Veronika Decides To Die

Igor is thrilled by the results that his experiment on Veronika is producing. Veronika’s tenacious clinging to life has become infectious; her desire to live again has spread to others and cured them of Igor’s theoretical Vitriol. While he is pondering his results, Mari visits, asking to be released permanently as well. The two discuss normality and how the concept of “normal” is formed. Igor presents his theory: He believes normality is pure consensus and is in no way objective; Normality is equated to the sane while things that are odd or unorthodox become “insane.”

Igor uses the examples of the QWERTY keyboard and the directions that clock-hands move. The QWERTY keyboard was famously designed to make typing slower, so as not to jam-up early typewriters, while what we consider “clockwise” was once up for debate and just so happened to end up being the direction that we’re familiar with now. In both cases, what is “normal” has neither a practical use nor an origin point in anything but social consensus. Igor believes that conformity goes against nature. Mari wants to find her soul; she experiences no conflict or hardship in Villete and thus believes she has lost her soul and a meaningful existence. Igor allows Mari to leave, though he misses her presence. Mari plans on becoming a humanitarian aid worker in her new life.

As Mari leaves Villete, Eduard awakens and tells Veronika his story. Eduard’s father was a Yugoslavian ambassador stationed in Brazil when Eduard was 17. Eduard could not relate to his peers in the upper echelons of society; he considered them too vapid, and they had nothing in common. One day, Eduard began bringing home a Brazilian girl named Maria who was heavily interested in new-age occultism. Maria made Eduard happy, but his grades in school suffered as a result. Eduard’s father became worried that his son would not follow his legacy. He told Eduard that he must “learn to face reality” and stay on the path of becoming an ambassador in the family dynasty (178).

While on a bike ride vacation with Maria, Eduard was hit by a car and hospitalized for months. There, he read a “big fat book” about the visionaries of the world, from Jesus Christ to Charles Darwin. The book presented these visionaries as regular, ordinary people who struggled for their visions of the world. The book moved Eduard, who decided that he must find his own “visions of paradise” and make his mark on the world. Eduard decided to become a painter in the hopes of becoming a visionary.

Eduard enrolled in art school and began befriending impoverished artists in alternative subcultures. He found these people much more palatable and authentic than the rich people he was supposed to befriend. Eduard ignored his normal school duties in favor of his art, putting him on the brink of expulsion. His parents began fighting over how to handle their son and his father had a heart-to-heart talk with him. He demanded that Eduard get back on the “correct” path in life, leveraging Eduard’s love. His father said that he must return to the genteel life of their upper middle-class family or else he did not love his parents. He accused him of “running away from reality” (189).

The dissonance between what Eduard wanted and what his parents wanted was too much; he gave up and retreated from the world. Eduard was taken to several doctors and given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. This allowed his family to place him in Villete and save themselves the shame of their elite friends finding out the truth about their artist dropout son.

In the present day, when Eduard finishes his story, Veronika declares that love has two faces: Eduard’s parents showed the possessive, selfish side of love. She relates this sentiment through a painting of the Virgin Mary that her grandmother owned, which depicted Mary standing on top of a snake; Eduard believes that love (Mary) conquers wisdom (the snake). Love is the “great craziness” of humanity that can either quash a person or help them flourish. Veronika promises to play the piano one last time for him as the two plan to leave Villete for Veronika’s final night on Earth.

Mari left behind a note for the Fraternity, which the group reads at their next meeting. In the note, Mari declares that the inside of Villete and the outside world are largely the same; she condemns the Fraternity for spending their lives in the easy space of what society deems “insanity.” The Fraternity is a group of “fish in an aquarium” that take the easy route through life (198). The Fraternity loudly declares that Mari finally went “insane.”

Veronika and Eduard successfully sneak out of Villete. They drink heavily, explore the city, and visit an expensive restaurant that they are kicked out of. Veronika remembers the painting from earlier and the two declare Mary “insane” for being a symbol of love. Veronika insists that Eduard begin painting his visions of paradise again. Eduard agrees and decides to start with painting Veronika. The two end up in an old castle and Veronika has Eduard promise to continue painting as she “dies.”

She wakes up the next morning out in public in Eduard’s arms, awoken by a police officer. The two never return to Villete and the novel implies that they continue their relationship.

Igor learns about Eduard and Veronika’s escape and is thrilled to begin writing his findings about Vitriol. He believes that the cure for Vitriol is an awareness of life and, paradoxically, an awareness of death that may inspire one to live. Igor’s narration finally reveals his scheme: Igor decided to poison Veronika with medication that would simulate heart attacks to convince her that she was going to die. With death looming, Veronika changed her mind about wanting to die and purged the Vitriol from her system. Igor congratulates himself and rationalizes that “genius” and “insanity” are two sides of the same coin; Igor believes himself a genius whose work will be seen as “insane.” The novel ends as Igor begins writing up his report on the Veronika experiment.