History Main / DivorceRequiresDeath

* In AgathaChristie's ''4:15 From Paddington'', the victim is the estranged wife of the killer. The killer wanted to marry again, but his wife was Catholic and refused to divorce him.

* Suicide by the one who stays: Can't live with the loss... or maybe the shame.

** Anyone who expected this line in the [[Film/TotalRecall2012 remake]] will be disappointed. ColinFarrell's character doesn't say anything.

* Partially PlayedForLaughs in ''TheWholeNineYards'', where the mobster wants to murder his wife because [[YouFailLogicForever divorce is a sin for Catholics]].

** Strangely, after faking his death, he's perfectly fine with his "widow" starting over with a new guy, while he hooks up with an [[AscendedFanboy Ascended Fangirl]]. Apparently, for him it's more of a legal concern than a religious one.

** Anyone who expected this line in the [[Film/TotalRecall2012 remake]] will be disappointed. ColinFarrell's cahracter doesn't say anything.

* In ''{{Ooku}}'', Yunoshin has sold himself into (pampered) bondage in the female shogun's harem, expecting never to see home or girlfriend again. Once a man enters the [[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ooku ooku]] as a concubine, he can take no other (female) lovers than the shogun and can leave the service or the building only at his death. [[spoiler:The shogun later let him go, by helping him FakingTheDead. is declared legally dead, his family gets a large "bereavement" payment, and the man formerly known as Yunoshin goes home to marry the VictoriousChildhoodFriend he loves and take her family name.]]

* ''LordLoveADuck'':

* In the ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode ''Second Sight'', we meet a famous scientist who have everything... except his wife's love. And she comes from a culture that doesn't permit divorce, so she's slowly killing herself instead. The episode ends with him killing himself instead, so that she will be free.

* In ''MadMagazine'''s parody of ''Film/TheGodfather Part II'', when Kay demands a divorce from Michael, he refuses because it is against God's will. He then turns to family consigliere Tom Hagen and orders a "hit" on her. Hagen then tells Michael he is a good Roman Catholic for not divorcing her.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride''. Elizabeth discovers that the requirement to marry Victor ''is'' to kill him, instead of when he wants a divorce.

* Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger's character in ''TotalRecall'': *gunshot* "Consider that a divorce."

* ''Lord Love a Duck'':

[[AC:{{ComicBooks}}]]

* ArnoldSchwarzenegger's character in ''TotalRecall'': *gunshot* "Consider that a divorce."

* ''DoubleJeopardy'' has the heroine's husband die in an accident and her getting wrongly convicted for murdering him. Turns out he was simply FakingTheDead, starting a new life with a new wife -- whom he has already murdered, by the time the heroine finds out.

* In ''TheRedTent'', Laban's treatment of Ruti has been just [[DomesticAbuse beyond awful]], and Ruti is living in a society where only men can initiate divorce, so when she just can't take it anymore, she [[DrivenToSuicide slits her wrists]] by a dry riverbed.

* In the ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode ''Second Sight'', we meet a famous scientist who have everything... except his wife's love. And she comes from a culture that doesn't permit divorce, so she's slowly killing herself instead. The episode ends with him killing himself instead, so that she will be free.
* In one early episode of ''LawAndOrderSVU'', a beautiful man is [[VictimOfTheWeek dead]]. It quickly turns out that his landlady was an alcoholic who had the hots for him and also had a pedophile boyfriend ''and'' a daughter. (The daughter is [[DawsonCasting clearly adult]], but probably supposed to be 16 or so, making the [[{{Ephebophile}} pedophile label inaccurate in a plot-relevant way]].) It is quickly established that the man died protecting the girl from the "pedophile". This later turns out to be a lie: The girl was in love with the man, but he was about to leave the country and refused to take her with him. And she couldn't bear the thought to live without him. So her mind snapped, and she killed him.

* In traditional Jewish Law (not to be confused with contemporary Israel), a woman cannot divorce her husband. Thus it occasionally arises that a man will refuse to give his wife a divorce, often in attempt to extort money out of her, and many legal devices are used in an attempt to pressure this recalcitrant husband into granting his wife a divorce. The story is said of Jewish Sage Rabbi Akiva Eiger, that such a man was brought before him once, with the hope that Rabbi Eiger would convince him to divorce his wife. Rabbi Eiger brings him into his study, and opens a volume of the Talmud to its first page. He turns to the man, looks him in the eye, and says, "The Talmud says here that a woman is freed from her husband in one of two ways. Through divorce, and through the husband's death. Which one would you prefer?" The man looks at Rabbi Eiger, laughs and says, "What, are you trying to threaten me?". He walks out of the study, walks out the front door, and collapses dead of a heart attack on the front steps.

** Another episode plays the trope for laughs. During a story told by a psychic of Peter's ancestor, who founded Quahog, he was married to a woman who resembled Meg, but when he fell in love with another woman, he had to divorce Meg. Cue cutaway to past-Peter shooting his wife.

* In ''MadMagazine'''s parody of ''TheGodfather Part II'', when Kay demands a divorce from Michael, he refuses because it is against God's will. He then turns to family consigliere Tom Hagen and orders a "hit" on her. Hagen then tells Michael he is a good Roman Catholic for not divorcing her.

* Inverted in ''Film/CorpseBride''. Elizabeth discovers that the requirement to marry Victor ''is'' to kill him, instead of when he wants a divorce.

[[AC:Jokes]]
* There's a joke among Catholics that goes along the lines of "Divorce? Never. Murder on the other hand..."

* ArnoldSchwarzenegger's character in ''Total Recall'': * gunshot * "Consider that a divorce."

* In traditional Jewish Law (not to be confused wiyth contemporaty Israel), a woman cannot divorce her husband. Thus it occasionally arises that a man will refuse to give his wife a divorce, often in attempt to extort money out of her, and many legal devices are used in an attempt to pressure this recalcitrant husband into granting his wife a divorce. The story is said of Jewish Sage Rabbi Akiva Eiger, that such a man was brought before him once, with the hope that Rabbi Eiger would convince him to divorce his wife. Rabbi Eiger brings him into his study, and opens a volume of the Talmud to its first page. He turns to the man, looks him in the eye, and says, "The Talmud says here that a woman is freed from her husband in one of two ways. Through divorce, and through the husband's death. Which one would you prefer?" The man looks at Rabbi Eiger, laughs and says, "What, are you trying to threaten me?". He walks out of the study, walks out the front door, and collapses dead of a heart attack on the front steps.

* I didn't know whether to put this in the literature section or the real life section, as I have no idea how true this story is, but it is pretty awesome. In Jewish Law, because a woman cannot divorce her husband, it occasionally arises that a man will refuse to give his wife a divorce, often in attempt to extort money out of her, and many legal devices are used in an attempt to pressure this recalcitrant husband into granting his wife a divorce. The story is said of Jewish Sage Rabbi Akiva Eiger, that such a man was brought before him once, with the hope that Rabbi Eiger would convince him to divorce his wife. Rabbi Eiger brings him into his study, and opens a volume of the Talmud to its first page. He turns to the man, looks him in the eye, and says, "The Talmud says here that a woman is freed from her husband in one of two ways. Through divorce, and through the husband's death. Which one would you prefer?" The man looks at Rabbi Eiger, laughs and says, "What, are you trying to threaten me?". He walks out of the study, walks out the front door, and collapses dead of a heart attack on the front steps. No idea if this is true or not, but it's a hell of a story.

* Inverted in ''CorpseBride''. Elizabeth discovers that the requirement to marry Victor ''is'' to kill him, instead of when he wants a divorce.