History Main / ComfortingTheWidow

* It's more technically "Comforting the Bereaved Mom", but Danny Messer does this in ''Series/{{CSINY}}''. He already ''has'' a girlfriend.

* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Littlefinger tries this on Catelyn after her husband dies. She pulls a knife on him and tells him to get out, since [[spoiler:he's the reason her husband is dead]]. To make it even more inappropriate, the reason he was meeting with her was to deliver her late husband's bones.

* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in ''Literature/HarryPotter'', when Snape tries to get Voldemort to [[spoiler: spare Lily because he loves her while not pleading for the lives of her husband and barely year old child]], almost certainly[[note]](the record is a bit fragmentary, and he was having trouble forming complete sentences when questioned)[[/note]] in order to invoke the trope - he certainly does not deny it when accused. To add insult to injury, Dumbledore realizes this and he's so pissed off that he angrily [[WhatTheHellHero chews him out about it]], stating in tones of utter contempt, "You disgust me." But in the end, [[spoiler: Snape agrees to become spy in order for Dumbledore to protect all of them, and to protect Harry after Lily is murdered]].

-->A Widow weeping on her husband’s grave was approached by an Engaging Gentleman who, in a respectful manner, assured her that he had long entertained for her the most tender feelings.\\
“Wretch!” cried the Widow. “Leave me this instant! Is this a time to talk to me of love?”\\
“I assure you, madam, that I had not intended to disclose my affection,” the Engaging Gentleman humbly explained, “but the power of your beauty has overcome my discretion.”\\
“You should see me when I have not been crying,” said the Widow.
* Averted in Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire: after Ned Stark's death, it is obvious Littlefinger would like to do this with Catelyn Tully. However, the one time they meet, she is still in heavy mourning, and [[spoiler:after she dies, he turns his attention to her [[GenerationXerox daughter Sansa]].]]
* In ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'', Sam Yeager is assigned to help escort the members of the Chicago Metallurgical Lab (a key part of the Manhattan Project) away from the front lines during [[LizardFolk the Race]]'s invasion. A few months before that, Jens Larssen, a nuclear physicist working on the project, is sent on bicycle to deliver a message across enemy-occupied territory. With normal communications cut off and millions already dead, his wife Barbara assumes the worst. She and Sam become friends until they are nearly killed by a Race [[CallingARabbitASmeerp killercraft]] strafing their ship. They end up having GladToBeAliveSex. After a few days, Barbara explains to Sam that she believes she's done grieving for Jens, and they start a romantic and sexual relationship. Sometime later, they get married, with Barbara getting pregnant on their wedding night. But then, surprise, Jens is alive and has been waiting at their destination, having just missed them in Chicago. Due to operational secrecy, he has been forbidden from attempting to send any messages to his wife, letting her know he was alive. Technically, Barbara's marriage to Sam is invalid, but with the war on, no one is about to go to court. She ends up choosing Sam, largely because of her pregnancy. This drives Jens over the edge, he (rightly) blames the military for ruining his marriage and ends up killing a soldier and trying to defect to the Race, being shot in the process. On the other hand, Jens is himself not innocent of adultery, as he ends up having a one-night stand with an attractive diner owner, catching the clap from her.
* In ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'', Ellen seduces Tom just after his wife, Agnes, [[DeathByChildbirth dies in childbirth]]. He is mentally fried and thinks she's an apparition or an angel. Some of the worse aspects of this trope are downplayed, as Ellen has met Tom once before but isn't a friend of him or of Agnes, and she had nothing to do with Agnes's death. It's still not a great thing to do with him in such a mental state, though it [[HappilyMarried works out]].

* In ''Literature/MarriedThriceToSaltedFish'', a lot of eyebrows are raised when Lin Qingyu marries General Gu Fuzhou so soon after his first husband Lu Wancheng's death and even more eyebrows are raised when Lin Qingyu begins getting awfully close to the newly-crowned Emperor when his second husband Gu Fuzhou's corpse has barely had time to get cold and eventually marries him. The strange truth is that Lin Qingyu is actually marrying the same man each time, [[ReincarnationRomance due to his husband's soul being sent into a different man's body every time he dies]], but since only 1-2 people outside of the couple know about this, a lot of people end up thinking that Lin Qingyu is a BlackWidow who only cares about marrying his way up the social ladder.

** Another episode involves a woman hiring a hitman to kill the man who married her son's widow because she was convinced that they'd been having an affair and schemed to MurderTheHypotenuse. As it turned out, the widow was a genuine case of this trope. The ''man'', however, had been obsessed with her for some time beforehand and murdered her husband, his best friend, so that he could have her for himself. Not surprisingly, on learning this the widow was horrified to discover that, in the words of the prosecutors, she'd essentially "married her stalker".