# 100 Greatest Deaths in Literature? (SPOILERS, probably) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2003, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611 "2003-07-15T10:06:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/1 "2003-07-15T10:06:29Z")
Well, inspired by the [100 Greatest Movie Deaths](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=195631) thread, I’m going to ask…what would YOU include in a list of the “100 Greatest LITERARY deaths”? Deaths of _fictional characters_ in literature, that is. I’d include a few “starter” suggestions of my own, but…I’m very tired right now. Ranchoth (Next up; “100 Greatest Literary Maimings and/or Disfigurings”) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/2 "2003-07-15T10:22:23Z")
From Dickens, Little Nell and Sydney Carton stand out. Svidrigailov in _Crime and Punishment_. Gollum, in _Lord of the Rings_. Boy Staunton, in Robertson Davies’ “Deptford” trilogy. Julius Caesar, in the play of the same name what Shakespeare wrote. Bound to be others, I’m sure, but those sprang to my mind right away. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/3 "2003-07-15T10:35:28Z")
Jo in BLEAK HOUSE allus gets me. Gatsby Hamlet Patroclus Oedipus (in Oed. at Col.) Does Jesus count? ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/4 "2003-07-15T11:56:41Z")
This should probably go in Cafe Society. We can’t leave off Mercutio, from _Romeo and Juliet_. And of course, Kurtz from _Heart of Darkness_. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/5 "2003-07-15T12:02:41Z")
Gus in “Lonesome Dove” Beth in “Little Women” In children’s lit, Sal’s mom in “Walk Two Moons”…it’s literature…it won a Newbery. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/6 "2003-07-15T12:28:57Z")
_Anna Karenina_ Mimi in _Bohemians of the Latin Quarter_ The anti-hero of _Difficult Death_ Miss Runcible in _Vile Bodies_ The _other_ anti-hero, of _Predestined_] Marguerite Gautier in _La Dame aux Camellias_ ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/7 "2003-07-15T14:52:37Z")
_All_ the deaths in _A Hundred Years of Solitude_. ---
**Author:** ![Greenback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/8 "2003-07-15T15:42:51Z")
The death of professor Moriarty and the rumoured death of Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbach Falls. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/9 "2003-07-15T15:54:10Z")
Fuchsia in ‘Gormenghast’… Paul in ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’. ---
**Author:** ![Broodha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@Broodha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broodha)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/10 "2003-07-15T16:19:15Z")
Franza in “The Book of Franza” by Ingeborg Bachmann \She commits suicide by bashing her head into a pyramid in Egypt\ ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/11 "2003-07-15T16:31:03Z")
We include Mercutio, but we leave off Romeo and Juliet? I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was in 4th grade our teacher read us a story about a boy whose best friend dies as the result of an allergic reaction to bee stings. I can’t recall the title of the book, but I distinctly recall how terrible we all felt. ---
**Author:** ![Q.N.Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3da27b/32.png) [@Q.N.Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.N.Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/12 "2003-07-15T19:00:56Z")
I thought the death of the title character in _Madame Bovary_ was incredibly and memorably grotesque, IIRC. And I remember being depressed for a week after the main character in Thomas Hardy’s _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ died at the end, so utterly and irredeemably alone. And who can forget the death of Clarissa, from Samuel Richardson’s book of the same name? (If you managed to read that far…) The broken lily metaphor has stuck in my mind for years. ---
**Author:** ![Alto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Alto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alto)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/13 "2003-07-15T20:45:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > \*\*I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was in 4th grade our teacher read us a story about a boy whose best friend dies as the result of an allergic reaction to bee stings. I can’t recall the title of the book, but I distinctly recall how terrible we all felt. \*\* This would be _A Taste of Blackberries_ by Doris Buchanan Smith. I agree, it’s a memorable death. How about the Wicked Witch of the West. Does being melted count as death? ---
**Author:** ![Treviathan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Treviathan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treviathan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/14 "2003-07-15T21:45:00Z")
_A Taste of Blackberries_ is the primary reason I’m bee-o-phobic. Stupid easily impressionable childhood brain. I’ll add Snowden in _Catch-22_, Quentin Compson in _The Sound and the Fury_, and Lennie from _Of Mice and Men_. Snowden’s death is one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever read. And in a more recent novel (hence the spoiler)… the deaths of the tailors’ family and of Maneck Kohlah _A Fine Balance_, which left me pissed off at Rohinton Mistry for writing such a sad, unjust, and uncompromising story. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/15 "2003-07-15T22:38:23Z")
Elly & Iphy Binewski in _Geek Love_. Does that count as one or two? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/16 "2003-07-16T00:27:49Z")
T S Garp in The World According to Garp ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/17 "2003-07-16T01:03:51Z")
Ooh, neat thread! A few more, though I know I’ve forgotten at least one I wanted to include… King Lear (and Cordelia), of course Cleopatra in _Antony and Cleopatra_ Enjolras and Grantaire in _Les Miserables_ (a book packed with great death scenes) Hotspur in _1 Henry IV_: “And food for --” From the Shakespeare’s Contemporaries Department: the title characters in Marlowe’s _Edward II_ (_shudder_) and _Doctor Faustus,_ and Webster’s _Duchess of Malfi_. Borderline, I think, since he never actually appears onstage in the play, but the narration of Falstaff’s death in _Henry V_ is deeply moving. Hazel in _Watership Down_ Porthos in _The Man in the Iron Mask_ Clarence in _Richard III_ A couple from _Lord of the Rings_ that I’ll spoilerproof, just in case: Theoden and Denethor – spectacular scenes in totally opposite ways ---
**Author:** ![green\_bladder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/18 "2003-07-16T01:04:36Z")
Fredo in _The Godfather_ ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/19 "2003-07-16T01:07:43Z")
Forgot Marvin the Paranoid Android in _So Long and Thanks For All the Fish_! And I don’t even think that was the one I initially forgot… ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611/20 "2003-07-16T01:34:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NailBunny \* > \*\*Elly & Iphy Binewski in _Geek Love_. Does that count as one or two? 😉 \*\* Then again, you could argue that Elly died well before her physical death. The end of the entire family (save for Oly and Lily) is pretty spectacular, considering who causes it. Oly’s suicide/murder at the end is memorable, too. Boxer the horse being dragged away to the glue truck in George Orwell’s **Animal Farm** was pretty memorable. Especially when the normally non-emotional Benjamin the donkey becomes hysterical as his friend is being taken away. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-greatest-deaths-in-literature-spoilers-probably/188611.md?page=2)