ANALYZING ‘THE LAST LEAF’
Author: O’Henry He is known for startling his readers with surprise endings. A surprise ending is an unexpected twist at the end of a story that you did not predict. Even though an ending is a surprise, it must be believable.Writers make surprise endings believable by giving you a few hints about the ending without giving it away

Title: The title suggests a tree with only one leaf on it. It implies that the most important thing about the story is the leaf. After reading the story we realize that this idea makes sense because it is the leaves that make Johnsy think she is going to die and it is the last leaf painted by their old neighbour that enables her live.

Setting: Greenwich Village in NY in an apartment. Around the turn of the 20th century in Autumn.
Point of view: Third person point of view. Limited.
Central Conflict: Johnsy catches Pneumonia and thinks she is going to die. She has a little chance to live and she needs sth to give her the will to go on living. Her roommate Sue tries hard to give her hope. Her struggle to find sth for her dear friend to make her want to continue living again is an external conflict.
Johnsy struggles against the deadly disease. External conflict.
PLOT
Exposition: In this part O. Henry describes the section of town called Greenwich Village and describes the various artists and free-thinkers who live there. Among those are Sue and Johnsy, female roommates that share a flat together and are aspiring artists.

Inciting Incident:Pnemonia, a killing disease, strikes the village and one of the girls, Johnsy catches the illness. The doctor has not much hope for her. In November Johnsy becomes ill with pneumonia. She becomes frail and loses hope for recovering. Outside her window is an old ivy vine on which only a few leaves remain. Johnsy refuses to fight her way back to health and convinces herself that when the last leaf falls off the vine she will die.
Development:Sue is so worried about her roommate and the doctor wants her to find sth, a reason for her friend to give her the wish to go on living again. Johnsy declares that as soon as the last leaf falls off the ivy outside her window, she’ll go away, too. Sue is hopeless and asks for their old neighbour’s help. The doctor tells Sue that if Johnsy is to get well, she must get her mind on sth other than her sickness.
Mr.Behrman their neighbour is an unsuccessful artist who dreams of (one day) painting a masterpiece. Only one leaf remains on the vine now and even Mr. Behrman is worried. That night it will fall victim to the wind and rain.

Climax:That night Sue and their unique and surly neighbour Behrman, wait to see if Johnsy passes away. In the morning Sue opens the window to find the leaf there.At this point we wonder if the leaf is still there and what will happen to Johnsy if the leaf is not there any more.The hanging leaf inspires Johnsy to keep on fighting her illness and eventually she gets better.Johnsy thinks about her situation and convinces herself that fate caused the leaf to stay on the vine so that she wouldn’t die.With that change in her attitude Johnsy gradually gets well.

Resolution:Johnsy is inspired to live by the leaf’s presence and she recovers.She suddenly realizes that she has been sefish although her friends tried hard to help her recover, she didn’t try to fight her illness. She changes her attitude and gradually gets well.The doctor comes and verifies Johnsy’s recovery. The doctor also tells Sue that Mr. Behrman has pneumonia and is beyond help.
Denouement:We learn that Mr. Behrman paints the last leaf hanging off the ivy that cold and wet night by climbing up a ladder and places his painting right outside the window so that when the two women open the window next morning they think the last leaf is still clinging to the vine, refusing to give up life- opposite Johnsy.
They finally discover that the last leaf is actually a painting and the real leaf had fallen much earlier. Also the artist who paınted it has fallen.Since he was old he caught pneumonia the night he put the painting in front of their window. A masterpiece that leaf is all Johnsy needed and all the old man could give.

Theme: Friendship, sacrifice, fraternal love, love, hope,struggling artists,the will. Friendship between Johnsy and Sue(They give support to each other, even without hesitation.
What matters most in life is a person’s attitude. (Johnsy has convinced herself that she can live where before she had convinced herself she would die.)
Sacrifice can be hidden in love. A sacrifice is the act of giving up something, or not having something or doing something yourself, to help somebody else. We saw how Mr Behrman gave his life to help Johnsy in The Last Leaf. He made the greatest sacrifice anybody could make ,sacrifice their own life.

