# Famous Literary suicides **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222 "2004-09-27T00:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/1 "2004-09-27T00:41:09Z")
A little brainstorming help i s required. How many famous literary characters (plays, novels, short stories, etc.) can you think of who committed suicide? A few that come to mind: Juliet Willy Loman Anna Karenina Othello Ophelia Hedda Gabler Dido Any other names you can suggest will be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/2 "2004-09-27T00:58:59Z")
Would you include **Sidney Carton** of “Tale of 2 Cities” ? ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/3 "2004-09-27T01:11:01Z")
Romeo Javert ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/4 "2004-09-27T01:18:02Z")
Quentin Compson from _The Sound and Fury_, in _Absalom! Absalom!_ Would you count Rorschach from _Watchmen_ as a suicide? ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/5 "2004-09-27T01:24:17Z")
John - _Brave New World_ ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/6 "2004-09-27T02:00:33Z")
Cleopatra ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/7 "2004-09-27T02:24:09Z")
> [@coven](#): > > Cleopatra Uh, yeah, literary. The title character of Goethe’s _The Sorrows of Young Werther_ surely counts. The book was the _Catcher in the Rye_ of its day, inspiring numerous actual suicides among depressed youth. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/8 "2004-09-27T02:38:44Z")
That guy in _Crime and Punishment_…Svidrigailov, was it? ---
**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:** [September 27, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/9 "2004-09-27T02:40:07Z")
Oh, and…do suicide _missions_ count? Y’know, Kamikaze runs, things like that? ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/10 "2004-09-27T02:51:28Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Uh, yeah, literary. Uuuh- you do count Shakespeare’s works as literature, don’t you? Literary does not mean fictional. ---
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/11 "2004-09-27T02:59:46Z")
Great Ajax. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/12 "2004-09-27T03:03:14Z")
A friend recently said that he had read the fact (or factoid) that there were 52 suicides in Shakespeare’s works. A bunch of us sat around and tried to come up with that many examples, but got bogged down real quick. But if you want a bunch of names, a little digging through the plays should come up with a deckful. (Yes, we talked about a deck of Shakespeare suicide characters modeled after the one used in Iraq. Think of the possibilities…) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/13 "2004-09-27T03:07:46Z")
Ben Kenobi. :dubious: Seriosly though, Konstantin Treplev in Chekhov’s _The Seagull_. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/14 "2004-09-27T03:42:53Z")
> [@coven](#): > > Uuuh- you do count Shakespeare’s works as literature, don’t you? Literary does not mean fictional. By that logic, any documented real-life suicide in history counts. Even if you restricted it to “famous” examples, you’d have to throw in Kurt Cobain, Vincent Van Gogh, Herman Goering and even Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. ---
**Author:** ![Iacob\_Matthew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Iacob\_Matthew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iacob_Matthew)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/15 "2004-09-27T04:06:18Z")
Would Therem Harth rem ir Estraven count as “famous?” ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/16 "2004-09-27T04:34:21Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > By that logic, any documented real-life suicide in history counts. Even if you restricted it to “famous” examples, you’d have to throw in Kurt Cobain, Vincent Van Gogh, Herman Goering and even Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. You can split hairs all you want. Show me the equivalent literary account of any of those people’s death to this account of [Cleopatra’s](http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/cleopatra/cleopatra.5.2.html). I’d say that it counts as literature, by any definition. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/17 "2004-09-27T04:48:35Z")
> [@coven](#): > > You can split hairs all you want. Show me the equivalent literary account of any of those people’s death to this account of [Cleopatra’s](http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/cleopatra/cleopatra.5.2.html). I’d say that it counts as literature, by any definition. Okay, but then so do Cobain, Van Gogh, Goering, Harris and Klebold. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/18 "2004-09-27T04:48:59Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > A friend recently said that he had read the fact (or factoid) that there were 52 suicides in Shakespeare’s works. A bunch of us sat around and tried to come up with that many examples, but got bogged down real quick. I think a lot of them are minor characters in the Roman plays… The ones I could come up with off the top of my head: Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra (and her maids Charmian and Iras), Cassius, Brutus, his wife Portia, Othello, Goneril, Titus Andronicus, Lady Macbeth, and the Queen in _Cymbeline._ Plus dubious cases like Ophelia, Timon of Athens, Prince Arthur (in _King John_), and maybe even Enobarbus… ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/19 "2004-09-27T04:59:51Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Would you count Rorschach from _Watchmen_ as a suicide? I just finished it a few months ago, but I can’t for the life of me remember what happend to Rorschach. Can someone refresh my memory? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/20 "2004-09-27T05:07:50Z")
> [@Katisha](#): > > I think a lot of them are minor characters in the Roman plays… > > The ones I could come up with off the top of my head: Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra (and her maids Charmian and Iras), Cassius, Brutus, his wife Portia, Othello, Goneril, Titus Andronicus, Lady Macbeth, and the Queen in _Cymbeline._ Plus dubious cases like Ophelia, Timon of Athens, Prince Arthur (in _King John_), and maybe even Enobarbus… Don’t forget Pyramus and Thisbe! 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222.md?page=2)