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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
''And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
''Eagerly I wished the morrow, vainly I had sought to borrow
''From my books surcease of sorrow -- sorrow for the lost Lenore
''For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore
''Nameless here for evermore.''|'''[[Edgar Allan Poe]]''', ''The Raven''}}
One of [[The Oldest Ones in
* a love interest of a prominent character
* is dead (or occasionally just genuinely believed to be dead) before the story begins or dies relatively early in the story
* their death has significant ongoing impact, consequences and relevance for the remainder of the story
'''Lost Lenores''' can be divided into two categories.
* '''Type A''': A [[Posthumous Character]] like the trope namer, ie, dead before the story begins
* '''Type B''': Dies during the course of the story.
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* The [[Incurable Cough of Death]] or other related terminal illnesses - see Mary in ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'', Jennifer in 'Love Story', Cathy Earnshaw in 'Wuthering Heights'.
* [[Death
* [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]] - see Murron in 'Braveheart', the dead wife in 'Memento', Mel Gibson's dead wife in any Mel Gibson movie, ever.
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]] - Farah in 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' (along one time stream anyway), Marion in the recent 'Robin Hood' TV series, Lily Potter in the 'Harry Potter' series.
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Not to be confused with the comic book character [[Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl]] who tends to cause death to other people rather than experience it herself.
Related tropes include: [[Dead Little Sister]], [[Death
Contrast with: [[Disposable Woman]], [[Forgotten Fallen Friend]].
As this trope deals in part with characters who die during the course of a story, Here Be Spoilers.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Cyndia/Cecelia from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' is unusual in that she does Lost Lenore duty not for a hero of the series but for a villain, Pegasus.▼
▲* Cyndia/Cecelia from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' is unusual in that she does Lost Lenore duty not for a hero of the series but for a villain, Pegasus.
* Lilith certainly seems to qualify as Abel's Lost Lenore in ''[[Trinity Blood]]''. Her murder changed his character forever and he mourned her alone in a cave for 'centuries' afterwards. While Abel later forms strong bonds with other female characters, no one else compares to his memory of her.
* Kanan from ''[[Saiyuki]]'' is Hakkai's Lost Lenore and also his [[Dead Little Sister]] AND [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die]] In The Origin Story!
* {{spoiler|Eliade}} in ''[[D
* Although not confirmed to have died, the original Katsura sister's parents in ''[[
* [[Gundam Seed]], in another villainous examle, has the wife of Patrick Zala, whose death in [[The Deadliest Mushroom|the Bloody Valentine tragedy]] is seen as the cause for his bitterness and the reason for his increasingly hateful behaviour against the Naturals. Extra bonus poins for even [[Invoked Trope|being ''called'' Lenore]].
* Helena in ''[[Gun X Sword]]'' is a standard type A. Her death is the cause for Van's [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] the series is all about.
* Wakaba in ''[[Cross Game]]'' is an early Type B. The rest of the manga is about Kou and the other characters trying to get over her.
* Saya, in the anime of ''[[Black Cat (
* Yuria in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' is a {{spoiler|subversion of}} type B. The first major villain holds her captive before she dies, and after about halfway through the series every single new character had something to do with her in his backstory. One guy is her brother, another her half brother, and ''several'' others were attempted love interests, including the [[Big Bad]]. The last story arc is entirely about her; {{spoiler|at the very end she is revealed to be alive.}}
* Mary Magdalene from ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' is
* In Loveless, Soubi's mother, also having suffered [[Death
* ''[[Bleach]]'': Hisana Kuchiki, of the [[Posthumous Character|Type A]] variety. Without her, much of this manga would never have unfolded the way it did as it's the reason for the Byakuya/Rukia [[Aloof Big Brother|relationship]] and all the [[Knight Templar Big Brother|consequences]] that have come from that. Even Byakuya's conflicting vows stem from the fact he married Hisana in the first place because it was the rebellion he caused to both marry her and then adopt Rukia (on her request) that led to his second vow and the start of all his problems that led to the Soul Society arc unfolding the way it did.
* Shito from ''[[Zombie Loan]]'''s Lenore is his mother {{spoiler|who gave birth to him while she was already dead and forced to live with villain Lao Ye.}} The reason he made the contract with Z-Loan was to give her back her years so she could wake up.
* Tomoe Amamiya and ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'''s protagonist Kotetsu were [[Happily Married]] with a daughter, Kaede, when she passed away. She is a [[Death
* Everything [[Tragic Villain]] Aki does in ''[[Kamisama Dolls]]'' is to [[Rape and Revenge|avenge her dead lover]], and her death also weighs heavily on his [[Green-Eyed Monster|former friend]] Kyohei.
