Veronika Decides To Die

Three months after the events of Veronika, the character of Paulo Coelho hears about the events of Veronika’s life from the daughter of Dr. Igor, also named Veronika. Coelho learns that Villete is used by the rich and well-to-do of Slovenia to put away familial problems and save a family or spouse’s reputation among polite society. Villete represents the “worst aspects of capitalism” in a country that recently ceased operating under communism (12). Veronika’s story touches Coelho and reminds him of his own time in psychiatric hospitals, which he has wanted to write about for a while. Coelho has refrained from doing so due to his love for his parents and writes about Veronika’s story as a way of exploring his own experiences.

Veronika decides to die on November 11, 1997, in her convent-rented apartment in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital. Veronika is a successful individual by society’s standards: She is college-educated, well-rounded through extracurricular activities, and has extremely loving and well-off parents. She works at a library and spends her evenings courting anonymous men in bars because she believes that it is something she should be doing. Veronika decides to die because life is dull, routine, and devoid of meaning. Veronika is aware of the disasters and crises around the world and feels powerless to do anything about them. She also believes that if life isn’t worth anything now it won’t be worth anything when she’s older: Old age seems to only promise more pain and the loss of her youth.

As Veronika waits for sleeping pills to kill her, she reads a computer tech magazine. The magazine contains a review for an unnamed video game whose publisher held a press conference party in Ljubljana. The review, written by a non-Slovenian, begins with the question “Where is Slovenia?”, which greatly agitates Veronika. Veronika decides to spend her last minutes penning an angry letter to the editor about her country and the disregard of the reviewer. The sleeping pills render her unconscious midway through writing the letter.

Veronika wakes up in Villete. She learns from the staff that she only has a week to live due to damage caused by the sleeping pills. Veronika is perfectly healthy, but only the head doctor, Dr. Igor, knows this. He instructs the orderlies to give Veronika medication for her heart regularly, which is in fact medication that causes her to have heart-attack symptoms to make the lie convincing. Veronika begins fearing her encroaching death and tries to make peace with it.

In her attempt to find more pills to die on her own terms, she meets Zedka, another Villete inhabitant. Zedka tells Veronika a story about a wizard and a kingdom. The wizard poisoned the drinking wells of the kingdom, warping the perception of reality of the people. The king’s family remained untouched by the poison and the people grew distrustful of them. The king and his family decided to drink from the well to be accepted as “normal” by their people and rule in congruence with their wishes. Zedka’s story changes Veronika’s perceptions of normality as she begins to wonder how “insane” the people inside Villete are in actuality.

On her first full day in Villete, Veronika and Zedka go for a walk. Veronika learns about the Fraternity, a group of people who intentionally prolong their stay in Villete to avoid the outside world and its “insanity.” One of the members at the heart of the Fraternity is Mari, an ex-lawyer; Zedka suggests she may be able to acquire pills from Mari sometime soon. Veronika tries to eavesdrop on the Fraternity, but they catch her and openly mock her. Veronika flees from the confrontational scene, highly embarrassed.

Veronika reflects on her stable, completely conflict-less life: She has avoided confrontation at all costs and has not grown through struggle. She believes that this lack of conflict is part of her lack of a desire to live. Determined to defend herself, Veronika returns to the Fraternity and slaps one of the men who insulted her.

Three days after the conflict, Veronika realizes that she has made her life a prison of dull routine. Much like changing her mind about confronting the Fraternity, she could have changed her routine whenever she wished.

Veronika accompanies Zedka for her “treatment.” Veronika watches as Zedka is strapped down and given an insulin shock treatment. Insulin shock therapy has no scientific evidence of effectiveness and carries immense health risks like brain damage, as it shocks the patient’s system with unnatural spikes of insulin. Insulin shock renders the patient unconscious, which Zedka uses to induce astral projection. (Astral projection is a pseudoscientific new age belief in the ability to project the soul out of the body and explore the universe in a purer form.)

While roaming about via astral projection, Zedka learns that Dr. Igor intends on releasing her soon. Zedka decides to spend her last episode of astral traveling inside of Villete, instead of out and exploring the universe.

A jump to Zedka’s perspective reveals that she is in Villete for depressive episodes. Zedka once loved a man, which Coelho calls an “Impossible Love.” Her inability to secure this Impossible Love has haunted her, despite marrying another man and raising a successful family. Zedka likens herself to France Prešeren, the Slovenian poet immortalized in the city square of Ljubljana whose statue stares longingly at the historic home of his own Impossible Love. Zedka’s depression worsened as she grew increasingly obsessive over her Impossible Love and tried to track him down in the United States. Once Zedka realized finding him was impossible, she became incredibly despondent. Her husband deposited her in Villete and divorced her.

That same night in Villete, Veronika decides to play the piano in the common room. Before doing so, she cries in the lap of a nurse as she realizes how mediocre her life has been. She plays a sonata for the new moon. Veronika ponders the intense self-control she has exhibited her whole life, which her mother instilled by making incredible self-sacrifices for her child and insisting that Veronika do things, such as learning to play the piano, because these things would earn her status in the upper echelons of society. Veronika grows angry and bangs wildly on the piano. She realizes that a man named Eduard has been silently watching her play.

The narrative jumps to Dr. Igor’s perspective. He is in his office and goes through his sundry routines of running the hospital. Igor is suspicious about Zedka’s departure; he believes that nobody is ever fully cured in Villete, and that the environment makes people unable to live in the outside world. Igor’s inner monologue explains his theory on “Vitriol:” He believes that an as-yet undiscovered substance in the body introduces mental health issues like depression, schizophrenia, or suicidal ideation. This substance is triggered by apathy and a complete loss of life’s meaning, both of which are induced by the pressure to conform.

Igor acknowledges that his hospital is ran under a thin veneer of “humanitarian reasons” that amount to little more than profit generation for his superiors. He believes he can still do something worthwhile with the hospital and produce a treatise on Vitriol. Igor has an appointment with Veronika’s mother, who would like to see her daughter. Igor instead treats her to a long monologue about the virtues of normalcy; Igor believes “insanity” occurs when people stray from normalcy, and that the “happiness” generated in Western countries like Canada makes people “insane.” Veronika’s mother does not understand his tirade, and he gives up trying to persuade her.

Veronika does not want to see her mother. She would rather make her death as painless as possible for her mother; meeting would only make the grief worse. As Veronika contemplates this, she is struck by her first “heart attack” signaling her impending doom. Veronika survives and becomes severely distraught over her continued existence. The nurses sedate her to stop her from lashing out.