Deadly Ink

Today's Halloween, a less than honorable holiday. I don't intend to take part in celebrating death or evil. However, it is good to remember that we will all die. We are mortals, and this life is short. All the silly things we let consume our lives will be cut short some day soon.

With this in mind, I started to think of some of the more memorable death scenes in literature. Below are some that I've come up with:

Most striking and memorable as literature:

1. Mr. Tulkinghorn's death in Bleak House by Charles Dickens. There is quite repose, moonlight, port, and a painting the is transformed into a witness of the crime. Here is the conclusion: "So, it shall happen surely, through many years to come, that ghostly stories shall be told of the stain upon the floor, so easy to be covered, so hard to be got out; as that Roman, pointing from the ceiling, shall point, so long as dust and damp and spiders spare him, with far greater significance than he ever had in Mr. Tulkinghorn's time, and with a deadlier meaning. For, Mr. Tulkinghorn's time is over for evermore; and the Roman pointed at the murderous hand uplifted  against his life, and pointed helplessly at him, from night to morning, lying face downward on the floor, shot through the heart."
2. The murder of Leonard in Howards End by E. M. Foster
3. The death of Prince Andrey in War and Peace by Tolstoy
4. The death of George Washington Crosby in Tinkers by Paul Harding. The whole novel takes place as George lies dying in his living room. 

Weirdest: Again Bleak House. This time Krooks death by spontaneous combustion. 

A hopeful look beyond the grave: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. I don't want to spoil it, and you know what I talking about if you've read it. 

Most horrifying death of an depraved man: Svidrigailov's suicide in Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.

And many more. There is a lot of dying in our books, as in our world. Life is short, so don't waste it, and get right with the Lord.