Facing Death: Summary & Exercise NEB [One-Act Play]

Facing Death Summary & Exercise Answers [NEB English]

Executive Summary (BLUF):

Facing Death is a one-act modern tragedy by Swedish playwright August Strindberg. It follows Monsieur Durand, a bankrupt widower and former railroad worker living in Switzerland. Facing absolute financial ruin and the hatred of his three daughters (Adele, Annette, and Therese), Durand commits a heroic sacrifice by poisoning himself and burning his house down so his daughters can claim the 5,000-franc fire insurance policy.

Complete Summary of Facing Death

1. The Financial Crisis

The play opens in a converted boarding house managed by Monsieur Durand and his eldest daughter, Adele. The family is in extreme poverty, unable to pay local merchants (the baker, butcher, and grocer), resulting in a halt to their food supplies. Durand's three daughters—Adele, Annette, and Therese—openly despise him, blaming him for their financial ruin and treating him with relentless mockery and disrespect.

2. Family Conflict and the Paying Guest

The family hosts a paying guest, Antonio. Despite their inability to provide him with a proper breakfast, Antonio wishes to stay another month and pay in advance. Durand refuses, acknowledging the business is dead. Later, Antonio flirts with and kisses the youngest daughter, Therese. An enraged Durand threatens Antonio and forces him to leave. The daughters, oblivious to Antonio's inappropriate behavior, turn their anger entirely on their father for driving away their only source of income.

3. The Revelation of the Past

Before executing his final plan, Durand reveals the truth about their past to his daughters. He explains that he is not a native Swiss citizen, but a French patriot who fled to protect his wife's reputation and later fought for France. More importantly, he reveals that it was their late mother’s foolish financial speculations that ruined the family's estate. Durand had silently absorbed the blame for years to preserve the daughters' idealized memory of their mother.

4. The Tragic Climax and Sacrifice

With no life insurance (having sold it to pay debts) and no income, Durand devises a final, desperate solution. He instructs Adele to care for her younger sisters. He then drinks poison and sets the boarding house on fire. By doing so, he ensures his death appears accidental, allowing his daughters to legally claim the 5,000 francs from the fire insurance policy to secure their future.

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About the Playwright & Video Overview

Johan August Strindberg (1849–1912) was a Swedish writer, playwright, and painter. Ranked among Sweden's most important authors, his works fall into two major literary movements: Naturalism and Expressionism. His theatre tries to create a perfect illusion of reality through detailed sets, an unpoetic literary style reflecting natural speech, and realistic acting.

Understanding the Text (Short Q&A)

a. Where does the play take place?

Answer: The play takes place in the dining room of Monsieur Durand's boarding house in Switzerland. Durand, a bankrupt former railroad worker and widower, lives here with his three daughters.

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

Answer: They send their bills because the Durand family is heavily in debt and has not paid for past supplies. The merchants refuse to deliver any more food until the outstanding balances are cleared.

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

Answer: Durand buys candles for two reasons: First, to honor the death anniversary of his infant son, René. Second, as a tool to deliberately set the house on fire later in the play to claim the fire insurance.

d. Why did Monsieur Durand sell his life insurance?

Answer: He sold his life insurance to pay off an aggressive creditor. His financial condition was so dire that he had to liquidate his only safety net to settle immediate debts.

e. Why has Monsieur Durand paid fire insurance?

Answer: He maintained the fire insurance policy so he could deliberately burn down his house and allow his daughters to claim the 5,000-franc compensation after his death.

f. How did Monsieur Durand and Mrs. Durand run out of their inheritances from both sides?

Answer: The inheritances were lost due to Mrs. Durand's financial carelessness and foolish speculations, including wasting household money on lottery tickets.

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

Answer: He lied to protect his wife's reputation after marrying her prematurely, and to hide the shame of having fought against his native France while living in Switzerland.

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

Answer: He runs a boarding house (lodge). Having lost his wealth, he converted his private home into a lodge to provide dining and lodging services for paying guests.

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

Answer: His plan is to commit suicide and commit arson. By poisoning himself and burning the house, he ensures his daughters can collect the 5,000-franc fire insurance payout.

j. How does Monsieur Durand die?

Answer: Monsieur Durand dies by consuming poison right before setting his boarding house on fire.

