History Main / DeathByWomanScorned

->''His quandary echoes the legacies of masculinity. What kind of man lets a woman call the shots? It's no accident that the cuckolded
heroes of the great dramas and operas tend to kill their beloved rather than give her the freedom not to choose them. Death--of
her, of him, or of them both--is the only honorable way out.''

[[AC: Woman kills Man ]]

* This is the setup for the Creator/RoaldDahl short story "[[Series/TalesOfTheUnexpected Lamb to the Slaughter]]", infamous for its extremely clever TwistEnding. Admittedly, it's stepped up a notch as the husband explains to his wife -- who's ''pregnant with their first child'' -- that he's going to leave her for reasons unmentioned, ending with "And I know it's kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there simply wasn't any other way. Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after. But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not, anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job." [[AssholeVictim You might be tempted to konk him too.]]

->''"He'd go out every night looking for himself... and on the way... he found Ruth, Gladys, Rosemary...and Irving. I guess you can say we broke up because of artistic differences. He saw himself as alive -- and I saw him dead!"''
-->-- '''Mona''', from "The Cell Block Tango," ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}''

## Annie found out her boyfriend was not only married but was a Mormon with six wives. She poured arsenic in his drink that night.
## Velma walked in on her husband doing the "spread eagle" with her sister Veronica. She killed them both.
## Mona found out her boyfriend's long walks at night were really an excuse to visit his other girlfriends and a boyfriend. He didn't live much longer after that.

** A later scene had an heiress shoot her husband when he was in bed with two women. His ImplausibleDeniability just adds WhatAnIdiot to this.

* Required as part of the Goblin newbie zone in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' regardless of gender - you have a romantic partner, that romantic partner then leaves you for someone else, and you [[ButThouMust have to]] hunt them down and rip out their cheating heart.

* According to Therese in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', [[spoiler: her "[[SplitPersonality sister]]" Jeanette murdered their father with a shotgun in a [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization jealous]] rage after [[ParentalIncest catching the two of them in bed together]].]]

* This trope is the entirety of the Oxygen Channel's ''{{Series/Snapped}}''. Most episodes cover a RealLife case of an abused and/or cheated-on woman who killed her husband (sometimes father). They try not to paint the women in a sympathetic light, but the show still has a "You go girl" kind of feel.

* In the ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "Split Personality", it's "''women'' kill man", as the plot involves a con artist who woos twin sisters and deceives them into marrying him separately via a FakeTwinGambit, both [[GoldDigger for their $2 billion inheritance]] and to satisfy his TwinThreesomeFantasy, only to meet his end once said twin sisters find out about his deceit, overpower him when the opportunity presents itself, has him strapped to a bed, and [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cut him in half]] [[ChainsawGood with a chainsaw]].

* In ''The Suicide of Rachel Foster'', it is revealed that Claire Wilson (the mother of the protagonist Nicole) discovered that her husband, Leonard [=McGrath=], cheated on her by [[TeenPregnancy getting 16-year-old Rachel pregnant]]. As a retribution, she took Nicole's hockey stick on the night of her hockey championship, then kidnapped Rachel and took her to an undisclosed location where she clubbed Rachel to death, then (after the game) used her made-up story of Rachel's "suicide" as a cover-up for her true motive.

* In the tenth ''Haunted Hotel'' installment, ''The X'', this is ultimately revealed to be the backstory of the Lexington Hotel. The building had previously been an orphanage, and when the director died, he willed it to his assistant caretaker Adela, who genuinely loved the kids. Her sweetheart Freddie convinced her to sign it over to him, on the grounds that they would be married; practically as soon as the ink was dry on the papers, he dumped her, married someone else, and turned the building into the hotel. Adela returned to the hotel, brutally murdered both Freddie and his new wife, and then died herself after being arrested. She then spent the next fifty years haunting the location and capturing anyone who came on the property (including the protagonist's ghost-hunting sister), not letting them leave and killing them if they tried. Her ghost is finally set free when the protagonist finds a letter from Freddie, admitting his guilt and confessing that he really did love her after all.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Ghost Bride", Gerald tells the story of a woman named Cynthia Snell whose fiancé stood her up at the altar [[AssholeVictim for her sister (who he married the next day)]], so she murdered them both in their sleep with an axe and jumped out the window when the police arrived, killing herself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* A case arc in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' combines this with RapeAsBackstory. The culprit was once an IdolSinger at the prime of her career, before some guys ambushed her at home and raped her, and the ensuing media tabloid scandal caused her to be blacklisted and have no more future in entertainment business. A man who pestered and stalked her and got turned away while she was an IdolSinger at the time pledged to stay by her side and proposed to her, which she agreed to because she had no other options left and was too distraught to know better, but she found out a year ago that the same man who proposed to her actually paid the guys to ambush her at home and knock her unconscious before he raped her himself, and the discovery of such a secret drove her to look for a way to kill him, which she found in the present-day case arc. The fact that he had been unfaithful to her while having her trapped in an AwfulWeddedLife, which gets revealed after he's been murdered, only serves to make him more of an AssholeVictim than he already is.
[[/folder]]

