History Main / ReturningTheWeddingRing

* ''Film/IQ|1994'': Implied. When Catherine informs an incredulous James that she's [[DisposableFiance calling off their engagement]] because she's fallen in love with Ed, she noticeably is no longer wearing her [[EnormousEngagementRing engagement ring.]]

* In ''ReadyOrNot2019'', [[spoiler:newlyweds Grace and Alex are the last two surviving members of the [=LeDomas=] family, and Grace has had it. She takes off her ring, bounces it off his chest, and tells him she wants a divorce. He promptly explodes.]]

* In ''Anime/FlyMeToTheMoon'', [[spoiler:this briefly occurs in the storyline where Tsukasa disappears when she loses faith in Nasa's promise to her, given that he forgot he made it due to blood loss. After Tsukasa leaves it atop a bench in the church, Nasa tells her to stop and is able to remember again. The marriage is kept in tact when he reaffirms the promise to her]].

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* After the opening of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', you can recover your (murdered) spouse's ring from their corpse (your character's is still in your inventory). Neither really fulfills any purpose apart from this trope. It's even possible to later give the ring to any other character you begin a relationship with, though the game doesn't make any special note of this.

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* In the Creator/CarlHiaasen novel ''Lucky You'', a major character had been engaged six times, broke the engagement six times, and returned the ring five times. The time she kept the ring was because the breakup was over the man developing a disturbing fascination with body piercings, and she was afraid of what he'd do with it if it was returned.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}}, a married couple are contracted to assess applicants for assisted places at the Assassins' Guild School. Having whittled the applicants down to the outstanding very best, in the final assessment interview a candidate is challenged to work out whether his interviewer's rings are the Lady T'Malia sort, or not. He is invited to take his interviewer's wedding and engagement rings off her hand to study them more closely. Although only just eleven years old, the potential student Assassin wonders if a woman's wedding ring is meant to come off heer finger so easily. He looks at her husband, another member of the interview panel, and it dawns on him that she is making a point.

The symbolism of this trope is readily apparent to the point it's not necessary to verbally state a relationship has ended when it's used, making it a good example of ShowDontTell. Depending on the characters involved and the level of sympathy the audience is expected to feel for them the one doing the returning may be portrayed as either trying to be gentle or [[KickTheDog rubbing salt in the wound]], particularly if the ring is simply left for their partner to find, often accompanied by a WhamShot with or without a DearJohnLetter left with it to explain their reasoning for the breakup. In person versions may either be handed back gently, dropped on the ground or physically thrown at their partner.

[[quoteright:300:[[Franchise/{{Superman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/returning_the_wedding_ring.PNG]]]]

->'''Donna:''' Are you breaking up with me?
->'''Eric:''' Are you giving me back the ring?
->'''Donna:''' Yes.

* ''Film/ResidentEvil''. In the first film, Spence and Alice were pretending to be a married couple. Near the end of the movie Spence betrays Alice and is turned into a zombie. After she kills him, she drops her wedding ring next to his body.

* In the third season finale of ''Series/That70sShow'', Eric gives a promise ring to Donna, who takes as a statement that he wants her to be a HouseWife instead of having a career and seeing the world, so she gives the ring back. Taking it as she doesn't want to be with him, Eric breaks up with Donna.

* In ''Film/FantasticFour2005'', Ben Grimm calls his fiancee, Debbie, and tries to talk to her about what had happened to him in space, but is too nervous to speak clearly about it. All he does is confuse and scare her. When she sees him in the light of day, despite him helping save the lives of a bunch of New Yorkers, she walks to the front of the crowd, shakes her head at him, takes off her engagement ring and leaves it on the blacktop -- adding insult to injury because Ben's giant stone Thing-fingers can't even pick the ring up.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', in the episode "Lisa's Future", Lisa returns her engagement ring to her wealthy English fiancé, just minutes before the wedding, upon finding out that not only does he not want to wear the "traditional" pig cufflinks Homer gave him, but that he plans to take her away from her family forever because (he feels) that they're just too [[DysfunctionalFamily dysfunctional]] and uncouth.

* ''Film/TenCloverfieldLane'' opens with Michelle leaving town after having a fight with her fiance, and we see her leave her house keys and engagement ring behind.

* ''Film/ResidentEvil''. In the first film, Spence and Alice were pretending to be a married couple. Near the end of the movie Spence betrays Alice and is turned into a zombie. After she kills him, she drops her wedding ring next to his body.
* Several adaptations of Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' have Belle do this when she ends her engagement to the young Scrooge (as shown by the Ghost of Christmas Past), although the original book never mentions it. The Albert Finney musical ''Film/Scrooge1970'' offers an especially memorable variation: Scrooge is updating his ledgers when Belle enters his office, and annuls their engagement by tossing her ring onto one side of a balance scale, and dropping a gold crown onto the other. Of course, the crown weighs more, signifying that Scrooge's love of money outweighs his love for Belle.

** In ''{{Discworld/Wintersmith}}'', after Tiffany defeats the Wintersmith, he leaves behind an iron nail which she fashions into a ring. When the Morris dancers drop by for the year, she gives the ring back to a man with the Wintersmith's eyes as a way to say that it would never work out since she's a human and the Wintersmith is basically a force of nature.

* In ''Film/FantasticFour'', Ben Grimm calls his fiancee, Debbie, and tries to talk to her about what had happened to him in space, but is too nervous to speak clearly about it. All he does is confuse and scare her. When she sees him in the light of day, despite him helping save the lives of a bunch of New Yorkers, she walks to the front of the crowd, shakes her head at him, takes off her engagement ring and leaves it on the blacktop -- adding insult to injury because Ben's giant stone Thing-fingers can't even pick the ring up.