* Yui Ikari from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Everything [[Manipulative Bastard|Gendo Ikari]] does stems from her. {{spoiler|Mainly to get her out of Unit-01.}}
* Souichiro, Kyoko's late husband, from ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]''. She was very much in love with him, and an unwillingness to disrespect his memory is the major roadblock for [[Romancing the Widow|Kyoko and Godai's relationship.]]
* Kikyo from ''[[Inuyasha]]''. Her apparent betrayal is a primary source of Inuyasha's initial [[Jerk
* Casca from ''[[Berserk]]'' is this to Guts, and is an interesting zigzagged case throughout. She did not die, but was nonetheless "lost" via a brutal [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]] ordeal that left her [[Go Mad
* Kye Wol Hyang from [[Shin Angyo Onshi]], who died before the start of the series, but her death was the main reason Munsu was able to fight the big bad, or had the motivation to endure months and years of travel alone, plotting his revenge against Aji Tae. While he didn't stay chaste after her death (A couple of encounters and just at the beginning of the series), he never took another lover {{spoiler|and in the end, he reunited with her in the afterlife}}
== Comic Books ==
* Shelly in ''[[The Crow]]'' is pretty much THE iconic comic book example of this trope.
* Goldie in ''[[Sin City]]: The Hard Goodbye''.
* Valerie in ''[[V for Vendetta]]''.
* [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Hank Pym]]
* Some writers like to use Gwen Stacy this way for [[Spider-Man]], even though he actually got over her death fairly soon in the 1970s. Jeph Loeb's ''Spider-Man: Blue'' is perhaps the most blatant example.
** Similarly, in ''Spider-Man: Reign'', Spidey is obsessed with the memory of his dead wife Mary Jane. Here the way his perception of her changes over the course of the story ( {{spoiler|in the final issue she becomes a source of strength for him, encouraging him to carry on his work, putting off their reunion in the hereafter}}) is a not unimportant subplot.
* ''[[X-Men
* [[Captain Atom]] had his wife Angela, who died of cancer during the eighteen year interval that Cap missed when he was catapulted into the future. To make matters worse, Cap was declared dead in that interval, and she remarried...to [[Magnificent Bastard|Wade Eiling]], of all people.
== Film ==
* Marni in ''[[Repo! The Genetic Opera]]''.
*
** Also Mal in ''[[
▲** Also Mal in ''[[Inception (Film)|Inception]]'', Rachel Dawes in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', Julia in ''[[Film/The Prestige|The Prestige]]''. [[Christopher Nolan]] really likes this trope.
▲* Elisabeta in Coppola's ''[[Bram Stokers Dracula (Film)|Bram Stokers Dracula]]''.
* Shelly in both the comic and movie adaptation of ''[[The Crow]]''.
* Murron in ''[[Braveheart]]''.
* Satine in ''[[Moulin Rouge]]'', on the basis that 95% of the movie is a long flashback with Christian writing an account of how things went down.
* Ellie in ''[[Up]]''.
* Hari in ''[[
** Rheya in the 2002 remake.
* Angier's lust for revenge after the death of his love is what drives the plot of ''[[
* A rare male example is Kate's dead husband in ''[[A
* Another male example: [[It Was His Sled|Surprise!]] Malcolm in ''[[
* The appearance of {{spoiler|Dr. Harvey's wife}} in ''[[Casper (
* Characters in at least two recent [[Leonardo
* Parodied in ''[[
* Victoria from ''[[The Abominable Dr. Phibes]]'' and ''[[Dr. Phibes Rises Again]]''.
* Miranda in ''[[Picnic
* ''[[
* ''[[Dan in Real Life]]'' does this rather generically, albeit effectively.
* Hel, Freder's late mother, for Rotwang in the uncut version of ''[[Metropolis]]''.
* Helen Kimble in ''[[The Fugitive (
* Subverted in ''[[Vertigo]]'' in an increasingly disturbing manner.
* Laura in the 1940s film of the same name.
* Vesper Lynd in ''[[
*
* This is given as the protagonist's primary motivation for time travel in the 2002 version of ''[[The Time Machine]]''.
