Author(s): Mehmet ÖZBERK
Via pessimistic pictures in his literary works and 'cursed questions' like "What is death?", "What are we living for?", and "What is the purpose of life?", Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev is a contradictory writer who travels on the edge of constant life examining human existence. The traces of his childhood and youth passing under difficult conditions, are reflected in his stories. Since he does not have a well-being and peaceful life, his characters are also affected by this situation. In almost all literary works of Andreyev, it is possible to see ‘death’ either by metaphor or by analogy or by its own cold face. Three times in his life, the author tries to commit suicide, described as 'free death' (voluntary death) by the famous German philosopher Nietzsche. These moments when he is near death comprise the basic topic of the stories we examine. This current study tries to explain the place of suicide phenomenon in the stories of Leonid Andreyev in terms of how he examines this phenomenon, the philosophical dimension, psychological states of characters, and the traces in his life.
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