Driven to Suicide: Difference between revisions

[[Super-Trope]] of [[Leave Behind a Pistol]]. See also: [[I Cannot Self-Terminate]], [[Suicide by Cop]], [[Ate His Gun]], [[Bath Suicide]], [[Better to Die Than Be Killed]], [[Goodbye, Cruel World]], [[Suicide by Sunlight]] and [[Murder-Suicide]]. Contrast [[Face Death with Dignity]], where one chooses to face the music (and the bullets); [[Bungled Suicide]] and [[Interrupted Suicide]], where the character's attempt fails or is stopped by somebody else; [[Happily-Failed Suicide]], where the character is grateful to be alive after all, and [[Suicide Is Painless]], where the character has no reason to commit suicide, but does so anyway.

 

 

{{deathtrope}}

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** Moments after the above, {{spoiler|Envy}} ends {{spoiler|his own life by destroying his own Philosopher's Stone}} to avoid what he perceives as the ultimate humiliation: {{spoiler|being beaten and actually ''pitied'' by lowly humans}}.

* In the last episode of ''[[Gravitation]]'', Eiri Yuki, after remembering his [[Dark and Troubled Past|troubled past]], is about to pull the trigger on his life when Shuichi arrives in the nick of time.

* ''[[Godchild]]'': In volume 2, Emile allows himself to fall off the roof of his mansion to his death because he feels guilty for having a "filthy" soul and doesn't want to tarnish his stepsister Lukia, who he loved more than anyone. Cain tried to save him, and probably would have succeeded, had it not been for the intervention of [[Big Bad]] Alexis.

* Played completely for laughs in ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'' where the main character, a teacher (above), tries to commit suicide because of every minor thing that happens to him, usually more than [[Once an Episode]]. He even has a book with names of people who might join him and tries to get his pupils to sign up.

* Happens a few times in ''[[Lupin III]]''. Fujiko and Zenigata attempt to kill themselves after they think that Lupin was killed by an assassin, and Goemon attempt suicide because his sword was stolen and he felt he was nothing without it.

* {{spoiler|Nyu}} tries to kill herself by wrist-slitting in the ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' manga, after {{spoiler|learning of her [[Split Personality]]'s [[Psycho for Hire]] ways}}. She fails though.

* In ''[[Oniisama e...]]'', {{spoiler|Rei, Fukiko, Mariko and Aya}} all contemplate or try to do this to varying degrees, but ultimately fail. {{spoiler|In the manga, Rei actually ''did'' commit suicide, by overdosing herself with pills. In the anime, however, she dies in a accident.}} And in Rei's backstory, {{spoiler|her mother commits suicide by drowning herself in the ocean.}}

* In ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' episode 37 Anthy tries to commit suicide by throwing herself off of a building. Fortunately, Utena saves her.

* Implied at the end of ''[[Ghost World]]''. Enid feels completely isolated from everything and everyone she ever cared about; she is last seen catching a bus, a common metaphor for suicide.

* In ''[[Persepolis]]'', {{spoiler|Marjane}} attempts suicide. She recovers.

* In ''[[Love and Rockets]]'', Tonantzin burns herself alive outside a US embassy somewhere in the world, as a result of depression manifesting as political despair.

** A similar situation happened to The Blob after the loss of his powers. He tried to slash his wrists, but was unable to find a vein amongst all the stretched out skin.

* Minuteman Jack "The Monster" Daw from 100 Bullets. He's addicted to self destructive tendencies: alcohol, heroin, and violence. He makes remarks about wanting to die yet he teases death with the needle or the gun as Graves puts it. The gun being a metaphor for violence. Jack got clean but he hasn't really changed since he keeps seeking the kick (violence) that diverts him from facing his pain. There is a moment where he avoids violence and seems to be getting better. Jack "relapses" (violence); kills a guard by squeezing his head with his foot followed by challenging candidate-minuteman Crete. {{spoiler|Jack dies fighting crete when alligators devour them both. It shows us that he stayed married to his self destructive nature until the end.}}

* In ''[[All Fall Down]]'', Portia experiences this when it becomes painfully clear she is never getting her powers back. She steps off a tall building. (She is saved by the Ghoul.)

* [[Superman]] foe Manchester Black killed himself with his own psychic powers after realizing that Superman was a true hero, [[Heel Realization|which meant Black was the villain.]]