== Literature ==
* Pretty much any female character in anything by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]
* The Ballad ''Lenore'' (1773) by Gottfried August Bürger, which is one of the German ballads translated into English most often and was highly influential on various English-speaking writers besides starting a fashion for gothic ballads in Germany, inverts the pattern: The eponymous heroine is obsessed with her sweetheart Wilhelm, who went off into the [[Seven Years' War]] and did not return. She begins to quarrel with God, causing her mother to chide her for her blasphemy. But then one night the dead fiancé returns and asks Lenore to mount up on his horse with him...
* Cathy Earnshaw in the second half of ''[[Wuthering Heights (
* Lily Potter in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series, though not to her son Harry... {{spoiler|but to Snape, her [[Stalker
* The eponymous ''[[Rebecca]]'' is an interesting subversion.
* Lilias Craven in ''[[The Secret Garden]]''.
* Susan Delgado in ''[[The Dark Tower
* ''[[The Virgin Suicides]]'' by Jeffrey Eugenides. Times seven.
* Deliciously parodied by Lemony Snicket in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' where Beatrice serves as this for the narrator.
* [[Meaningful Name|Annabell Leigh]] for Humbert Humbert in ''[[Lolita]]'', complete with several references to the original poem. The reason H.H has his "[[Lolicon|tastes]]" is his relationship with her [[Shout
* Poke from ''[[
* In ''Powers That Be'', the first book of [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''[[Petaybee]]'' series, the death of Yana's first husband is suggested to be the reason she joined the [[Mega Corp|InterGal's]] military in the first place (which led to the injuries that led her to be shipped to Petaybee, the company's version of a desk job in a podunk town). Her growing feelings for Sean Shongili bring back memories of Husband #1.
* In Hideyuki Kikuchi's ''Invader Summer'', the main character's abiding love for his deceased [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|not-my-girlfriend]] is the only thing which keeps him from falling under the [[More Than Mind Control|spell]] of the titular invader, unlike every other male who sees her.
* Lyanna Stark in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', mourned by her ex-betrothed Robert Baratheon.
** Tysha for Tyrion Lannister.
** On the same note, Joanna for Tywin Lannister. Her [[Death
* Another male example is the titular character's deceased husband in Stephen King's ''[[
* Emily in Jodi Picault's ''[[The Pact]]''.
* [[Manfred]] takes this trope [[Up to Eleven]].
* [[
▲== Live Action TV ==
* In Season Three of the recent{{when}} BBC series ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', Robin Hood may have got another love interest in the form of [[Creator's Pet|Kate]] but the final scene of the final episode affirmed Maid Marian's status as The One True Love.▼
** However, given the astonishing [[Angst? What Angst?|lack of Angst]] from Robin after her death, it is arguable that her demise did more for the [[Character Development]] of Guy of Gisborne (her killer, who has a [[Heel Face Turn]]) than it did for Robin. And all things considered, Marian's death had very little effect on the main storyline of season three in which various characters vie for the position of Sheriff of Nottingham. [[Seasonal Rot|The BBC really didn't think this one through...]]▼
▲* Jennifer Sisko in ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]''
* Sura in ''[[
▲* In Season Three of the recent BBC series ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|Robin Hood]]'' Robin Hood may have got another love interest in the form of [[Creator's Pet|Kate]] but the final scene of the final episode affirmed Maid Marian's status as The One True Love.
▲** However, given the astonishing [[Angst What Angst|lack of Angst]] from Robin after her death, it is arguable that her demise did more for the [[Character Development]] of Guy of Gisborne (her killer, who has a [[Heel Face Turn]]) than it did for Robin. And all things considered, Marian's death had very little effect on the main storyline of season three in which various characters vie for the position of Sheriff of Nottingham. [[Seasonal Rot|The BBC really didn't think this one through...]]
▲* Sura in ''[[Spartacus Blood and Sand (TV)|Spartacus: Blood and Sand]]'' is almost the most classic example of this trope in a TV series since Shelly Webster in ''The Crow: Stairway to Heaven''. Even before the titular hero knows for sure she's actually dead she appears in flashbacks and dream sequences, and after she [[Died in Your Arms Tonight|dies in his arms]] the closest he comes to a subsequent love interest is a slave he chivalrously does not sleep with, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Sura.
* The fact that he couldn't save his wife from a car wreck is what spurns David Banner to gamma experiments in ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'' (the TV series).
* Kate for Neal in the current season of ''[[White Collar]]''.
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* Laura Palmer in ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' may not have had an explicit love interest, but she was such an object of fascination and mystery to so many characters, and her murder and the investigation thereof so crucial to the plot of the series, that she qualifies for this trope.