Imparting (give a particular quality to sth) hope and expectation is one of the greatest gifts one person can give to another.
Kindness – friendship –sacrifice
As a result of the kindness the old man dies of pneumonia himsef, having painted his masterpiece in the worst weather possible.
From Behrman’s view- Love of another can be stronger than love for self. We become aware of how silly we are of not valuing our life and how important it is to our loved ones. We don’t give importance to our life and don’t think about what will happen to the people who love and care when we die.
This story points out that there are caring people in this world. Love is very much present in the most difficult times. Hope is the hero of that story. On one hand, when Johnsy is hopeless, she makes her steps closer to death. However she changes when she finds the leaf. On the other hand, Mr. Behrman dies after he becomes hopeful. However, he dies with success.
Impoverished (to make sb very poor)life of Artists
The three artists have the life of the impoverished, unpublished, would-be “great artists”. They are at the lower class of the society and strive for success, strive to accomplish a great masterpiece
The will to live is a powerful force . Johnsy has started the countdown to her own death by the use of the falling last leaf of an ivy vine.
From Johnsy’s view: Foolish and immature solutions to serious situations can result in tragic consequences for those who love us.(Johnsy caused her friends a great deal of worry and concern.)
Characterization
Sue and Johnsy: struggling naive artists. To arouse sympathy O. Henry casts them like this.
Johnsy: is the protagonist and her psychological crisis builds up the theme of the story. When the illness attacks her she gradually becomes weaker and thinner in body and this affects her mind too. Her death wish grows when she notices the falling leaves of the ivy. She suffers from pneumonia in this story. Her wish for death and her dialogues reflect her disparity for life. She refuses to cooperate with Sue because of her illness.When Johnsy spies through the window and counts backward the ivy leaves, dialogues between she and Sue reflect her disparity for life and wish for death. Johnsy doesn’t answer Sue but goes on counting. She is still talking to Sue, her words has no direct relation with Sue’s question, which shows her state of mind, the blank mind. It’s a vivid description of a dying Johnsy.

Sue: She is caring¸When the doctor tells her that Johnsy’s life depends on her wish to live, she tries to divert her mind from the window by sitting by her for painting so that she will be inspired to live for painting.She offers her broth, wine, milk and she tries to take her mind from death wish but she cannot succeed.The strange fancy that takes hold of Johnsy’s mind cannot be removed.If a patient loses her will power to live, no disease can be resisted. She only looks out of the window counting the leaves.
Sue who is caring, nursing, tolerating,loyal through perseverance and gentleness shows her fondness for her weak friend. She does her duty as a concerned friend..

Mr. Behrman:Our first impression of him is quite negative.He seems to be a disagreable and unlikable person. Later, however, we discover that his rudeness is really a cover-up for his soft heart.This is a contradiction and this contradiction in Behrman’s character heightens the impact we feel when he suddenly and unexpectedly sacrifices himself for Johnsy.
Though the hero appears only once and speaks twice in the whole story he, successfully reveals his affection to two young artists and his noble spirit.
Though he was hard in the outside, he was full of gentle feelings in heart, His love towards Johnsy and Sue was fraternal or fatherly affections. . Even though at the begining of this story he was described as a terrible old man by the end of this story the other characters realize that his true personality is a selfless man who does infact care for others more than himself. In conclusion, Mr. Behrman, even though in the beginning is described as a man that doesn’t care about anyone else other than himself, in the end he shows his caring and love
TONE: The tone is very serious and a bit tragic, melancoholic or sad .
MOOD: The overall mood of the story is despair and sadness but the power of tenderness and love are also an important part of the mood.
FIGURES OF SPEECH
PERSONIFICATION
A variety of Figurative or metaphorical language in which things or ideas are treated as if they were human beings, with human attributes and feelings is called Personification.
In the very first line of this story “the Last Leaf”, streets are personified by the writer but there streets symbolize human passions and relationships.
“The streets run crazy and broken themselves into small strips called ‘places’.” Pneumonia is a serious kind of disease and may become the cause of death. Johnsy falls ill due to the prey of pneumonia. While Behrman dies of it. “Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old gentleman.”

