Ramsha Zafar Gulzar2025-11-222025-11-222024https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/12058This research aims to establish a nuanced view of how the behavior of the protagonist changes with the passing time and what psychological consequences she had to go through with the lens of Kubler Ross’ grief theory. Then She was Gone by Lisa Jewell addresses the story of the protagonist who experiences loss of her young daughter. Throughout her journey she faces multiple difficulties and trauma. This theoretical framework of understanding the grieving process of a person involves five stages of denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance. Kubler Ross in her theory proposed the idea of a person going through all these stages but the question arises if these are a step-by-step stage, occurring one after another or not? To find out this perspective, Ross’ grief theory is applied to a contemporary fictional text Then She was Gone. The selected text highlights the struggling nature of the protagonist Laurel who lost her fifteen-year-old girl. Jewell presents this suspense novel by making the protagonist unaware of what exactly happened to her daughter and how she disappeared. She continued to mourn her death and experienced grief stages. Right when she reached the stage of ‘acceptance’ she met the daughter of her lover Poppy who looked like Ellie, which again gave rise to ‘denial’ of her daughter’s disappearance. This research figures out when and how these stages occur in a person. Keeping in view this aspect, this research also identifies the sequence in which the protagonist experiences these stages. Her grieving journey reveals the significance of her emotional disturbance. Not just this but her journey impacts her identity and her relations as well.enThesis