# What Death and Mortality means in Downstream

> The characters' attitudes toward death—from Stellan's gambler's courage to Hedvig's fear of heredity and Laura's protective fat—reveal their core values and the superficiality of their lives, as death looms as an ever-present reality.

## Explanation

The characters' attitudes toward death—from Stellan's gambler's courage to Hedvig's fear of heredity and Laura's protective fat—reveal their core values and the superficiality of their lives, as death looms as an ever-present reality.

The mother's death and the newborn's death are central events, and Kristin's stories about Old Hök's death and the ghostly atmosphere reinforce the theme.

Oskar Selamb's decline and the death of old Hermansson loom over the chapter. Peter's anxiety about his father's death and the flowers that 'smelt of a funeral' highlight the theme of mortality.

Percy's convalescence and near-death experience, Hedvig's attraction to sickbeds and deathbeds, and the shadow of death pervade the chapter.

The chapter is saturated with death imagery: the bottle with a death's head, the 'Angel of Death' title, Percy's declining health, and Hedvig's preemptive widowhood.

## Links

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