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A KISS BEFORE DYING By Ira Levin

THEMES Four main themes pervade in the novel A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin: Greed, Murder, Deception and Love and Marriage.

GREED Greed is an excessive desire for more of something, especially money or power. In the novel A Kiss Before Dying greed is reflected by Bud Curlis who has always wanted to become extremely wealthy. When he meets Dorothy, his classmate at University, he decides to make her fall in with him because her father is very rich. But he kills her because she got pregnant and thinks her father would disinherit her. His greed is also shown when he also tries to marry Ellen, Dorothy´s sister, and kills her too because she finds out that Dorothy has not committed suicide but has been killed. He kills Dwight as well to conceal his murder.

MURDER Murder is also a linking topic in the novel. Bud Corlis murders people to achieve his aim, become wealthy and conceal his slaughters. When he kills Dorothy, he tries it to make her death appear as suicide. When he kills Dwight and Ellen he tries to make the murders appear as the work of an unidentified person. In the three occasions he acts under an unknown or false identity. His greed makes him murder innocent people to achieve his aim. This theme is also connected to the theme of deception.

DECEPTION Deception is present throughout the novel A Kiss Before Dying. Bud, pushed by his greed, deceives everybody to achieve his aim. He promotes the belief that he is a lovely trustworthy man whose feelings are true in order to marry the Kingship sisters, thus deceiving them. He deceives the three sisters, their father and even the Police. He pretends that Dorothy commits suicide and he pretends that an unknown killer murders Ellen and Dwight, but he really pushes Dorothy from the roof and he shoots Ellen and Dwight. His greed pushes him to conceal his feelings and actions, thus deceiving everybody, in order to reach his goal: to become rich.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE In real life love and marriage are associated with true feelings and affection. The theme of love and marriage is recurrent in the novel but it is neither associated with feelings or emotions. Bud´s and the three sisters´ parents’ marriages have been a failure, thus making their offspring seek for love under false ideals. Dorothy wants to get married because she wants to have a family, Marion wants to get married because she loves Bud and wants him to love her,

whereas Bud wants to get married because he avidly loves money. Thus, love is not portrayed as romantic love but as pragmatic love; and marriage solely serves the purpose of achieving objectives, not affection.