Facing Death Summary and Short Question Answers

Summary

In Facing Death, Strindberg dramatizes a heroic sacrifice made by a bankrupt man for the sake of his daughters.

Characters:


Durand : Hardworking Father
Adele (27 Years) : Eldest daughter of Durand
Anette (24 Years) and Therese (24 Years) = Daughters of Durand
Antonio : Person living in Durand’s lodge from some months

As a former railroad worker, widower, and pension (lodge) owner, Mr. Durand is in financial difficulty. Adele, 27, Annette, 24, and Therese (24 yrs) are his daughters. Adele does cooking, Mr. Durand serves visitors, cleans, and does errands (including delivering and bringing things). Therese and Annette are useless daughters who don’t do any work rather always behave rudely with their father.

They're all grown up now and live with him at the house with him. The father-daughter relationship is not good. They've turned their house into a lodge in order to stay alive since they’ve been dealing with the economic crisis for the last ten years.

The Durand family has been taking out loans from other people in order to survive. They have borrowed the items from almost everyone, including a baker, a butcher, and a grocery. There's a mountain of debt to be cleared up.

When Pierre, their errand boy, goes to get the bread, he returns empty handed. Instead, he just has outstanding bills with him.

Durand buys candles on the anniversary of the loss of his deceased son, Rene, who was just an infant when he passed away. After all these years, he still has feelings for him.

Only Antonio, a lieutenant in the Italian army, is staying at their lodge at this time. Durand informs Antonio that they are bankrupt and have no more resources to keep him in the home (goods). Durand rejects Antonio's offer to pay in advance and extend Antonio's stay by a month. He also reveals that they went three months without visitors until an American family came to their rescue. Therese kisses Antonio, the visitor, as Durand leaves to get coffee-bread.

They are kissing when Durand enters at the doorway. Therese was caught kissing an American visitor before. In a fit of rage, he chases Antonio from his house. He also tosses the cash he was given. Therese and Annette are not delighted to see this. They'd want to keep Antonio as a guest. They are disrespectful to their father. Because he didn't bring bread, they took his glass of milk as well. He's restricted to a single glass of water each day. Therese grabs matches() while he's preparing to fire his briar pipe().

In the long run, his hunger (starvation) is so severe that he even consumes the rat's bait. Fortunately, it had not been tainted by anything. In the eyes of all three girls, their father is to blame for the state of their home. It is said that if their mother were still living, the home would be in better shape. When their mother was still living, she and her husband Durand did not have a nice relationship. Their mothers' side is also being taken by their daughters, who are exclusively blaming their father. When their mother was chastised for her frivolous spending, she threatened to work as a prostitute.

Durand tells his daughters to turn off the stove (fire) and take careful care of their insurance paperwork (draughts) when the wind blows. They'll also get money from their insurance, he says. His daughters are now behaving themselves around him. Therese is unhappy, but he permits her to marry Antonio since he loves her and sees how unhappy she is. This makes Therese pleased and she returns him the match.

He also says that they lost their paternal fortune and utilised maternal property to raise their girls as a result of her mother's recklessness and unwise investment. As a result, they had exhausted their inheritances by the time they were done. It was her mother (Mrs. Durand) who taught children to despise their father (Durand). When she (the mother) blamed her husband for everything, she (the mother) taught her children to dislike their fathers. Because he didn't want his daughters to doubt their mother's integrity, he (Durand) remained silent throughout his whole life.

Durand encourages Adele to act as a mother figure for her sisters. He proposes that the youngest daughter Annette acquire a job as a teacher so that she may be among like-minded others and properly organize her insurance paperwork. Eventually, he downs the poison and the home catches on fire. As a result, Durand sets the home on fire and poisons himself so that his daughters might collect 5,000 francs from the fire insurance as compensation.

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Short Question Answers

1. Where does the play take place?

- Mr. Durand, a former railroad worker, widower, and boarding house owner, lives with his three daughters in the dining room of the establishment and this is the location where the play takes place.



2. Why do the grocery, the baker and the butcher send their bills to the Durand household?

- A long-term lack of payment has resulted in bills from the store, bakery, and butcher being sent to Durand's home. To avoid further delays and unpaid invoices, they are unable to provide more services.



3. Why does Monsieur Durand spend money on candles when he doesn’t have money to buy even bread?

- For the one-year anniversary of the loss of his beloved baby son René, Monsieur Durand purchases candles rather than meals. Durand misses the departed, yet he still cares about and loves him. And to combat the lacking life for his daughters, Durand intends to intentionally set fire to his house and then claim the insurance proceeds.



4. Why did Monsieur Duran sell his life insurance?

- Monsieur wanted to clear the debt by selling his life insurance policy. That’s why he sold his life insurance.



5. Why has Monsieur Duran paid fire insurance?

- Monsieur Durand has signed up a new fire insurance policy so that he may file a claim for reimbursement in the event of a fire. He plans to burn his home down to receive the money offered to him as compensation for the loss so that he may support his children.



6. How did Monsieur Duran and Mrs. Duran run out of their inheritances from both sides?

- Inheritances from both sides of the Durand family were drained by Mrs. Durand's negligence and reckless investment. In raising their girls, they relied on both their paternal and maternal ancestry, which they both lost.



7. Why does Monsieur Durand tell a lie about his birthplace?

- Monsieur Durand tells a lie about his birthplace because of two separate motives. One reason was that, from the side of Switzerland, he fought against his own nation France. He speaks an untruth to try to cover up his embarrassment. Another was, by fabricating his own story, he hopes to maintain the image of himself and his wife. He was attracted to a lady much younger than he was. That woman was the one he wanted to marry. As a result, he packed up his items and relocated to Switzerland from his hometown.



8. What business is Monsieur Durand running to make a living?

- For income, Monsieur Durand runs a boarding house. In order to supplement his income, he has turned his residence into a lodge.



9. What plan does Monsieur Durand have to help his daughters with money?

- Monsieur Durand intends to take his own life and burn down his home. He expects to be compensated by his fire insurance policy and use the money to assist his children. To save his three children, he is willing to give his life as protection money.



10. How does Monsieur Durand die?

- Monsieur Durand dies by consuming poison. He did so to assist his daughters with the amount of money they will be reimbursed from their insurance policy.