The Twin Drives of Love and Death
Atlantic writers have long meditated on these two fates of all living things.
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When I think of death, I think of love. I am convinced that I’m not alone in this. The dying seem driven to meditate on love, and love suffuses the scene of an ideal death: lying in bed surrounded by family, reassured by the promise of enduring affection.
Unsurprisingly, has featured in which a wife’s suicide attempt catalyzes her husband’s transformation from a self-absorbed recluse to a sincere and adoring lover. The near-death occasion serves as a sort of warning of mortality, putting the story’s narrator in mind of the centrality of love.
