# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/21 "2004-09-27T05:17:12Z")
> [@xgxlx](#): > > 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? Well, I guess a spoiler box is pointless, really. After failing to reason with Ozymandais, he left Ozy’s compound - in the middle of the (ant?)arctic, with no way to get to shelter, since Nightowl stayed there, and there’s nothing at anything resembling a reasonable distance. So, he presumably froze to death soon after. ---
**Author:** ![Revedge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@Revedge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revedge)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/22 "2004-09-27T05:22:35Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Okay, but then so do Cobain, Van Gogh, Goering, Harris and Klebold. I would like you to give the titles of the literary works that these people show up in as characters. Anthony and Cleopatra is considered a good if not great piece of literature in most thinking peoples minds. :wally ---
**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, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/23 "2004-09-27T05:42:52Z")
> [@Revedge](#): > > I would like you to give the titles of the literary works that these people show up in as characters. Ah, but now you’re implying a restrictive definition of “literature”; limited to works that have (fictionalized?) “characters”. If **coven** is willing to accept “by any definition”, then any published work of writing is surely included, and volumes upos volumes have been written about the persons I referenced. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/24 "2004-09-27T06:04:20Z")
Lily Bart. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/25 "2004-09-27T06:49:11Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Ah, but now you’re implying a restrictive definition of “literature”; limited to works that have (fictionalized?) “characters”. If **coven** is willing to accept “by any definition”, then any published work of writing is surely included, and volumes upos volumes have been written about the persons I referenced. Err…except coven never said literature didn’t have a restrictive definition. he said, basically, that by the restrictive definitions of liturature, _Cleopatra_ quailifies. Hmmm…maybe the problem here is when he said “literary does not mean fictional”? I think what he meant was the person does have to be fictional to appear in a literary work…not that literature was non-fictional. Cleopatra, in addition to being real, is a character in a literary work. As is Van Gough (Lust for Life?). I can think of anywhere Cobain, Klebold, etc. have be used as literary characters. Anyway…has anyone mentioned Jocasta? ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/26 "2004-09-27T06:50:26Z")
Can’t think of anywhere… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/27 "2004-09-27T07:59:56Z")
Chikamatsu Monzaemon, an Edo-period playwrights I’ve seen referred to as “the Shakespeare of Japan”, also rivalled Shakespeare when it came to dramatic depictions of suicide. One of his most famous plays is actually called **The Love Suicides at Sonezaki**. As you might guess, it ends with the double suicide of the ill-starred lovers Ohatsu and Tokubei. Getting back to Western drama, there’s Martha in **The Children’s Hour**. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/28 "2004-09-27T08:16:34Z")
Eustacia in Thomas Hardy’s _Return of the Native_ (pretty sure Hardy had quite a few of his other characters commit suicide too). Isn’t there an Agatha Christie story where it turns out the victim actually committed suicide, but set things up so it would frame someone for murder? ---
**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, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/29 "2004-09-27T13:19:15Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Okay, but then so do Cobain, Van Gogh, Goering, Harris and Klebold. So, do you consider the film _Sid and Nancy_ a documentary? I don’t really get what you’re driving at. I think _Antony and Cleopatra_ qualifies as literature, but ever since I posted “Cleopatra” you’ve had some kind of ax to grind. Care to explain or are you simply refusing to admit that your first response, > [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Uh, yeah, literary. was just a little knee-jerk and, in fact, wrong? ---
**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, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/30 "2004-09-27T13:56:52Z")
Before **Brian Ekers** drives everyone in this thread to suicide in despair over the state of mankind, I have to throw in the one work of literature that should have been obvious from the beginning. Robert Lewis Stevenson, _The Suicide Club_. ---
**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, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/31 "2004-09-27T14:29:27Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Eustacia in Thomas Hardy’s _Return of the Native_ (pretty sure Hardy had quite a few of his other characters commit suicide too). > > Isn’t there an Agatha Christie story where it turns out the victim actually committed suicide, but set things up so it would frame someone for murder? Yeah, _Ten Little Ni-_ erm, _Ten Little Ind-_, I’ll Try again _And Then There Were None._ One guy murders 8 people, kills himself making it look like murder, and drives the last survivor to hang herself. ---
**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, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/32 "2004-09-27T14:49:49Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Well, I guess a spoiler box is pointless, really. > > After failing to reason with Ozymandais, he left Ozy’s compound - in the middle of the (ant?)arctic, with no way to get to shelter, since Nightowl stayed there, and there’s nothing at anything resembling a reasonable distance. So, he presumably froze to death soon after. No. Here’s what happened. Rorschach refuses to accept Ozy’s crimes, and leaves, threatening to expose him. He’s presumably intending to use the Owlship. Doc Manhatten knows that exposing Ozy will restart the war the Ozy prevented. Doc tries to reason with Rorschach, but he won’t listen. Rorschach tells doc “one more corpse in the foundations will make no difference” and Doc blasts him into atoms. ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/33 "2004-09-27T15:17:02Z")
Dido ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/34 "2004-09-27T15:27:10Z")
I’ll take your word for it. I can’t, for the life of me, find my copy. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/35 "2004-09-27T16:00:32Z")
Madame Bovary ---
**Author:** ![Zoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/6de8d8/32.png) [@Zoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoff)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/36 "2004-09-27T16:21:53Z")
Joe Keller, _All My Sons_ ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/37 "2004-09-27T16:24:01Z")
The daughter character in “Night Mother” I can’t remember the name though. I remember when I was involved backstage in a production of it, we used to say the show ain’t over till the skinny lady is dead. ---
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/38 "2004-09-27T16:37:14Z")
Henry Scobie, _The Heart of the Matter_ by Grahame Greene. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/39 "2004-09-27T16:37:37Z")
I believe the killer in **Felicia’s Journey** ends up taking his own life, in an ending I found pretty unsatisfying. ---
**Author:** ![gooti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gooti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gooti)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/40 "2004-09-27T16:39:10Z")
The poem _Richard Cory_ by Edwin Arlington Robinson just came to mind: > [@](#): > > Whenever Richard Cory went down town, > We people on the pavement looked at him: > He was a gentleman from sole to crown, > Clean favored, and imperially slim. > And he was always quietly arrayed, > And he was always human when he talked; > But still he fluttered pulses when he said, > “Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked. > > And he was rich - yes, richer than a king - > And admirably schooled in every grace; > In fine we thought that he was everything > To make us wish that we were in his place. > > So on we worked, and waited for the light, > And went without the meat, and cursed the bread; > And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, > Went home and put a bullet through his head. I remember reading this in high school and it still makes me a bit uneasy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222.md?page=3)