Every day a little death,
In the parlor, in the bed,
In the curtains, in the silver,
In the buttons, in the bread.
Every day a little sting,
In the heart and in the head.

These lines are lyrics by Stephen Sondheim from the song “Every Day a Little Death” in the musical A Little Night Music (1973). In the show, the song is sung by Charlotte Malcolm, a sardonic, long-suffering wife trapped in a loveless marriage to the philandering Carl-Magnus. Over a waltz-like accompaniment, Charlotte catalogues the small humiliations and erosions of spirit that accumulate in domestic life—objects of comfort (parlor, bed, curtains, silver, bread) becoming reminders of disappointment. The number functions as both character portrait and social satire, capturing the emotional cost of respectable appearances and routine.

The “little death” is a metaphor for incremental diminishment: not a single catastrophe, but daily, almost banal losses of dignity, desire, and hope. By placing the sting “in the parlor…in the bread,” the lyric insists that suffering can be embedded in the ordinary textures of home, where comfort and confinement blur. The repetition (“Every day…”) mimics routine, suggesting how resentment becomes habitual and how marriage can turn into a slow attrition of self. The wit of the inventory also sharpens the tragedy: Charlotte’s intelligence and clarity do not free her, but make her more acutely aware of what she endures.