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Rsz 1sayonarazetsubousensei05 6268 — He got better — his life, alas, did not.

For fear or shame. Whatever the reason (a guilty conscience, the world is simply too much to bear, or unreasonable self-hatred) the character may be Driven to Suicide. This may be as little as pondering their existence or as much as holding a gun to one's head. Most times the character will have second thoughts, or will be talked down by a friend. But in shows where Anyone Can Die, the character may go through with it. In any case this is a powerful way to underscore the desperation of the character. In a Backstory, being Driven to Suicide can illuminate the character's Dark and Troubled Past.

In some cases the reason for suicide may not be depression, but honor, as with ritual suicide. This obviously is more common in Japanese works (as in Japanese culture, traditionally suicide can be done to cleanse one's honor) than in Western ones (as in some Christian sects, suicide traditionally is a shameful act—but classical settings allow it to be presented as honourable, e.g. in Shakespeare). It was also accepted by various ancient Greek philosophies, particularly that of the Stoics, as well as the ancient Romans and Egyptians; both of whom lauded it as a dignified and timely alternative to illness, dementia, or disgrace. Some Proud Warrior Races, such as the nomadic Scythians, preferred suicide as an alternative to dying in bed, thus making this trope Older Than Feudalism. By contrast, Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, et al.) abhor suicide, believing that only God is permitted to say when a life may be ended—however, there is considerable debate over issues like terminal illness and capital punishment.

Sometimes this is done to deliver An Aesop about teen suicide by having Long-Lost Uncle Aesop show up in a Very Special Episode.

At the other extreme, victims of The Corruption, Compelling Voice, or other forms of compulsion may resort to becoming a hero to prevent the monster they are about to become from being unleashed on the world. This may allow Dying as Yourself.

This is regularly played for laughs, despite being Dude, Not Funny. Also incidentally, pushing someone into this is treated the same as premeditated first-degree murder in many countries. Unfortunately, minors can be total monsters to each other, and grave bullying at school or elsewhere often can have very sad consequences (the bully more often than not also gets off with a simple slap on the wrist, too).

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.

For any tropers who feel this way... You Are Not Alone. There are numbers you can call. Please, talk to someone.

As a Death Trope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.

Examples of Driven to Suicide include:

Subpages[]

Other Examples[]

Advertising[]

A "Stop global warming" ad shows CGI animals committing suicide. A chimp hangs himself. A polar bear jumps off the last ice berg. A kangaroo jumps in front of a train.

Fairy Tales[]

In Bearskin, when the hero, appalling shaggy, filthy and ragged, but rich, rescues a man from financial distress, the man promises that he may marry one of his daughters. Only the youngest is willing. However, his appearance stemmed from a Deal with the Devil, and that being over, he cleans up nicely, and the older sisters are reduced to envy and commit suicide. The Devil exults to the hero that he has got two souls instead of the one.
- Other variants of this type of tale include Don Giovanni de la Fortuna, The Soldier and the Bad Man, The Road to Hell, The Reward of Kindness, The Devil As Partner and Never Wash.
In The Young Slave, the heroine is so badly abused that she contemplates suicide. Fortunately, her uncle hears her lamenting her woes and saves her.

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.'

Mythology[]

Psyche has a track record of this trope: twice after she loses Cupid, and once after each of the last three impossible tasks the bitch Venus orders. Considering the raw deals she has got, it is hard to blame her.

Newspaper Comics[]

Beetle Bailey
- Subverted/parodied: "Killer" Diller has threatened to kill himself after being told off by his girlfriend. The others find him "doing it slowly"—smoking two cigarettes at a time.
- 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[]

There's a sort of joking, Continuity Nod version in the Doctor Who Big Finish story Caerdroia. The Doctor, dealing with an Obstructive Bureaucrat, says that he's going to go take a couple of aspirin. It was once stated that aspirin is poison to Time Lords. Without knowing that, it sounds as though he's merely, and quite reasonably, complaining of a headache, as he's just been asked to refer his question of whether anyone in the building can help him to the Rhetorical or Genuine Questions Office, but it's actually more akin to an exasperated finger-gun-to-the-head gesture.

Tabletop Games[]

In the origin story for the Ravenloft setting, grieving bride Tatyana throws herself from the clifftop castle wall, rather than be turned into a vampire by her fiance's murderous brother, Strahd von Zarovich.
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.

Theme Parks[]

The Haunted Mansion ride at Disney Theme Parks: the Ghost Host is a man who hung himself, as he reveals in the streaching room. He is generally thought to be Master Gracy, though the two are officialy seperate characters. This idea was eventually used in the first movie.
- The French version, Phantom Manor, has this man murdered by demonic lord of the house. But, it has a Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending; where a bride-in waiting, tormented by the Phantom to the point of losing her youth/beauty/happiness, finally just gives in and accepts death.
A rumor was that an employee who worked for Disney committed suicide because he could not listen to It's a Small World all day. In reality an employee did committ suicide in the park but their body was not near any of the rides.

Other[]

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.