“To die would be an awfully big adventure.” J.M. Barry
Death is inevitable, death is definite, death is what rules what we do in our finite lives. To some people death is to what takes us to an afterlife, where we are judged based on what they did in life and sent either to heaven or hell. Others believe that when you die you are reincarnated into a ‘form’ higher or lower than you were in life. Either way we don’t really know what happens when we fall asleep for the last time.

But no matter what you believe death is something that comes to everyone and every living thing eventually. Family, friends, no one is above death, but when faced with tough truths humans don’t always choose the same path.
One book I’ve read with quite a lot of death has been The Three Musketeers. I really like this novel, because I am a fencer myself and I respect those like the Musketeers who give respect and honour were appropriate and therefore demand both. When I fence, my actions are in the moment, there is little time to plan an attack like generals do before battle. It’s these experiences that helped me connect to the Musketeers and understand why they risk their lives fighting.

The Three Musketeers has many different types of death; death of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, death in war, death by assassination, but the characters that survive choose different paths when facing these deaths. Even with so much death around them the Three Musketeers, and d’Artagnan, all have little to no fear of death. In fact, d’Artagnan feels that he “doesn’t cling to life sufficiently to fear death” after his lover, Constance, is killed.
The other musketeers have their own reasons for not fearing death. Athos is willing to die if it is fighting for a cause that he feels strongly about, Aramis is rather religious and therefore believes that he will go to heaven when his time comes and Porthos thinks that he can’t be killed.
Of course, there are other people who fear death, but sometimes people are pushed beyond this fear and possibly kill themselves. This is touch on in the Secret Runners of New York. In this book, Skye Rodgers mother and stepfather decide to kill themselves as there was a mob rampaging the city. At the time that they did this Skye had disappeared for a couple days, so they thought that they wouldn’t see her again and this filled them with sadness. Even though Skye and her mother weren’t very close she still “[felt] sorry for her”, because they are family and that still means something.
Those who do die in the Three Musketeers die happy due to their love. Both of these characters are assassinated, either directly or indirectly by Milady. First is Buckingham who is killed by one of Milady’s puppets. During his final minuets he is giving news of the Queen of France, his lover, and he sends her back her gifts of love to show that he was thinking of her when he died and then passed away with a smile. Constance is killed from a poison giving to her in her wine. Constance’s eyesight soon leaves her as d’Artagnan enters the room and holds her dying body. She and d’Artagnan exchange a few words and she eventually pass happily in his arms. In both cases the dead’s lover mourns intensely at the news.

It is common for characters to think of their loved ones when they are dying as it either brings happiness or regret. Like in the Three Musketeers those who died were happy as they died with happy memories of their loved ones, but in the Secret Runners of New York Skye’s parents died sad because she was lost at the time and they were worried that they wouldn’t see her again. But even if those who died did so happy, their lovers or loved ones would still grieve and mourn them.
Mourning and grief is the natural reaction when a loved one dies. Characters that grieve are very exposed and can be prone to make rash decision because their mind is clouded. When Constance died d’Artagnan tried to mindlessly charge after Milady but was luckily held back by Athos whose was thinking rationally at the time.
A different type of grieving is when the person just shuts down and becomes cut off from their surroundings. They are consumed by their sadness and ignore the consequences of what actions they may take. This mostly happens when the news is unexpected. When the survivor didn’t expect for it to happen and is unprepared.

In Digger J. Johns Digger’s older brother is sent to war. In war there are numerous casualties and losses on the battlefield, so news of deaths isn’t unexpected per say, but that doesn’t mean that the receivers really want the news either. So when this news reached Digger he just turned off as he was quiet young at the time and didn’t really know what to do. His family were lucky enough to get a body to burry as many people get blown apart in war.
Whether death comes to family, lovers or friends it is sad, especially if that person had a large part in your life. But no matter how sad it is it is better to mourn and grieve and then move on with life than be stuck in a loop of sadness. If someone important to you dies make sure that you continue living your life not just for you, but for them as well as they wouldn’t want you to waste the time that you have.