 

== Fairy Tales ==

{{quote|''She began to weep, and wail, and lament, telling that inanimate piece of wood the story of her travails, speaking as she would have done to a living being; and perceiving that the doll answered not, she took up the knife and sharpening it on the pumice-stone, said, 'If thou wilt not answer me, I shall kill myself, and thus will end the feast;' and the doll swelled up as a bag-pipe, and at last answered, 'Yes, I did hear thee, I am not deaf.'''}}

 

== Film ==

* Phil in ''[[Groundhog Day]]'' tries several methods of suicide, presumably out of boredom after being forced to relive the same day of his life so many times in a row. Among the methods he tries are: jumping off a building, stepping in front of a speeding bus, a fiery high-speed chase ending in a car crash and dropping a toaster into his bath tub. And while all of these actually succeed, it does not stop him from waking up alive every morning on February 2.

* Jericho Cane in ''[[End of Days]]'' contemplates suicide every Christmas because his wife and daughter were killed while doing his job.

* George Bailey in ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'': Every golden opportunity is frustrated by his self-imposed duties, until one Christmas Eve, when Potter seizes an opportunity to steal $8,000 from the Bailey Building & Loan, then threatens to charge George with the theft. He is saved by his guardian angel as he contemplates jumping off a bridge.

* ''[[Airplane!]]!''. Three people commit suicide rather than listen to Ted Striker's reminiscing.

* In the 1978 ''[[Dawn of the Dead (film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'', Peter contemplates committing suicide but changes his mind as he rushes off to the helicopter to the sound of heroic music. So he can live a life in a world covered by zombies, yay. The original script had Peter kill himself but [[Executive Meddling]] called for a "happier" ending.

* The Harold Lloyd film ''[[Never Weaken]]'' revolves entirely around his multiple suicide attempts after being jilted. Since they all play out in Lloyd's typical "thrill comedy" style, and we know there's no way he'll actually succeed, it's okay to laugh.

* This is played for laughs in the 1971 Hal Ashby film ''[[Harold and Maude]]'', where the death-obsessed protagonist stages elaborate faux-suicides out of boredom.

* Subverted and played straight with {{spoiler|Colonel Maguire}} in ''[[Cube|Cube 2: Hypercube]]''. The first time around [[Interrupted Suicide|he's saved in time by the group]], but the second time he voluntarily chains himself to a wall so he can be killed by one of the traps, before swallowing the key.

* In ''[[Master and Commander (film)|Master and Commander]]'', the oldest midshipman Hollom is believed by the rest of the crew to be cursed with bringing all kinds of bad luck to the ship. After a series of events involving the crew's disrespect becoming clearer and clearer to him, Hollom {{spoiler|picks up a small cannonball and jumps off the ship to drown.}}

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', the character {{spoiler|Smerdyakov}} commits suicide close to the end of the novel. Why he does is left unexplained and up to the reader. He either did it {{spoiler|because he had a [[Redemption Equals Death|sudden attack of conscience over everything he had done]]}} which is unlikely, or more likely he committed suicide {{spoiler|as the final part of a hastily-schemed [[Gambit Roulette]] to put Dmitri Karamazov in jail for the murder of his father, for which he was innocent}}.

* {{spoiler|Fernand Mondego}} in ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]''.

* In [[Lord Dunsany]]'s short story ''The Jest of the Gods'', the title characters created a king's soul containing more pride, strength, and ambition than kings ordinarily had, then sent the soul to be born as a slave. Their jest backfired when the soul grew up and was Driven To Suicide, which they hadn't expected. Leads to a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when he then faces them down.

* Esther Greenwood in ''The Bell Jar'' attempts suicide a number of times before being hospitalized. Given the time period ([[The Fifties]]), Esther is terrified of the common reality that a married woman spends the rest of her life in the kitchen and giving up everything she ever worked towards. After finishing college, she has no idea what to do with her life and becomes saddened by the fact that "the one thing [she] was good at was winning scholarships and prizes and that era is coming to an end." After trying to slit her wrists in a warm bath and trying to swim out into the ocean, she crawls into a hole in her basement and downs an entire bottle of sleeping pills.

** Arguably, this happens in ''The Nine Tailors''.

* In [[Josephine Tey]]'s ''The Singing Sands'', the egocentric killer opts for a dramatic suicide and a long-winded suicide note to a Scotland Yard investigator, assuming that the murder has been a perfect murder that could not have been detected or proved and wanting to go out in a blaze of glory. Wrong on all counts, as it happened.

** Happens several times in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'':

*** {{spoiler|Fingolfin}} challenges {{spoiler|Morgoth}} to single combat (he [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|does pretty well]], but there was no way he was going to win, and he's smart enough that he must have known that);

* In ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', after Cheryl Taggart realizes that her husband is evil and willing to destroy anything she would achieve for her own interest, and that the world is ruled by people just like him, she races to sthrow herself into a river.

* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Cain's Last Stand'', when {{spoiler|Donal}}'s freedom from [[Compelling Voice|mind control]] is lost as Jurgen steps away, he turns his gun on himself rather than attack Cain. Later, {{spoiler|the Battle Sisters whom Varan brought to his meeting with Cain are also freed by Jurgen's nearness, go insane realizing what they have done under his influence, and commit suicide}}.

** ''The Killing Ground'' opens with a former soldier trying to [[Drowning My Sorrows|drown his sorrows]]. He ends up blowing his brains out as more effective.

** In the [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Fulgrim'', Serena d'Angelus [[Dreaming the Truth|realizes]] that her [[Bad Dreams]] stem from {{spoiler|murders she committed and forgot}}. She seeks out Ostian, thinking he could save her. She finds him murdered, weeps that [[Oblivious to Love|he loved her and she hadn't seen it, and that she loved him]]. Then she commits suicide.

*** Later, Fulgrim realizes how great his betrayal is when he {{spoiler|kills Ferrus Manus}}. He goes to kill himself. {{spoiler|His [[Evil Weapon|sword]] says it's too noble for him, and tricks him into accepting possession}}.

** In ''Deus Sanguinius'', Inquisitor Stele plays on Rafen's fears—that he [[Youngest Child Wins|overshadows his younger brother]] and [[Green-Eyed Monster|is jealous of him]]—to convince him that he has to free Arkio by killing himself. {{spoiler|Only a literal vision allows him to throw off the mind-witchery.}}

* In ''[[The Tragedy Of Man]]'', {{spoiler|Adam}} is on the verge of jumping off a cliff in the last scene. He is stopped when {{spoiler|Eve tells him she is pregnant.}}

* {{spoiler|Billy Bibbit}} in ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'', thanks to a manipulative Nurse Ratched threatening him and bringing him back to reality.

** From the same book, Hermione points out that the wizard or witch who split his/her own soul to create a Horcrux must feel deep and genuine remorse in order to fix their soul fragments back into one whole piece. The drawback? Said wizard or witch may be overwhelmed by the pain of it to end up with this trope.

* Quentin Compson in ''The Sound and The Fury'' commits suicide because he's unable to cope with living in a world where he doesn't belong anymore. Quentin was born and raised on the values of the Old South, particularly about how women are suppose to be virtuous and upstanding. He begins to lose touch with reality when his older sister, Candace, begins to sleep around, destroying his aforementioned belief of women, his father preaches nihilism, and sees the Old South fading away.

* At the end of ''Dreamspeaker'', Peter hangs himself, while the mute "He who would Sing" [[Ate His Gun|shoots himself in the mouth]] with a shotgun, in gruesome detail.

* A [[wikipedia:Werther effect|famous]] example: in Goethe's ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'', Werther shoots himself in the head to escape an unbearable love triangle (he is in love with a married woman). A semi-[[Bungled Suicide]], in that he does not die instantly, but suffers for twelve hours before finally dying.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[Iron Shadows in the Moon|Shadows in The Moonlight]]", Olivia tries to escape by telling her pursuer that she will drown herself if he comes after; he tells her the waters are too shallow.

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter|Prospero Lost]]'', in the [[Backstory]], Miranda had thought of killing herself when she thought Ferdinard had jilted her.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Hermetic Millenium|Count to a Trillion]]'', Captain Grimaldi {{spoiler|At least according to Blackie}}

* In ''[[Enchantress From the Stars]]'' Elana, a 14 years old girl from [[The Federation]], is captured by colonists from [[The Empire]]. The colonists intend to bring her to their home planet, where she will be dissected and interrogated (and thanks to their tech, [[The Empire]] can extract any information they want). Not wanting to end like this, Elana runs towards the imperial rock-chever, intent on being crushed by falling debris. {{spoiler|luckily, she is rescued [[Just in Time]]}}

 

== Live Action TV ==

* In the Spanish series ''El Internado'', {{spoiler|Fernando}} tries to [[Bath Suicide|kill himself]], since {{spoiler|to get the medicine keeping him alive, his sister Amelia must work with [[Complete Monster|a group of Nazis]]}}; his death would let her stop working for them.

** {{spoiler|[[Jerkass Woobie|Elsa]]}} overdoses on pills after {{spoiler|she miscarries and Hector divorces her}}.

 

== Music ==

* The subject of the song "Inside the Fire" by [[Disturbed]]. Based on a true story in the lead singer's life.

