History Main / ExcessiveMourning

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark,'' the woodshop teacher abuses Nicorette gum because he didn't get to say goodbye to his wife, who died by crashing her airplane. Once he runs out, he attempts suicide. In an uncharacteristically sweet scene, her ghost, and the ghost of his favorite uncle, appears to comfort him and talk him out of it.

People reasoning with the mourner often argue that, after all, death is inevitable, and that excessive grief is impious to a death decreed by Fate or God or some god.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'', Tomoya's father Naoyuki, became depressed after his wife died, taking to alcoholism and smoking to cope, and in doing so neglected his son, which put a strain on their relationship, and it even lead to an incident where Naoyuki injured Tomoya's right shoulder. They became like strangers ever since.
** [[spoiler:LikeParentLikeChild, Tomoya mourns over Nagisa's death for a number of years, while neglecting his daughter Ushio, whom he left with Nagisa's parents. He drank alcohol, smoked, and even buried himself in his work, but nothing helped. After finally bonding with Ushio, Tomoya does to reconcile with his father.]]

* ''Fanfic/BequeathedFromPaleEstates'': Robert Baratheon ''and'' his wife Cersei Lannister. Robert still useless pines after his deceased betrothed, Lyanna Stark (who's been dead for over a ''decade'', mind you), while Cersei still mourns her two youngest children over a year after their deaths during ThePlague. This does no favors for their already toxic marriage, nor for Joffrey, who has only become even more unstable with the increase in ParentalNeglect.

* In ''Anime/AnoHanaTheFlowerWeSawThatDay'', Meiko "Menma" Honda's mother Irene was so [[OutlivingOnesOffspring traumatized by Menma's death]] that she locked herself in the Honma household and refuses to see anyone, plus neglects her remaining child Satoshi. Fortunately, towards the end she's working on getting better.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark,'' the woodshop teacher abuses Nicorette gum because he didn't get to say goodbye to his wife, who died by crashing her airplane. Once he runs out, he attempts suicide. In an uncharictaristically sweet scene, her ghost, and the ghost of his favorite uncle, appears to comfort him and talk him out of it.

* In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'', the Duchess of Borogravia went into secluded mourning after the death of her husband; when the novel opens she hasn't been seen in public for years, and there's a rumor going around that at some point she died and the mourning is being used as an excuse to hush it up. [[spoiler:The rumour is proven [[OnlyMostlyDead partly]] [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence true]] at the climax.]]

* The ''ComicBook/TalesFromTheDarkMultiverse'' version of ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'' features ComicBook/LoisLane giving into this after she percieves that the world and Clark's fellow superheroes didn't care about Clark's death, willingly undergoing a FusionDance with the Eradicator and becoming a BlooKnight, directly causing the deaths of many people including Lex Luthor, the Joker, and (after he called her out on it) Batman, as well as [[spoiler:indirectly leading to the deaths of Superboy, Steel, and the real Superman once he returns.]]

* In the early episodes of ''Series/OrphanBlack'', the main character Sarah fakes her death with the help of her foster brother Felix. Sarah's abusive ex, Vic, is utterly devastated, spending days, if not weeks, at a time [[DrowningMySorrows drinking]] in Felix's loft, much to his annoyance. When Vic says he now wants to get to know Sarah's daughter, Felix decides he's had a enough and kicks him out.

-> We've all gone crazy, mourning all day and mourning all night,\\
falling over ourselves to get all of the misery right.
-->--'''Che''', ''Theatre/{{Evita}}''

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': Soun Tendo spends the entire series mourning his late wife, who died years before the series started. This causes him to neglect both his business and his three daughters.

* In ''Anime/AnoHanaTheFlowerWeSawThatDay'', Meiko "Menma" Honda's mother Irene was so [[OutlivingOnesOffspring traumatized by Menma's death]] that she locked herself in the Honma household and refuses to see anyone, plus neglects her remaining child Satoshi. Fortunately, towards the end she's working on getting better.

* ComicBook/BlackCanary once went on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, denying that Ollie was dead, after he had attacked her on their wedding night, and she had killed in self-defense. All her friends interprete this as Excessive Grief, and her knowledge that that is exactly what it looks like only drives her on harder. (When Batman analyzes the situation and concludes that she's right, she kisses him for joy.)

* Lady Barbrey Dustin of ''Fanfic/RobbReturns'' serves as an example of this, since she still holds a grudge against Ned for leading her husband Willem to his death at the Tower of Joy and failing to bring his bones back. Her grudge kept her from telling Ned about the fog gathering on the barrows near her home ever since the Call, and when Ned only hears about it when he calls a council of war, he is inwardly displeased [[RevengeBeforeReason at more information being lost because of old grudges]].

