Human Predicament in Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die

Abstract

This thesis on Paulo Coelho’s novel Veronika Decides to Die studies trauma in the protagonist, Veronika who is a twenty-four-year-old living in recently partitioned Slovenia, one of the republics created by the dissolution of Yugoslavia. From the outside, she seems to be a happy woman as she works as a librarian, dating men and returning to a single room she rents at a convent. However, she finds everything boring and monotonous in everyday activities. She cannot focus on the purpose of her life. She suffers from trauma which leads her Veronika to end her life. Her failed attempt, and her inexplicable reasons for wanting to die, lands her in a mental hospital, Vilette. Thus, Veronika’s inability to live in conformity with the modern society’s rules – that is divided Yugoslavia – places her in a terrible predicament as it traumatizes her throughout her life, eventually leading her on the verge of suicide.