Alice is dating or married to Bob. Alice finds out that Bob is sleeping with Carol. Alice then kills Bob for cheating on her. [[PayEvilUntoEvil This may be presented as a justified act, even if it is a serious crime.]] He'd done her wrong. While the same scenario is a common dramatic plot with both genders, [[TheUnfairSex some modern depictions aren't particularly objective and as a result are often more sympathetic to Alice shooting Bob-the-cheater than Bob shooting Alice-the-cheater]].

* A case arc in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' combines this with RapeAsBackstory. The culprit was once an IdolSinger at the prime of her career, before some guys ambushed her at home and raped her, and the ensuing media tabloid scandal caused her to be blacklisted and have no more future in entertainment business. A man who pestered and stalked her and got turned away while she was an IdolSinger at the time pledged to stay by her side and proposed to her, which she agreed to because she had no other options left and was too distraught to know better, but she found out a year ago that the same man who proposed to her actually paid the guys to ambush her at home before he raped her himself, and the discovery of such a secret drove her to look for a way to kill him, which she found in the present-day case arc. The fact that he had been unfaithful to her while having her trapped in an AwfulWeddedLife, which gets revealed after he's been murdered, only serves to make him more of an AssholeVictim than he already is.

* A case arc in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' combines this with RapeAsBackstory. The culprit was once an IdolSinger at the prime of her career, before some guys ambushed her at home and raped her, and the ensuing media tabloid scandal caused her to be blacklisted and have no more future in entertainment business. A man who pestered and stalked her and got turned away while she was an IdolSinger at the time pledged to stay by her side and proposed to her, which she agreed to because she had no other options left and was too distraught to know better, but she found out a year ago that the same man who proposed to her actually paid the guys to ambush her at home before he raped her himself, and the discovery of such a secret drove her to look for a way to kill him, which she found in the present-day case arc.

* Music/GarthBrooks's "Papa Loved Mama" is presented as comedy. This version is sympathetic to both the lonely, cheating mother ''and'' the cuckolded, murderous father:

Alice is dating or married to Bob. Alice finds out that Bob is sleeping with Carol. Alice then kills Bob for cheating on her. [[PayEvilUntoEvil This may be presented as a justified act, even if it is a serious crime.]] He'd done her wrong. While the same scenario is a common dramatic plot with both genders, [[TheUnfairSex modern depictions are often more sympathetic to Alice shooting Bob-the-cheater than Bob shooting Alice-the-cheater]].

In RealLife, many cultures have tended to go easy on the husband's killing either a cheating wife and/or the man she was cheating with. Not so much in the modern Western world, though, and stories produced from that perspective don't usually treat it as justified in anything more than a passing reference/joke, which is why most examples here come from songs. A full story involving someone killing their straying lover usually has to admit that this is a ''bad'' thing to do.

* ''The Moonlit Road'' by Ambrose Bierce is a ghost story about the murder of a woman, and one of the perspectives suggests that her husband strangled her in a jealous rage after seeing a man outside and assuming she was being unfaithful.

* Since ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' is about a female prison, some of the inmates who are in for murder are perpetrators of this trope.
** We don't know about the man whose penis Frieda [[CripplingCastration cut off with a butcher knife]], but if he survived, he would possibly [[FateWorseThanDeath wish this trope was played straight in his case]].

* It's heavily implied in Music/{{Carrie Underwood}}'s "Two Black Cadillacs", and made explicit in the music video, that a wife and mistress conspired to murder the philandering husband by cornering him in an alley and running him down with one of the eponymous Cadillacs. On top of that, the video has the car used in the murder exhibit an eerie sentience, such as driving the two women away from the funeral, with them ''in the back seat'', and immediately repairing the damage to itself caused in the crash (a la Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Christine}}'', effectively erasing any evidence of foul play.