* Close to half of defunct Finnish metal band Sentenced's studio output dealt with the subject. Then again, with songs like "Excuse Me While I Kill Myself", "Consider Us Dead" and "End of the Road", it's kind of their thing.

* The 17-year-old runaway girl protagonist of [[Marillion]]'s [[Concept Album]] ''Brave'' endures alienation, abuse, betrayal, addiction and rape and ends up killing herself.

* [[Blue Man Group]]'s "The Current", if taken a certain way, sounds like the singer is trying to commit suicide by electrocution, only to be defibrillated and live.

 

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* ''[[Beetle Bailey]]''

** Left hanging another time, in one variation of a reused gag where Beetle overhears the guys planning to pull a prank on him by calling in pretending to be Sarge. Of course, then the real Sarge calls in and buys it when Beetle pretends to be the General and tells him to do something absurd. In this one instance, Beetle says he's disappointed in him and he can just go tie a rock around his neck and jump into water. The last panel shows Sarge about to do so. Of course, it's entirely [[Played for Laughs]] and forgotten immediately afterwards; presumably he didn't do it.

 

== Radio Drama ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* One of the Deathlords in ''[[Exalted]]'', during his first life as a Solar Exalted, was inducted into a Circle (adventuring party) to replace their lost member, who had carried the same Shard. After enduring a decade of them demonstrating why the Solars ended up being overthrown, he killed himself. Then, after spending a fair while as a brooding ghost, the rest of them managed what he saw as a [[Karma Houdini]]...so now he wants to destroy all life.

 

== Theater ==

My soul from sorrow? Better once to die

Than day by day to suffer. }}

** ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' both kill themselves at the end, Romeo because he wanted to join Juliet in death (but tragically, he didn't know that Juliet was only [[Faking the Dead]] because the information that Friar Lawrence had intended for him never arrived), and Juliet because she wanted to join Romeo in death.

* Four words: ''[[Death of a Salesman]]''.

* Happens a lot in opera too:

* Ajax in ''[[The Golden Apple]]'' jumps out a window after squandering his friends' money by unwisely investing it in hemp.

* {{spoiler|Jason}} in bare: a pop opera. He's feeling so much angst about being gay, he got {{spoiler|Ivy}} pregnant, his friends have left him and when he asks Peter to run away with him, Peter refuses and says he can't hide anymore. The audience is left drowning in their own tears.

 

== Theme Parks ==

* One of the bad endings in ''[[School Days]]'' has this too: {{spoiler|Kotonoha Katsura, the Ojou of the story, throws herself off a building if Makoto (in the main player's shoes) goes with Sekai instead. And she actually dies ''in front of Sekai and Makoto'' ([[High-Pressure Blood]] and all), traumatising them so badly that Makoto not only breaks up with Sekai, but [[Allergic to Love|swears off romance]] ''forever''.}}

* In [[System Shock 2]], {{spoiler|Dr. Janice Polito was driven to suicide when she found out that she unleashed SHODAN. You find her corpse in her office, and her suicide note in the Rickenbacker church.}}

* In the end of ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generation 2'' (and ''Advance'' too), being the 'only survivor' of the Shadow Mirror, Lamia Loveless thought that she has failed her mission, killed her teammates and superiors, and is pretty much a defective product all around, and thus she attempts to self destruct... only to be stopped by her new teammates just in time and be persuaded to live her life in the current world. She actually has more self-destruct attempts throughout the series, but only this occasion fits the trope.

* If Joshua has failed to save both of his [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]s in ''[[Vandal Hearts]] 2'', he will arrive at the parapets of his third [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]] and love Adele's castle just in time for her to say she's had enough of being used and leap off.

* ''[[Yume Nikki]]'': {{spoiler|After dropping the 24 effects off in the Nexus, Madotsuki wakes up from her dream, walks out onto the balcony... and leaps off the edge. Cut to black and a bloody red smear on the canvas.}}

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'' has Faye, a girl with obvious issues. It is later revealed that the reason she is so severely messed up is that {{spoiler|her father, who she saw as her best friend and in whom she confided everything, committed suicide for reasons unknown by blowing his brains out with a gun,''in front of her''. He went outside in the early morning without realizing that she had gotten out of bed and followed him outside. Then he blew his brains out before she could call out to him. Yikes.}}

** It's also implied that the car accident she was in just before the story started was an attempt. Faye says that she isn't sure herself, because she doesn't remember the moments leading up to the crash.

