Psychological Behavior Changes In Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides To Die

Abstract

Veronika Decides to Die, it expresses about discovering the meaning of life. Veronika is the novel’s main character and its protagonist. She is a Slovenian woman that seems to have an ideal life. She is not happy and satisfied in her life, she realizes this life meaningless. Therefore she decides to die because ‘everything in her life was the same’ (6). Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of melancholia is used to discover the reason for Veronika’s depressed and stressful condition which urges her to commit suicide. Consequently, it brings her to stay in an asylum, Villette. There she obtains some new experience and new things. Astonishingly, at the end, the world of insanity allows her to discover the meaning of life exactly is. Personality growth and finding her new life in order to create a healthy individual, the psychological approach is reflected as the appropriate one to be applied in this study. Veronika is also an introvert and passive person. As she always focusing on her inner thoughts, emotions, feelings and ideas. In an asylum, Villete the insanity direct her growing personality. Her personality goes to the healthier and stronger one that allows her to view this life positively. She is able to love small things that lead her to discover her life’s meaning.