Theme Of Loss In The Last Leaf

“Gwilan's Harp”, “The Washwoman”, and “The Last Leaf”, by Ursula K LeGuin, Isaac Singer, and O. Henry respectively, have many things in common. In all these stories there is a woman as the main character. In all the stories the main characters and their loved ones face some sort of illness or injury. In all the stories some characters overcome these illnesses, while others die in their old age. While there are all these similarities, each story has its own voice, and its own unique type of loss. In Ursula K. LeGuin's “Gwilan's Harp”, Isaac Singer's “The Washwoman”, and O. Henry's “The Last Leaf” there are a lot of different types of loss.

“Gwilan's Harp”, by Ursula K. LeGuin, shows the theme of loss very clearly. In the beginning of the book

Henry. In this story two young artists live in a studio together, then one of them falls ill with pneumonia. She looks out her window and says that when the last leaf falls off of an ivy plant outside, she will die. “When the last on falls I must go, too” (Henry). Her friend frantically tries to make her not lose her hope, and she enlists the help of their old German neighbor, who is also an artist. He paints the last leaf onto the wall so that it can never fall, but in the process, he catches pneumonia and dies. The old artist loses his own life in order to save the young

In “The Last Leaf” the loss is because of a voluntary act. The act, and thus the loss of the old artist's life, is noble and kind. In “Gwilan's Harp” the loss is not because of anyone's choices, she loses her harp because of an accident, and her husband because of old age. In “The Washwoman” the loss of the washwoman's relationship with her son is because of a choice by her son. Unlike in “The Last Leaf”, this act is not noble or kind in any way. So, the theme of loss is quite evident in all of these stories, but each story has its own kind of