* Trudy in ''[[Monk]]''.
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' has several:
** Mary for all the Winchesters. She's the motivation for much of the first two series and Zachariah tortures her soul ( or an artificial copy of her) because he knows it will upset Sam and Dean.
** Jessica is Sam's Lost Lenore. She appears as a hallucination and in his dreams. Lucifer wears her form the first time he talks to Sam, so that he'll be more convincing ( and possibly for the sake of [[Ho Yay|fanservice]] ).
** Lucifer also tries a similar trick with his first vessel Nick, who had lost his wife in a violent crime.
** And Bobby has his wife, whose death he has never quite gotten over. It's the motivation for everything he's done and if Bobby is getting an episode in the spotlight, chances are fifty-fifty that his wife will appear at some point. Supernatural loves this trope.
* Inverted in a ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' sketch involving a parody of the film ''[[Rebecca]]''. The eponymous Rebecca arrives at her new husband's house only to find out he is obsessed with preserving everything in the house for his ''second'' wife.
* Male example - and doubly unique and interesting as he is the Lost Lenore to another male character - Brandon from Season One of ''[[The Wire]]'', whose death continued to have ramifications through subsequent seasons.
* {{spoiler|Tasha Yar}} of ''[[Star Trek:
* Patrick's wife counts in ''[[The Mentalist]].'' Her murder by Red John is what fuels all his actions in the series after.
* Fiona Carter in ''[[Spooks]]''.
* It's implied that [[Doctor Who
* Anna Grant is this to Kerr Avon in Blakes7.
* David for Ellen in ''[[Damages]]'' after season one.
* Daniel's death is what prompts Sidney Bristow to become a double agent and kicks the plot in motion in ''[[Alias]]''.
* And [[Shout
* John might qualify for Olivia in ''[[Fringe]]''.
* Two from ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'': Freya, Merlin's [[Girl of the Week]] who dies in his arms and becomes the Lady of the Lake, and Queen Igraine, King Uther's wife and Arthur's mother. She's a [[Posthumous Character]] whose death is the result of a [[Balancing
* Jessica in ''[[Person of Interest]]'' is this for Reese.
** Finch seems to be this with respect to his fiancee
** Finch also has a non-[[Love Interest]] version<ref>though until the show introduced Grace, many were sure this trope was being played entirely straight</ref> in Nathan, his friend and business partner and the one who originally championed the idea of helping the numbers on the "irrelevant" list when Finch was willing to ignore them. It's implied that whatever happened to Nathan inspired Finch to take up the [[We Help the Helpless|helping the helpless]] crusade.
== Music ==
* [[Country Music]] loves to tell stories about people pining for their lost loves; for extra [[Rule of Drama|drama]], the lost love is often ''dead'' to insure that the narrator will never, ever have the resolution they want. In fact, it's a bit of a stock [[Twist Ending]] for songs in the genre to reveal that the object of the last three verses' obsession is gone forever. Consider
▲* [[Country Music]] loves to tell stories about people pining for their lost loves; for extra [[Rule of Drama|drama]], the lost love is often ''dead'' to insure that the narrator will never, ever have the resolution they want. In fact, it's a bit of a stock [[Twist Ending]] for songs in the genre to reveal that the object of the last three verses' obsession is gone forever. Consider {{spoiler|Leann Rimes' "Probably Wouldn't Be this Way" or the Brad Paisley/Alison Kraus duet "Whiskey Lullaby"}}. Of note is that both of the above examples have a woman pining over a man, presumably because it's more poignant to hear a feminine voice sing a dirge, as per the [[One-Woman Wail]].
* In [[Ludo]]'s rock opera ''Broken Bride'', the main character is obsessed with turning back time to save his wife, who died in a car accident fifteen years before. He cuddles her old clothes, and was generally unhinged by it.
== Theater ==
* Lucy Barker in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (
▲* Lucy Barker in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' {{spoiler|except she isn't really dead. Mrs Lovett lied}}.
** And for much worse, {{spoiler|Sweeney kills her ''without knowing it's her''}}.
* Lily Craven in the musical adaptation of ''[[The Secret Garden]]''.
** There's a song called "Lily's Eyes". (yes, really. [[Harry Potter|No relation]] - [[Shout
*
** In addition, April, Roger's old girlfriend who committed suicide on discovering that they had AIDS.
== Video Games ==
* This is the whole point of ''[[Dear Esther]]''.▼
▲* This is the whole point of [[Dear Esther]].