Reference to the Text (Long Q&A)

a. Sketch the character of Monsieur Durand.

Answer: Monsieur Durand is the tragic protagonist of Facing Death. He is characterized by the following traits:

• A Loving but Misunderstood Father: Despite being hated, starved, and mocked by his daughters, he constantly worries about their financial survival.
• A Tolerant Husband: He silently endured his late wife's financial blunders and took the blame for their bankruptcy to protect her image in the eyes of their daughters.
• A Tragic Hero: He exhibits extreme self-sacrifice. Driven to a dead end, he drinks poison and commits arson, trading his own life to secure a 5,000-franc insurance payout for his ungrateful children.

b. How do we know that the Durand family has reached a dead end?

Answer: The play provides several stark indicators of their absolute bankruptcy:

• Starvation: The family cannot even afford bread for breakfast, and Durand is reduced to eating rat bait to survive.
• Cut-off Supplies: The local baker, butcher, and grocer have stopped delivering goods and are demanding payment for long-overdue bills.
• Loss of Assets: Durand has already sold his life insurance to pay off a hostile creditor, leaving fire insurance as the only remaining asset.
• Business Failure: Durand refuses advance payment from their only guest, Antonio, explicitly admitting the boarding house can no longer operate.

c. ‘The mother, though already dead, seems to have had a great influence on the daughters, especially Theresa.’ Do you agree?

Answer: Yes, I strongly agree. The late Mrs. Durand successfully poisoned her daughters' minds against their father. While alive, she unfairly blamed Durand for the family's financial ruin—which was actually caused by her own foolish speculations and lottery gambling. Because Durand remained silent to protect her memory, the daughters internalized their mother's false narrative. Theresa, in particular, exhibits extreme hostility: she cruelly snatches matches away from Durand, seizes his glass of milk, and openly disrespects him, directly mirroring her mother's contemptuous attitude.

d. Discuss the relationship between Monsieur Durand and his wife.

Answer: Their relationship was highly toxic and one-sided. Mrs. Durand was irresponsible, squandering both their paternal and maternal inheritances on foolish speculations and lottery tickets. Instead of accepting responsibility, she psychologically abused Durand, blamed him for their poverty, and even threatened to become a prostitute to shame him. Furthermore, she actively manipulated their daughters into hating him. Durand, conversely, was overly tolerant; he absorbed her abuse and kept her secrets even after her death to protect her maternal image.

e. ‘Money determines the relationship between characters in this play.’ Elaborate this statement with examples.

Answer: In Facing Death, economic hardship dictates all emotional and familial ties:

• Daughters' Hatred: The daughters despise Durand primarily because he cannot provide for them. Their lack of food and status erodes all filial piety, leading them to snatch his milk and matches.
• Conditional Love: The daughters only show affection when money is promised. When Durand announces he will "bring them money" (referring to his impending suicide and the insurance payout), their attitude instantly shifts to kindness and apologies.
• Marital Ruin: The loss of the family wealth was the root cause of Mrs. Durand's bitter abuse toward her husband.

f. Monsieur Durand kills himself so that his daughters would get 5000 francs as compensation from the insurance company. What does his plan tell us about him?

Answer: This desperate plan reveals that Durand is a deeply selfless, protective, and tragic figure. Despite enduring years of emotional abuse, false accusations, and starvation at the hands of his daughters, his paternal love remains unbroken. He values their future financial security far above his own life or reputation. It shows a man pushed to the absolute edge of societal and economic pressure, choosing ultimate self-sacrifice as his final act of fatherhood.

g. Discuss Facing Death as a modern tragedy.

Answer: Facing Death fits perfectly into the framework of a modern tragedy because it discards divine intervention and royal protagonists in favor of realism and domestic suffering. Key elements include:

• The Ordinary Protagonist: Monsieur Durand is not a king or general, but a bankrupt, aging railroad worker struggling to feed his family.
• Socioeconomic Fate: The tragedy is driven by modern forces—debt, bankruptcy, and insurance policies—rather than gods or prophecies.
• Psychological Realism: The play explores toxic family dynamics, emotional abuse, and the breakdown of relationships due to poverty.
• Tragic Resolution: The play ends with a grim, calculated suicide and arson, emphasizing the inescapable trap of modern economic failure.