# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**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, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/41 "2004-09-27T16:45:11Z")
oops, that’s Graham without an e. Just remembered another: Julian English, _Appointment in Samarra_ by John O’Hara. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/42 "2004-09-27T16:47:32Z")
> [@furlibusea](#): > > 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. Jessie. I came explicitly to post _Night, Mother_, as it’s one of the most powerful plays I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/43 "2004-09-27T17:10:24Z")
**Major Tetley** at the end of _The Ox Bow Incident._ ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/44 "2004-09-27T17:40:57Z")
Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine) in “the Children’s Hour.” (I’m guilty! I’m guilty! I’m guilty!) How about Laura Palmer in “Twin Peaks” who, as her shrink related, didn’t commit suicide but rather “allowed” herself to be murdered. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/45 "2004-09-27T18:29:02Z")
Don’t forget Hans Christian Andersen’s little mermaid. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/46 "2004-09-27T18:50:21Z")
The main character in Kate Chopin’s _ **The Awakening** _. The chick in the poem _ **The Highwayman** _. ---
**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, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/47 "2004-09-27T19:29:00Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > 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. [spoiler]You’ve got the order wrong. The murderer fakes his own murder as # 6, making it look like he’s been shot in the head. Later, he kills # 7 (the doctor) and # 8 (the corrupt cop). The two survivors, the governess and the adventurer, each conclude that the other is the murderer. The governess shoots the adventurer (# 9), then goes up to her room and commits suicide as an act of remorse for having originally killed her student, before the story opened. The murderer tidies everything up, making it clear that someone was in the house after the governess committed suicide, then commits suicide himself by shooting himself in the head, consistent with his own original faked murder. Since they’re isolated on an island in the middle of a storm, the police can’t reach the house until several days have passed. All the bodies have started to decay by the time the police get there, so the forensics can’t tell that the murderer survived everyone else by about a day. (And technically all the numbers are out, since the murderer killed someone else before the story opened, which we only find out at the end. We’ll just call that guy Victim 0 to keep the sequence matched to the chronology of the story.)[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/48 "2004-09-27T19:49:48Z")
Lux, Mary, Cecilia, Therese and Bonnie Lisbon, _The Virgin Suicides_. Miggs from _Silence of the Lambs_ ---
**Author:** ![DogMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@DogMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DogMom)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/49 "2004-09-27T21:03:46Z")
Hercule Poirot, in “Curtain” by Agatha Christie. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/50 "2004-09-27T21:31:03Z")
John Singer, **The Heart is a Lonely Hunter**. Billy Bibbit, **One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest**. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222/51 "2004-09-27T22:17:30Z")
> [@DogMom](#): > > Hercule Poirot, in “Curtain” by Agatha Christie. Was that actually famous? I wouldn’t know, because I decided, after reading about fifty Agatha Christie novels, that she absolutely sucked at what she did (MHO, and I don’t wish to engender an extended hijack with this opinion, it’s just so rarely that I get an opportunity to broadcast it). But if the demise of M. Poirot gets to be famous literature, then I offer the far superior suicide of (spoiler for anyone who has not had the pleasure of reading it)Orrie Cather in _A Family Affair_ by the far superior Rex Stout. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-literary-suicides/266222.md?page=2)