* In ''[[Ghost Trick]]'', The suicide of {{spoiler|Yomiel's fiancee Sissel}} is part of what drove him mad with isolation. {{spoiler|He even named his cat after her}}.
* James's wife in ''[[Silent Hill 2]]''.
* Farah in ''[[Prince of Persia]]''.
* Mono from ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]''. Bringing her back to life is the entire premise of the plot.
** In [[Castlevania: Lords of Shadow]], Gabriel's wife Marie plays a role almost identical to Mono's, albeit a bit more involved.
* Depending on the player's actions in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', this {{spoiler|ends up happening. Liara, in particular, is affected by Shepard's death--though her character development is partially a facade due to emotional trauma and survivor guilt}}.
* David's wife Laura in the adventure game ''[[Gray Matter]]''.
* In [[Fallout: New Vegas]], one of your companions, Boone, recently lost his wife after she was captured by Slavers. He's haunted by his failure to protect her and by the fact that he {{spoiler|[[Mercy Kill|killed her himself.]]}}
* {{spoiler|Nicole in}} [[Dead Space (
* Tiffin Wrynn in [[World of Warcraft]], who was killed by a brickbat. A rather ornate memorial is resurrected to her, and Varian spends significant amounts of screen time in lore angsting over her death or talking 'to' her about various things. In ''Wolfheart'', he is shown still blaming himself for the death well over a decade later, and in the leader short story ''[http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/lore/leader-story/varian-wrynn/1 The Blood of Our Fathers]'', he is shown to carry around her locket as a form of [[Security Blanket]].
* Serah from ''[[
* [[
* In [[The Darkness|The Darkness 2]], Jackie Estacado is haunted by eerily lifelike visions of his girlfriend Jenny, who died in the first Darkness game.
* Maria could be considered this to Shadow in ''Sonic Adventure 2''.
▲== Webcomics ==
* Jovia in ''[[Starslip]]''
* In ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* [[Exaggerated Trope|Exaggerated]] in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "I'm Goin' to Praiseland". When Ned Flanders invites his date Rachel Jordan to stay at his house (to sleep in separate rooms, of course), she's skeeved out by all the photos of his late wife Maude, the Maude-shaped bedsheet indentation he preserves with sprayed starch, the robe he hands her, monogrammed with her name, and his calling her "Maude". None of which prepares her for her discovery, upon awakening the next morning, that Ned has cut her hair to resemble Maude's.▼
▲* [[Exaggerated Trope|Exaggerated]] in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "I'm Goin' to Praiseland". When Ned Flanders invites his date Rachel Jordan to stay at his house (to sleep in separate rooms, of course), she's skeeved out by all the photos of his late wife Maude, the Maude-shaped bedsheet indentation he preserves with sprayed starch, the robe he hands her, monogrammed with her name, and his calling her "Maude". None of which prepares her for her discovery, upon awakening the next morning, that Ned has cut her hair to resemble Maude's.
* Yue to Sokka in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. While he does get a new love interest (who he met before Yue), he also spends a lot of time thinking about Yue, even after he gets together with Suki. As shown by his reaction to Suki's teasing during [[Show Within a Show|Ember Island Players]]. Doesn't help that the moon is brought up from time to time.
** And in the sequel series ''[[
* Nora Fries from ''[[Batman:
* A platonic version occurs with Arcee and {{spoiler|her dead partners, Tailgate and Cliffjumper}} in ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' and it has be shown to affect her judgement throughout the series when it is brought up or when she faces {{spoiler|their killers.}}
== Real Life ==
* [[Trope Codifier|Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe]], the wife of [[Edgar Allan Poe]] and inspiration behind the various Lenore characters he wrote about. She was his thirteen
** Poe's mother is perhaps the
* Princess Diana to Prince Charles, although he got better.
* An enigmatic individual by the name of "Sook" was allegedly this to [[Truman Capote]]. His last words were "[[Tear Jerker|It's me, Buddy]]." "Buddy" apparently, was Sook's nickname for him.
* [[Fridge Brilliance|Ironically enough]], ravens themselves will often form monogamous pairs and become [[Despair Event Horizon|deeply depressed]] if their partner dies. Possible inspiration for the poem?
* Joe DiMaggio married [[Marilyn Monroe]] in 1954, but they divorced in the same year. They became close again in 1961, and it was rumored that they might remarry. When she died in 1962, he arranged her funeral and would send half a
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Love Interests]]
[[Category:Unrequited Love Tropes]]
[[Category:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Lenore, The}}
[[Category:
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