Please don't list this on a work's page as a trope. Examples can go on the work's YMMV tab.
Tear Jerker: All Quiet On The Western Front
Franz's death. Oh God, Franz's death. I find myself hating that doctor more than I should.
An equally agonizing (or perhaps even more so) scene occurs when Paul (the protagonist) is on leave and visits Franz's mother. In tears, she demands to know how Franz died and Paul lies to her, telling her he went peacefully and painlessly. In reality, Franz suffered a slow and agonizing death where he frequently voices all his regrets.
"Here is the mad tale of Detering."
Behm. Oh, good heavens, Behm.
The relationships of the main character. All his friends either die, lose their mind, or something! He lost everything!
"Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear."
Considering that, the ending is the best thing that could happen to the protagonist. Which doesn't make it less of a Tear Jerker, but the rest of the book is From Bad to Worse.
Especially the part where he comes back home and sees his books, his writings, everything he was... and realizes it doesn't move him at all, because he isn't that person anymore, and never will be. He finds he can no longer even relate to his family, whom he was very close to before. His mother is the only person who he feels still understands him and she's bedridden with illness.
Kat's death. "You are not related, are you?" No, we are not related. No, we are not related. Do I walk? Have I feet still? I raise my eyes, I let them move round, and turn myself with them, one circle, one circle, and I stand in the midst. All is as usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died. Then I know nothing more."
The ending. "He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come."
The ending scene from the 1930 film, where Paul is shot while reaching for a butterfly also qualifies.
