it’s real. It happened.
And what better way to spread the truth of reality than through fiction?
- . EVERYONE WHO DIED IN HARRY POTTER
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This one is self-explanatory. There were a lot of deaths. Sirius, Dumbledore, Dobby, Hedwig, Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Snape and countless more. Each one sacrificed themselves for the character to step forward, and for the plot to progress.
Dumbledore, Snape, and Sirius were Harry’s last father figures, so losing them one by one feels especially unfair. Each death hurts, but each one also shapes who he becomes.
All the deaths in Harry Potter still hurt to think about, but the characters will always have a place in our hearts—everyone, that is, except Voldy.