Summary of The Last Leaf by O.Henry

 

The Last Leaf

-       O Henry

The Last Leaf is a short story written by O.Henry. This story depicts the life of an uncouth artisan who saved the life of an artist, at peril to himself, making a masterpiece.

Sue and Johnsy were artists and both lived in a colony in the old Greenwich Village. They started a Joint Studio at the top of a squatty three storey brick building. There was an outbreak of pneumonia in November. Scores of artists fell victims to its icy fingers. Soon Johnsy was affected by Pneumonia. She lay tired peeping through the small window panes at the blank sides of the next brick house.

One morning the doctor told Sue that there was no chance for Johnsy to live. He felt that she might be longing for something. Sue told that Johnsy had no other desire except to paint. The doctor said she might be counting the days for her death. When Sue entered the room Johnsy was counting backwards seriously looking through the window. She explained that for the past three days almost a hundred leaves had fallen down and there were only five leaves left now. When the last leaf fell, she must go too. Sue tried to make her understand that her fear was nonsensical and irrational, but it fell on deaf ears. She tried to raise her spirits saying that the doctor had told that the chances for her to live were ten to one. Johnsy was only waiting for the last leaf to go.

As Sue had to finish drawing a picture for a magazine story. She had to go down to call Behram for her model as an old hermit miner. Now there was only one leaf remaining. Sue needed light for her drawing, so she couldn’t pull down the shade until she finished it. She asked Johnsy to keep her eyes closed and not to look out of the window.

Sue told Behram about Johnsy. Behram was an uncouth man. He scoffed terribly at softness. He was a failure in art. For several years he was talking of his masterpiece which he had never begun yet. He drank gin to excess. He was a fierce little old man who considered himself as a protector of the two young artists living above.

Johnsy was sleeping when Behram came up to the studio. She and Behram quietly looked out at the ivy wine. A persistent cold rain was falling mingled with snow. Then Behram slowly took his seat as the hermit miner.

The next morning, Johnsy ordered Sue to pull up the shade. To their surprise they saw that the ivy leaf had stood the beating rain and the fierce guts of wind. Throughout the following day too, it was bravely clinging to the wall and Johnsy realized that it was a sin to want to die. Something had made the ivy leaf stay there.

When the doctor came in the afternoon, he said that Johnsy had improved and now she needed only proper food and care. He also informed them that poor Behram was affected by Pneumonia. The next day he died. Sue understood that he had been out that night in the icy cold to paint the last ivy leaf on the wall. It was Behram’s masterpiece. He had painted it there, the night the last leaf fell. The illiterate Behram had sacrificed himself to save the life of the girl in the clutches of depression.