* It's heavily implied in Music/{{Carrie Underwood}}'s "Two Black Cadillacs", and made explicit in the music video, that a wife and mistress conspired to murder the philandering husband by cornering him in an alley and running him down with one of the eponymous Cadillacs. On top of that, the video has the car used in the murder exhibit an eerie sentience, such as driving the two women away from the funeral, with them ''in the back seat'', and immediately repairing the damage to itself caused in the crash, effectively erasing any evidence of foul play.

* Wrestling/IvelisseVelez got her ex boyfriend [[Wrestling/SamiCallihan Jeremiah Crane]] killed on Wrestling/LuchaUnderground by interfering with a [[GimmickMatches grave consequences]] match he was apart of. She didn't even entertain revenge on him when they broke up, but when Crane [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beat Velez with a hammer]] after she beat the [[Wrestling/KarleePerez woman]] who seduced him away from her in a match, his fate was sealed. He was resurrected by The Reptile Tribe, but [[CameBackWrong not in a good way]], ensuring Crane was gone.[[/folder]]

* The end of the video for "Down Low" from Music/RKelly featuring [[Music/TheIsleyBrothers Ron Isley]] as Mr. Biggs. After the latter walks in on his wife cheating on him with the former, who was told to keep her company in Biggs' absence but not touch her, he has the former beaten by his bodyguards and left in the desert. Biggs' wife is found in intensive care, having also been beaten for her infidelity, by a wheelchair-bound R. Kelly, who witnesses her succumb to her injuries.

* This trope is the entirety of the Oxygen Channels's ''{{Series/Snapped}}''. Most episodes cover a RealLife case of an abused and/or cheated-on woman who killed her husband (sometimes father). They try not to paint the women in a sympathetic light, but the show still has a "You go girl" kind of feel.

* Garth Brooks's "Papa Loved Mama" is presented as comedy. This version is sympathetic to both the lonely, cheating mother ''and'' the cuckolded, murderous father:

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* In Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/FiveLittlePigs'', married artist Amyas Crale's [[ADeadlyAffair philandering gets him murdered]]. [[spoiler:But the woman who kills him is not the one whom everyone first suspects.]]

** We don't know about the man whose penis [[spoiler:Frieda]] [[CripplingCastration cut off with a butcher knife]], but if he survived, he would possibly [[FateWorseThanDeath wish this trope was played straight in his case]].

* Music/{{Cher}}'s "Dark Lady." Here, the main protagonist is a woman who visits the title character, a fortune teller, distressed over a failing relationship with her boyfriend. Unknown to the woman, the boyfriend has been cheating on her and that his lover is the "Dark Lady," although this is not made clear until the end of the song. Using foreshadowing, it is clear that "Dark Lady" becomes nervous over her visitor so, after the rigamarole of dealing cards and mumbling incoherently into a crystal ball, draws two cards, gives the vague clue that the boyfriend has indeed been unfaithful and his lover is "someone else who is very close to you," and then advises her to leave and never return ... even forget that she even visited. The woman goes home and tries to get some sleep. Until she accidentally gets a whiff of the smell of the room ... it was perfume that was identical to the scent she got at the fortune teller's hut. Curious and wanting answers, she makes a return visit to the Dark Lady ... and because she is suspicious as to what is going on, brings along a gun. Those suspicions are confirmed when she walks into the back area of the hut ... and finds the boyfriend and "Dark Lady" in each other's arms having sex. They're in a state of sexual ecstasy ... until they see the boyfriend's angry girlfriend pointing a gun at them ... and the gun is loaded ... and it is fired.

** The Creator/{{UPA}} short ''WesternAnimation/RootyTootToot'' takes place during Frankie's trial. She gets acquitted, [[spoiler:then shoots her lawyer for dancing with chanteuse Nelly Bly.]]

* It's heavily implied in Music/{{Carrie Underwood}}'s "Two Black Cadillacs", and made explicit in the music video, that a wife and mistress conspired to murder the philandering husband, by cornering him in an alley and running him down with one of the eponymous Cadillacs. On top of that, the video has the car used in the murder exhibit an eerie sentience, such as driving the two women away from the funeral, with them ''in the back seat'', and immediately repairing the damage to itself caused in the crash, effectively erasing any evidence of foul play.

