Chapters 11, 12 and 13 Summary

In Chapter 11, as she longs to play the piano in the communal living room, Veronika is shocked to discover that the door to her ward is not locked. As a nurse comments wryly that there's no way she (the nurse) wants to be trapped with the lunatics, Veronika is suddenly overwhelmed with grief and collapses into her lap. The nurse tells her that watching over Veronika makes her think about her own daughter, about things in her daughter's life that might make her want to kill herself, and about what drives people to try to kill themselves "against the natural order of things, which is to fight for survival whatever happens?" Through her tears, Veronika confesses her reasons for wanting to end her life and then is allowed to go play the piano. As she goes, she contemplates the mask of...