Self-Destruction and Obsession

The protagonist's obsessive love for Juliette leads him into a spiral of moral degradation, financial ruin, and psychological torment, culminating in a desire for public confession as a form of atonement.

Mother's obsessive fear of a hereditary suicidal curse, her own suicidal impulses, and her fixation on death as an inescapable fate.

The general's obsessive destruction of trees, even causing deaths, reflects a self-destructive and futile approach to defense.

The narrator's obsessive thoughts about death, the singer, and Juliette's past lead to a self-destructive spiral. His inability to enjoy happiness without anxiety points to a pattern of self-sabotage.

The narrator knowingly ruins himself financially and emotionally rather than risk losing Juliette. His fantasies of theft and suicide illustrate his descent into irrational obsession.