* In "Literature/{{Tattercoats}}", the nobleman lets his granddaughter grow up neglected and abused by servants because of her mother's [[DeathByChildbirth death during childbirth]], and [[ThePromise his oath]] to never look on her face. Eventually, she marries the prince, but her grandfather goes back home to mourning and shut himself out of the HappyEnding because [[IGaveMyWord he gave his word.]]
* In a "Literature/SnowWhite"-like story from the Hebrides Islands, when the queen of the sea goes up on land and gets trampled to death by a horse stampede, her husband mourns her for more than a year, to the point of neglecting everything including his daughter. When he sees her a year later (she's still mourning, too), he resolves to find a new mother-figure for her [[note]](apparently, spending more time with her never occurs to him)[[/note]]. He marries a [=SeaWitch=], who promises him that she'll look after his daughter... though she's really just after his power and turns out to be a WickedStepmother.

* In Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce'', one damned woman was MyBelovedSmother toward her son, and after his death insisted on keeping his room the same and otherwise obsessing over him until her husband and daughter revolted, though they were a loving father and sister. Her brother, as a Bright One, observes that it was not even her dead son dominating their lives, but her wishes.
* In Creator/LauraAmySchlitz's ''Literature/SplendorsAndGlooms'', Clara is the sole child of the family to survive. She receives presents every birthday from the dead, must visit the grave every significant day of the year (such as Christmas), and is surrounded by mementos of the dead. When Parsefall observes that deathmasks are gruesome, she feels a burst of CommonalityConnection.
* In the ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'',

* In ''Literature/{{Tigana}}'', the EvilSorcerer takes {{revenge}} on an entire country because his favorite son died in a battle there.
* This was a problem during Katniss Everdeen's childhood in ''Literature/TheHungerGames''. After her father's death, her mother shut down to such an extent that [[PromotionToParent Katniss herself]] basically had to take charge of the family.
* At the beginning of ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', Mrs. Dashwood and Marianne indulge their grief over Mr. Dashwood in an incessant feedback loop, bringing up memories and keepsakes specifically to keep the sadness going. Elinor, while unhappy herself, is forced to take on all the work of actually ''running'' the household while her mother and sister sob themselves insensible.

* In ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Brightly Burning]]'', the mother of the late, unlamented Tyrone Jelnack has the house decked in black swaths of mourning, when all other houses have green garlands due to a midwinter festival. It's not only in questionable taste, since Tyrone was known to have been a RoyalBrat, but also makes it clear that she gets her own way, even though she's of questionable sanity.
* In the first book of ''Literature/DirkPittAdventures'', Dirk meets a woman who, to his shock, has been mourning her husband and keeping herself away from society for the past nine years.
* In ''Literature/TheWitchlands'', Cam accuses Merik of this, noting that not only is his grief making him barely functional and unwilling to see the truth that's right in front of him, but Merik seems to think that this is somehow a good thing.

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}},'' [[StepfordSnarker Marco]]'s dad Peter, previously an important scientist, spent two years unable to function after his wife, Eva, died in a boating accident. Complicating this is the fact that [[DeathFakedForYou she wasn't actually dead]], she was off in space as Visser One's [[PuppeteerParasite unwilling host]].
* In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl,'' the title character's mother loses her sanity after her husband goes missing in the Russian sea. [[spoiler:Artemis trades some of his stolen fairy gold back to Holly in exchange for a magical cure]].
* In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'', the Duchess of Borogravia went into secluded mourning after the death of her husband; when the novel opens she hasn't been seen in public for years, and there's a rumor going around that at some point she died and the mourning is being used as an excuse to hush it up. [[spoiler:The rumour is proven [[OnlyMostlyDead partly]] [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence true]] at the climax.]]

* A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch featured Creator/ChrisFarley crying over his parents' deaths thirty years after the fact, to the consternation of everyone he met.

[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]

* In "Oh What a Circus", the opening number of ''{{Theatre/Evita}}'', TheEveryman narrator Che says that Argentina is going overboard with the grand scale of Eva's funeral.
* In ''Theatre/TheRoseTattoo'', Serafina never leaves her house or gets dressed for three years after her husband's death, though she does mind her daughter. Father De Leo calls her out for her self-indulgently excessive grieving, and further scolds her for having had her husband cremated to make an "idolatrous shrine" of his ashes in her house.

* The king of Ascantha in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' has kept his entire kingdom in a state of mourning for the late queen, who died two years prior.

* In season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', we learn more about the childhood of [=BoJack=]'s mother Beatrice. Beatrice's mother, Honey, could not handle the loss of her son Crackerjack (he died in World War II), culminating in her and Beatrice getting into a car accident because she tried to let her too-young daughter drive. Justified in that Beatrice grew up in the '40s, and she and her mother were [[DeliberateValuesDissonance encouraged by everyone]] (including Beatrice's father) to [[StepfordSmiler hide their emotions]] and [[StayInTheKitchen make babies]]. [[spoiler: Beatrice's father ended up dealing with Honey by ''having her lobotomized''.]]
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark,'' the woodshop teacher abuses Nicorette gum because he didn't get to say goodbye to his wife, who died by crashing her airplane. Once he runs out, he attempts suicide. In an uncharictaristically sweet scene, her ghost, and the ghost of his favorite uncle, appears to comfort him and talk him out of it.