# Suicide and Death in The Nature of a Crime

> Theme guide for The Nature of a Crime by Joseph Conrad.

The narrator contemplates suicide as a final act of escape from his emotional torment and financial exposure, framing death as a gamble and a potential refuge from thought and feeling.

## Where it surfaces

- [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_nature_of_a_crime_se/chapters/i): The narrator plans to use poison from his ring, and the mouse's fate becomes a symbol of his own life-or-death gamble.
- [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_nature_of_a_crime_se/chapters/iii): The narrator contemplates death as an escape from his unfulfilled desire, and offers his beloved the power to decide his fate.
- [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_nature_of_a_crime_se/chapters/vi): The narrator contemplates death as a refuge from exposure and imprisonment, and discusses the difference between death for a man of action versus a man of thought.
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_nature_of_a_crime_se/chapters/vii): The narrator's resolve to end his life and his preparation for death dominate the chapter.
- [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_nature_of_a_crime_se/chapters/viii): The narrator's near-death experience and his contemplation of suicide as a refuge from his beloved.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_nature_of_a_crime_se/themes/suicide_and_death
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_nature_of_a_crime_se/themes