* ''Breakfast of the Gods'': {{spoiler|Trix}} tries to hang himself after {{spoiler|betraying Cap'n Crunch into a fatal ambush}}. He doesn't succeed, because the tree cuts him off and says {{spoiler|[[Black Comedy|"Silly rabbit."]]}}

* Artie Crowley of ''[[Concession]]'' was seen holding a gun to his head after realising {{spoiler|he had had sex with a prepubescent boy while in a trance and unable to realise what he was doing}}, but he didn't go through with it.

* ''[[Otter Soldiers]]'': Subverted. One of the characters at one point contemplates upon committing suicide. She ends up thinking too much about how it could end up going horribly wrong (survived but crippled etc.), and is ultimately unable to go through with it.

* Neilli of ''[[Juathuur]]'' is driven to suicide {{spoiler|by Meidar, who decides that a girl that wants to be a healer would make a perfect torturer. Possibly a [[Secret Test of Character]] directed at Neilli's boyfriend Thomil.}}

* Conor from ''[[Freak Angels]]'' shoots himself in the head, not out of a true desire to die, but out of a wish to upgrade his mental abilities. His action fits this trope because he really didn't know whether he'd survive, and his conversation with Arkady and relationship with the other Freak Angels suggest that he didn't much care.

* At the end of ''[[Anders Loves Maria]]'', {{spoiler|Tina}} commits suicide after {{spoiler|failing to win Anders back.}}

* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' [[Backstory]]: Jin tried to derail the spell with this. [[Senseless Sacrifice|It didn't work]]

* {{spoiler|[[Bittersweet Candy Bowl|Lucy]] does this in "Disaster Dominoes" near the end to [[Together in Death|join the recently run down Mike.]]}}

* A [[Running Gag]] across ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' as a whole is people being driven to suicide near a stump in an empty field, later named the Land of Stumps and Dismay in ''[[Homestuck]]''. First it was the protagonist of ''[[Jail Break]]'', then later an ''audience member'' of ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' and ''Homestuck'' gives it some serious consideration in response to events in the comics themselves.

** Another critic on the site, Film Brain, sometimes places a gun to his head when things are getting to be too much for him. "Why is it always empty?!"

** [[The Nostalgia Chick]] pulls a plastic bag over her head and strangles herself after being subjected to "There Must Be An Angel".

* {{spoiler|General Briggs}} in the final chapter of ''[[Broken Saints]]''.

* Toad is driven to suicide at the end of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82uD1frYT0k talk my head off] because he killed so many people.

* In ''[[Robot Chicken]]'', when fighting one of the Winged Monkeys in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'', [[The Crow]] gives him a depressingly nihilistic monologue that causes the monkey to just hang himself. Cue Crow wiping away a tear.

** The bloopers show host kills himself at the end of every segment he's in.

* Many [[Looney Tunes]] cartoons feature characters offing themselves after seeing something particularly ridiculous. Occasionally, especially in [[Tex Avery]]'s cartoons, they ended with the ''main character shooting themself'', such as in ''Red Hot Riding Hood''. These scenes are [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|particularly shocking to modern audiences]], and [[Bowdlerized|typically censored these days]] except in uncut releases.

** In [[Chuck Jones]]' "Cheese Chasers", a pair of mice decide to [[Suicide by Cop|commit suicide-by-cat]] after having eaten themselves sick on cheese and decide that there's nothing left to live for since they'll never be able to enjoy cheese again. They only succeed in driving the ''cat'' to suicide as well.

* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' features Aelita doing this in the final episode of season 2, but it was [[Interrupted Suicide|stopped by Jeremie]]. Her motives here are complex and confusing, blending a bit of [[Goodbye, Cruel World]] with [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and [[Martyr Without a Cause]]. Yes, all of those apply.

* Bill Dauterive of ''[[King of the Hill]]'' had periodic bouts with depression turn so bad that he became suicidal especially on Christmas when this was the time his wife divorced him. Bill's suicide attempts were played seriously, but his neighbors' reactions to it were not. Hank was annoyed by having to take time off of work to go on "suicide watch", Dale didn't care if Bill died or not and was eager to steal his stuff, and Boomhauer was tired of it eating up so much of his time.

* In ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'', a Twi'lek slave, having failed to assassinate her master, leaps to her death rather than continue living as a slave.

* [[Evil Twin|Spider]]-[[Omnicidal Maniac|Carnage]] at the end of ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]''. Completely insane and aware that he cannot drive the symbiote off of him, he hurls himself into an unstable vortex and disintegrates. Horrifyingly, this was probably best for everyone involved, [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|himself included]].

 

* Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. Not too bad, until you realize that cars are on the road, and then you realize what the "other side" means.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Choosing Death]]

[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]