Friday, February 27, 2015
Murder or Suicide? You decide.
As I am sitting here reflecting back on this weeks assigned readings I find myself going back to “Old Woman Magoun,” written by Mary Wilkins
Freeman. Call it creepy, but my morbid curiosity got the better of me with this particular tale. I cannot help but be fascinated with Mrs. Magoun's decision to let Lily eat the deadly berries, but I still wonder the following: did Mrs. Magoun murder Lily or is her death considered suicide? Lily's death, while tragic, is also very strange. In order for it be suicide I feel as if Lily would have had to have shown signs of wanting to die. It wasn't really an accident that killed her because Mrs. Magoun showed meditative recognition that the berries were deadly and she knew what was going to happen as soon as Lily ate them. This story reminds me of an episode of Dexter where there is a serial killer in the from of a therapist. The therapist does not directly kill his victims with his own hands, but he basically talks them into having suicidal thoughts until they finish themselves off. It would be extremely interesting to see this case in a courtroom setting. My ending question to you is who do you think is to blame for the death of poor innocent Lily?
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Even if you say Magoun did not tell Lily to eat the berries she still killed her by purposeful negligence. The reason I say this is because she did not stop Lily and she, knowing what Lily had eaten, took her home to let her die instead of seeking out medical help. She knew Lily was dying and she let it happen. There is no suicide here because Lily had no intentions of dying, her grandmother had other plans.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting question that you're asking. Now that I'm thinking about it, it seems likely that in her fourteen years, she would have been told about the deadly nightshade berries and warned against eating them. Then again, there is really nothing in this story that suggests Lily wanted to die.
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