Phantom

My husband and I were gifted opera tickets to see Werther last night. It was an exceptional performance of a classic story of unrequited love.

As is often the case in such tales, the forsaken protagonist experiences such despair that he takes his own life in the final scene. Given that the piece was first performed in 1892, I don’t feel like a spoiler alert is warranted.

Despite knowing that scene was coming, I still found myself profoundly affected by it. It doesn’t trigger negative thoughts for me about myself or my past, but rather it reminds me of how often suicide is portrayed as the default response to emotional devastation. I know this story is fiction and from a very different era. And I know that we still have yet to do better in the present day.

How we depict people facing and overcoming mental anguish matters.