The Role of Suicide in Robertson Davies' Fifth Business

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Suicide is an unfortunate end of the life of a person who is undergoing great suffering. This person usually can no longer deal with his or her problems and falls back on what seems like the only way out: death. This is never the right choice as there are always other options. Although many options are drastic, they are better than death. In the novel Fifth Business, Leola falls into a deep depression as all the things that are keeping her together, in her not overly successful life seem to suddenly disappear. She finds out that her husband, which is very demanding of her and who she tries to impress constantly, was in fact cheating on her. On page 183, her husband’s deeds are revealed: “He was explicit about his sexual needs... there where two or three women in Montreal whom he visited.”. Leola could not take this news and because she saw no other way decided to resort to suicide as is described on page 188. “Leola had cut her wrists and laid herself down to die in high Roman fashion, in a warm bath... she had made a gory but not fatal job of it.”. Leola could have had many other wa...

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