The Blood of Others
Simone de Beauvoir
The Blood of Others
A Resistance novel about political action and the lives placed at risk by another person's decisions.
Read our takeWho Shall Die?
Simone de Beauvoir
Who Shall Die?
Beauvoir's only play, about a besieged town deciding that some residents are expendable when food runs short.
- 1945
- Savage
- Melancholy
- intimate
- political
- voice-driven
About Simone de Beauvoir
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeDuring a medieval siege, the leaders of Vaucelles plan to expel women, children, older people, and the sick so the remaining defenders have enough food. The people marked as 'useless mouths' reject the decision and force the town to confront who has the power to value a life.
The story, in more detail
The play puts political language under pressure. A council presents sacrifice as necessity, but the people selected to die were excluded from the decision and from the definition of useful work.
Beauvoir wrote the drama during the Second World War. Its siege is not a disguised report of one event; it is a staged argument about collective survival, consent, and the danger of treating people as means to a future victory.
The play
Vaucelles is surrounded, food is scarce, and the town council decides that residents who do not fight should be sent outside the walls.
The proposed victims organize rather than accepting the council's claim that their deaths are unavoidable.
The conflict shifts from military strategy to political legitimacy: whether leaders can preserve a community by declaring part of it disposable.
Why we recommend it
Why it matters
It is Beauvoir's only completed play and her most compressed treatment of political sacrifice.
Where it fits
Read it beside The Blood of Others, which asks the same wartime question through a novel's private relationships.
What this book explores
Timeline
1945
Gallimard publishes Les Bouches inutiles in Paris.
English editions
Translations publish the work under the title Who Shall Die?; dates and wording vary by edition.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- Gallimard
- 1945
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
The Ethics of Ambiguity
Simone de Beauvoir
The Ethics of Ambiguity
Beauvoir's clearest statement of an existentialist ethics based on freedom, limits, and responsibility to other people.
Read our takeWho Shall Die?: frequently asked questions
What is Who Shall Die? by Simone de Beauvoir about?
During a medieval siege, the leaders of Vaucelles plan to expel women, children, older people, and the sick so the remaining defenders have enough food. The people marked as 'useless mouths' reject the decision and force the town to confront who has the power to value a life.
When was Who Shall Die? published?
Gallimard first published Les Bouches inutiles in French in 1945.
Should I read Who Shall Die? first?
Usually not. Start with The Second Sex for Beauvoir's major argument, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter for her life, or The Mandarins for a novel, then return to Who Shall Die?.