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Hope is strong medicine.
Johnsy’s doctor tells Sue that Johnsy has a one-in-ten chance of surviving her illness, but “that chance is for her to want to live.” In other words, Johnsy’s chances are much worse than ten percent because she lacks the will to live—she has lost hope. He says that he will do what he can as a doctor, but science can only do so much. When a patient lacks hope, he suggests, chances of recovery can fall dramatically. He tells Sue that if she can get Johnsy to talk about “new winter styles” she will have a one-in-five chance of recovery. By showing interest in the future, even for something as mundane as fashion, Johnsy would indicate a sense of hope that might preserve her.
Johnsy’s hopelessness is symbolically bound to the leaves on the vine. As it is inevitable that all the leaves will fall, she feels it is inevitable that she will die. But when the last leaf refuses to fall, it becomes a symbol for life and the struggle to stave off death. To Johnsy, this struggle for life provides inspiration. She believes that “[s]omething has made that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was.” Because the last leaf remains, Johnsy has renewed hope. She asks for something to eat, shows concern for her appearance, and wants to be propped up instead of lying still like a corpse. She says, “some day I hope to paint the Bay of Naples.”
Within a short time, the doctor reverses his prognosis. Johnsy's revived hope achieves more than the doctor's medicine could on its own.
Community is essential to survival.
Sue, Johnsy, and Mr. Behrman form a microcosm of the artists’ community in Greenwich Village. They rely on each other for survival. When Johnsy cannot work due to her illness, Sue supports her. Sue acts as Johnsy’s health advocate with the doctor. She also cooks for Johnsy and tries to raise her spirits. For his part, Mr. Behrman relies on Sue and other young artists in the neighborhood to earn some income by posing as a model for their artwork. By the same token, the community of young artists, who are financially constrained, depend on Behrman for modeling. His affordable modeling services help them make ends meet.
When Sue goes to Behrman to ask him to model, she also shares the news of Johnsy’s illness and hopelessness with him. She turns to him mainly for emotional support, not expecting him to solve her problems. But Behrman sees himself “as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in the studio above.” He is the guardian of their little community. And, without being asked, he makes the ultimate sacrifice. He braves the cold, wet weather to paint the last leaf, which gives Johnsy hope to live. Without Sue’s steadfast support and Behrman’s sacrifice, Johnsy would not have survived.
Art gives life.
The story’s narrator says that “[y]oung artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine articles.” Sue exemplifies this maxim by drawing an “Idaho cowboy” to make a living. When Johnsy is sick with pneumonia, Sue continues to work. She must draw “so she can sell the editor man with it, and buy port wine for her sick child.” Although Sue might rather follow her own artistic aspirations, she draws so that she can buy food to provide nourishment so Johnsy can recover. In this case, art enables Sue to afford the necessities of life.
Though he paints only occasionally, Behrman creates art primarily for commercial purposes related to advertising. Like Sue, he’s making art to live instead of living to make art. But then Johnsy becomes ill and hopeless. Despite “his contempt and derision for [her] idiotic imaginings,” Behrman paints the last leaf to keep her alive. His leaf is lifelike, “[s]till dark green near its stem, but with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay.” Although the real last leaf has died and fallen, his copy creates new life. His masterpiece is good enough to trick Johnsy and give her the hope she needs to live.
