Sympathy

Sympathy by Virginia woolfe tells the tale of a young man’s death and how the narrator responds to that death. The narrator feels sorrow that she never really got to know him, and because of this goes on a long winded tale as to how she would approach the poor widow who lost her husband. She remembers blowing off an event she was invited to by the couple, as well as remembering a time that she was with the couple, but barely engaged. “Why didn’t I go the day they wanted me to come? There was a concert where they played Mozart -I put them off for that. He scarcely spoke the night they dined here. He sat opposite in the yellow arm chair: he said that ‘furniture’ was what he liked.” (Woolfe, 108) This shows the true regret that the narrator feels in that she never got to truly meet the dead man, and thus was never able to establish a lasting relationship with him. She continues on her monolougue, pondering on what it would be like to talk to the widow and offer her sympathy. “what d’you believe? she asks suddenly, (as I fancy) sucking at the stalk of a flower. ‘Nothing — nothing,’ I reply driven, against my intention, to speak abruptly. She frowns, throws away her flower, and jumps up.” (Woolfe, 109) This, as i mentioned is all in her head. instead the narrator is actually in London, reading about the dead man in the obituaries of the times. More importantly than this, however, is the narrator’s belief that death was actually a positive force that the man posessed. It was the narrator’s belief that with this power, he had the power to remove himself from the world at any point. All of this story ends in the narrator’s conclusion that death is inevitable, and all the material things will outlast her, and everyone else that lives now and in the future.