Veronika Decides to Die
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Veronika Decides to Die (Portuguese Veronika decide morrer) is a novel by Paulo Coelho; it tells the story of 24 year old Veronika, who appears to have everything in life going for her, but who decides to kill herself.
This book is partly based on Coelho's experience in various mental institutions (see the biography Confessions of A Pilgrim by Juan Arias). It is based around the subject of madness.
The gist of the message is that "collective madness is called sanity".
Veronika Decides to Die has been adapted for theatre a number of times.
[edit] Plot
Veronika, who seemingly has everything in a perfect life, lives in Slovenia, a small European country. She decides to commit a premeditated suicide by ingesting too many sleeping pills. While she waited for her fate Death, she decided to read a magazine.
After reading through the magazine, she decided to write a letter to the press justifying her suicide had been induced by an article in the magazine, which asks a rather stupid question; "Where is Slovenia?" The idea being to make the press believe that she had killed herself because people did not even know where Slovenia was in today's global village. Good excuse, she thought. Her plan fails and she wakes up in Villete (a mental hospital in Slovenia), where she is told she has a week to live.
Her presence there affects all of the mental hospital's patients, especially Zedka (who has clinical depression), Mari (who suffers from panic attacks), and Eduard (who has schizophrenia), with whom Veronika falls in love.
During her internment in Villete she realises that she has nothing to lose and can therefore do what she wants, say what she wants and be who she wants without having to worry about what others think of her. Who's going to criticise her, she's mad after all.
Because of this new found freedom Veronika experiences all the things she never allowed herself to experience including hatred, love and even sexual awakening.
Another character that has an interesting part is Dr. Igor - one of Vilette's top doctors. Igor has a theory about a poison of the mind, which he names vitriol after the toxic chemical discovered by alchemists. The audience quickly discovers that Dr. Igor believes by telling patients they only have a very short time period to live, they will find the will to live again and will appreciate being alive rather than trying to commit suicide again.