* When entering Tatooine's Dune Sea for the first time in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you encounter Marlena Venn who brags to you about having tampered with her husband's droids before fleeing the planet. You later encounter her husband Tanis and learn that he slept around behind her back for years, and she retaliated by rigging his droids to explode around him should he move. You can help him out, or leave him for dead (which most of your companions, even the LawfulGood Jedi Bastila recommends).
* In the Blood & Wine expansion of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', [[PlayerCharacter Geralt]] meets the Witch of Lynx Crag who seduced a knight that came to ask for her help with a drought eons ago. When he felt guilty about cheating on his fiancee and tried to return to her, the witch indirectly killed him and says to Geralt [[IfICantHaveYou "Was I to let another woman have a man who belonged to me? Hmph. I could not abide it."]]
** If Geralt angers the witch then she ends up killing the man who hired him out of spite, showing that you don't even have to be the one who caused the scorn to become a victim.

* "The Cold, Hard Facts of Life," most famously by Porter Wagoner. Here, the cuckolded husband is a traveling businessman whose frequent trips away drive the wife to cheat. He finally finds out when he comes home unexpectedly, hoping to surprise his wife with wine and a romantic dinner... but at the liquor store, he runs into a man that -- unknown to him -- is sleeping with his wife. The ending is left clear: the main protagonist stabs his wife and her lover to death, and he's left to rot in a jail cell as he awaits trial.

* Played with in "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" (a No. 1 pop hit by Vicki Lawrence and famously covered by Music/RebaMcEntire). A man finds out that his wife's been the town bicycle while he's been gone, and goes to kill her and his friend who she was last cheating on him with. He gets arrested for it, and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title suggests]], gets the death penalty. Subversion: the husband didn't do it. His little sister got to the cheating wife and the friend first.

* Played for laughs in one of the in-game books in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]''. A Dark Elf man returns home to find his wife cheating on him and murders her in a rage. When questioned at his trial why he murdered his wife instead of her lover, he replies "I thought it better to kill one woman than to kill a different man every night".

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', [[spoiler: Bastilla]] tries to get a man killed simply for rejecting her and then being vaguely interested in some other woman. [[spoiler: More precisely, she puts a spell on Penrod, so that he stabs Ward in the back after Ward ''dared'' to reject her and smile at Tisala. Penrod is then killed by Tosten, in order to save Ward. Maybe she had planned for Penrod's death, as she still needs Ward, and killing Penrod in this way causes him severe emotional pain.]] She's a villain, and not exactly well-adjusted, mentally.

* In ''The Suicide of Rachel Foster'', it is revealed that [[spoiler:Claire Wilson (the mother of the protagonist Nicole) discovered that her husband, Leonard [=McGrath=], cheated on her by [[TeenPregnancy getting 16-year-old Rachel pregnant]]. As a retribution, she took Nicole's hockey stick on the night of her hockey championship, then kidnapped Rachel and took her to an undisclosed location where she clubbed Rachel to death, then (after the game) used her made-up story of Rachel's "suicide" as a cover-up for her true motive]].

[[/folder]]
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* In Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/FiveLittlePigs'', married artist Amyas Crale's [[YourCheatingHeart philandering]] gets him murdered. [[spoiler:But the woman who kills him is not the one whom everyone first suspects.]]

** We don't know about the man whose penis [[spoiler:Frieda]] cut off with a butcher knife, but if he survived, he would possibly [[FateWorseThanDeath wish this trope was played straight in his case]].

* In ''The Suicide of Rachel Foster'', it is revealed that [[spoiler:Claire Wilson (the mother of the protagonist Nicole) discovered that her husband, Leonard [=McGrath=], cheated on her by [[TeenPregnancy getting 16-year-old Rachel pregnant]]. As a retribution, she took Nicole's hockey stick the night after her hockey championship, then kidnapped Rachel and took her to an undisclosed location where she clubbed Rachel to death, then used her made-up story of Rachel's "suicide" as a cover-up for her true motive]].

Alice is dating or married to Bob. Alice finds out that Bob is sleeping with Carol. Alice then kills Bob for cheating on her. [[PayEvilUntoEvil This may be presented as a justified act, even if it is a serious crime.]] He'd done her wrong. While the same scenario is a common dramatic plot with both genders, [[Main/{{The Unfair Sex}} modern depictions are often more sympathetic to Alice shooting Bob-the-cheater than Bob shooting Alice-the-cheater]].

* Subverted in ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'': Andy's wife was cheating on him, and he goes to jail for her murder. He's innocent, though.