Suicide in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1877), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958)

Abstract

This paper studies the idea of identity loss and suicide in three novels that have different cultural backgrounds. These novels are Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1877), Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958). The paper discusses the theme of suicide in all of these three novels through concentrating on one major aspect which is individuality. Okonkow in Things Fall Apart, Anna in Anna Karenina and Werther in Sorrows of Young Werther have suffered and struggled hard to live as happy individuals in society. Each one of them had dreams and ambitions which they tried to realize. Individuality seems one of the strongest motives behind their own dreams. However, all of them have failed in their pursuit of having an individual life away from social constraints and pressures. The study points out the social, psychological, political factors and conditions that lead to the individual’s identity loss. All these protagonists were looking for establishing an unfettered personal identity, but they all lost their dreams on the way and the result was a downfall, a loss of individuality, and most importantly a tragic life which pushed them to commit suicide.