SIMILE/METAPHOR These deal with the relatedness of one thing to other with direct or indirect reference. Simile is the relatedness by ‘as’ or ‘like’. But metaphor is direct relation of one thing to the other on the behalf of some quality. For example, “Johnsy was lying white and still as a fallen statue.”
“Behrman had a Michael Angelo’s Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along the body of an imp.” COMPARISON
It is a technique used by O’ Henry to explain things through contrast and comparison. It is based on the quality or quantity of something. Art and literature are very close to each other but the writer compares them on the level of their functions. He pleads,
“Young artists must pave their way to art by drawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write to pave their way to literature.”
SYMBOLISM/IMAGERY
This story also does have the devices of symbolism and imagery. Leaf deals with life, nutrition and growth as well. The symbol of shoes and icy cold is also used in this story. Shoes are the symbol of oppression, tyranny and death as well. The writer uses this symbol to show the death of Mr. Behrman. “His shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold.” Imagery is also very close to symbolism but it appeals to senses and feelings. There is a lot of color imagery in this story. “I have something to tell you, white mouse.” The image of white mouse is used for Johnsy because she recovers her health now. The white color presents innocence and purity.

What does the last leaf symbolise?
The last leaf is the symbol of hope that empowers a person for having the strength to fight death. The last leaf of the ivy had the power to sustain Johnsy’s life and Behrman had the power to sustain the last leaf by creating it.This art gave Johnsy the power to sustain her hope tol ive and indeed, until hope persists it is a sin to want to die.
Surprise Ending:Ironically, Johnsy is inspired to live by the leaf’s presence and she recovers. This twist is a classic example of O. Henry’s use of bittersweet irony to resolve his stories’ plots.The last leaf which was painted by the old man makes her live but causes him to die. It’s really Johnsy’s mind and Behrman’s insight and kindness that make the story happen.
Forshadowings
1. When we are introduced to the character of Behrman, O. Henry writes that he "regarded himself as especial masiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in the studio above," which means that he felt like he was a protector to Susan and Johnsy. This description of him being a protector foreshadows his later role in saving Johnsy's life. He expresses chagrin at Johnsy's fanciful and foolish fascination with the last ivy leaf and grumpily agrees to go up with Sue, to pose for her. When he gets up there, "In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy vine".
The next morning, the last ivy leaf stays clinging to the vine all that day, and through the night, even though previously, they had been dropping rapidly. This hints at the fact that the leaf is "different." As Johnsy starts to recover, Sue tells her that Behrman is very ill, and that "He is an old, weak man, and the attack is acute. There is no hope for him." His death is briefly foreshadowed here. Later she tells her that earlier they had found "His shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold". We learn this right before Sue mentions that he had painted the leaf.
2. line 207 ‘and still talked of his coming masterpiece.’ This line forshadows that Behrman is going to have his masterpiece later on in the story.
3.Line 225 ‘Old Behrman, with his red eyes plainly streaming’ this indicates that Behrman had already caught Pneumonia and he died at the end of the story because of it.
4. ‘some day I vill baint a masterpiece, and ve shall go away. Gott!yes’
While Sue and Mr. Behrman were talking, they had an arguement about posing. He forshadowed that one day he would paint his masterpiece which he desired a lot. At the end of the story he painted his masterpiece and then he passed away because he spent the cold night out painting the last leave. His weak health couldn’t bear the coldness so he fell down of the ladder and in few days he died in the hospital. He had caught Mr. Pneumonia.