In the conclusion of Lulu the audience is left with the dying Geschwitz, a lesbian character whose devoted, self-sacrificing love for Lulu and eventual decision to pursue a law degree and fight for women's rights is cut short by her fateful encounter with Jack the Ripper. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this ending is that Berg places Lulu's death offstage; the only victim onstage, and therefore seen and heard by the audience, is Geschwitz. Berg even considered, at some point during the compositional process, leaving Lulu alive, making Geschwitz the only fatal victim of Jack the Ripper. This subtle change from Frank Wedekind's Die Büchse der Pandora, in which Jack's intended target is Lulu and Geschwitz is murdered simply because she gets in the way, complicates the meaning of her death in the opera. Because Geschwitz is left alone onstage and sings a soliloquy similar to those reserved for operatic heroines, it is not Lulu's but Geschwitz's death that is supposed to receive emotional and sympathetic responses from audiences and scholars alike.