History BetterToDieThanBeKilled / Literature

* In the Literature/DrThorndyke story "The Aluminium Dagger", the murderer shoots himself when he realises his arrest is imminent.
* Every single surviving human being in Australia in ''Literature/OnTheBeach'' chooses to take cyanide pills, distributed for this purpose by the government, rather than suffer death by radiation sickness.

* In ''[[Literature/HumanxCommonwealth Bloodhype]]'', when the mysterious black substance they're experimenting on abruptly tears its way out of containment and engulfs several [=AAnn=] technicians, two of the reptilian scientists get trapped in a corridor between security doors. One hastily (and wisely) shoots his companion and then himself, before the black substance - actually a ravenous intergalactic predator, the Vom - can flood the corridor and eat them alive.

* Appears on a massive scale in [[Creator/RichardMatheson Richard Matheson's]] short story "The Creeping Terror." The city of Los Angeles is [[GeniusLoci revealed to be sentient]], and, as the title implies, slowly grows to take over the entire United States. As it does, it brainwashes everyone it comes into contact with, making them lose their past identities and become shallow, Hollywood-obsessed idiots. When Los Angeles reaches Boston, the ''entire population of the city'' decides to commit mass suicide rather than surrender their free will.

* In ''Literature/DeathStar'' a bunch of {{Mook}}s and low-level contractors working on, well, the Death Star find themselves horrified and [[DefectorFromDecadence galvanized into action]] as it becomes clear that the titular battle station ''isn't'' going to be used as deterrent and maybe to explode a small exoplanet now and then to scare people. Lacking confidence in their own ability to stop it from within, they decide that finding a way to leave and at least ''not participate'' in these atrocities is the best they can do, so they load up into a medical shuttle and try to fly off. This attempt ends with their shuttle caught in a tractor beam and being slowly reeled back in, so the deserters decide to overload the engines and be killed - if they're captured they'll probably be tortured and maybe ''their'' homeworlds are next. Fortunately for them, this attempt was during the [[Film/ANewHope Battle of Yavin]] and this was JustInTime for the Death Star to explode.
* Subverted in the Creator/EvelynWaugh novel ''Decline and Fall'' where one character, Grimes, who is an example of TheBarnum tells of "landing in the soup" (an UnusualEuphemism for being caught engaged in homosexual conduct) during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and being placed in a room and given a loaded revolver and some whiskey to settle his nerves, so that a court martial could be avoided and the official story would be that he [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch died in combat]]. After debating this course of action, he decides he would rather live and is found roaring drunk when his fellow soldiers re-enter the room.

* In ''Literature/DrFranklinsIsland'' as it sinks in for Semi that she and Miranda aren't going to be able to escape being [[ForcedTransformation transformed]] and either killed or turned into monsters, she goes berserk, [[ManBitesMan bites an orderly]], and flings herself at an electrified fence. The MadScientist owning the island had said in her hearing that the fence had been reactivated, but he was lying and anticipating that she'd do this, and despite Semi's struggles she's restrained again.
** At the climax of the book the teens are backed into a corner and decide that it's preferable to go out fighting than to be experimented on further, or vivisected. Fortunately for them they manage to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard kill Doctor Franklin instead]].
* In ''Literature/EnchantressFromTheStars'' Elana, a 14 years old girl from TheFederation, is captured by colonists from TheEmpire. The colonists intend to bring her to their home planet, where she will be dissected and interrogated (and thanks to their tech, TheEmpire can extract any information they want). Not wanting to end like this, Elana runs towards the imperial rock-chever, intent on being crushed by falling debris. She is rescued JustInTime, and the imperials are so ... [[SuperweaponSurprise amazed]] by the way she is rescued that they withdraw and leave her behind.

* ''Literature/TheEnemy''. In the third book in the series, Olivia, cornered by the Collector, throws herself off his balcony, choosing a quick death from falling several storeys over the torture he has inflicted on his previous victims.

* In ''Literature/{{Firefight}}'' [[spoiler: Megan]] shoots themself rather than be [[spoiler: burned alive]]. In addition to being over a lot faster, [[spoiler: fire]] is their weakness, meaning that it is actually considerably more dangerous. By dying to a bullet instead, [[spoiler: her ResurrectiveImmortality is able to trigger, while fire would have killed her permanently.]]

* In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''The Guns of Tanith'', cornered in the control room with no way to work it, Jagdea takes out poison pills to avoid capture. Bonin doesn't let her, and someone who does know how to work arrives in time.
* In the Creator/RobertEHoward poem "The Gold and the Grey," the Cimbri women kill themselves with daggers in order to avoid being enslaved by the Romans ("The Cimbri yield no virgin-slaves to glut the lords of Rome!"). One of them kills her rapist and then kills herself.

* In ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata Gust Front]]'', Tommy Sunday, Jr, and his future girlfriend make a promise that if one is unable to kill themself, the other will do it for them, instead of leaving them alive for the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]] to find and [[ImAHumanitarian invite for dinner]].

* In ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', [[BigGood Albus Dumbledore]] has Severus Snape kill him to prevent Draco Malfoy from doing so and to ingratiate himself (Snape) with [[BigBad Voldemort]]. When Snape protests this plan, Dumbledore points out that he would rather die quickly and painlessly than to fall into the hands of Fenrir Greyback or Bellatrix Lestrange, who [[ColdBloodedTorture like to play with their food]]. It factored in the decision that Dumbledore was already dying because of a curse Voldemort placed on the Horcrux ring.
* ''Literature/HerculePoirot'':
** ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'' by Creator/AgathaChristie: Poirot ''offers'' the revealed murderer a day before he contacts the authorities, in order to kill himself and prevent family disgrace.

* ''Literature/TheHistories'' of Herodotus: After avenging her brother by killing a "a vast number of Egyptians", Queen Nitocris of Egypt suffocates herself in a room full of hot ashes to escape being killed at the hands of her people.

* In ''Literature/TheHost2008'' Melanie and a few other people attempt suicide to prevent being captured and taken over.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': during ''Mockingjay'' all characters in the rebel army are fitted with a "Nightlock" capsule and expected to kill themselves before they are captured and taken in for torture/questioning.

--> ''He had only one possible option, and Zod vowed to do this on his own terms! Let historians record this ending with awe!''

* In ''Literature/TheLostFleet: Beyond the Frontier'' follow-up trilogy, the bear-cows are {{Absolute Xenophobe}}s who view any predator as a natural threat that must be eliminated at all costs and any other fellow herbivore as competition for the same resources who must also be eliminated. Protecting the herd is more important to them than any individual life. During the attempt by TheAlliance SpaceMarines to take the crippled bear-cow superbattleship, thousands of bear-cow crewmembers hurl themselves at the marines without regard. Any of them who are wounded are finished off by their own comrades in order to spare them from being eaten alive by the predators (they assume any predator, including humans, wants to eat them). For the same reason, any bear-cow taken alive will kill itself through a naturally-developed method of stopping higher brain functions rather than be eaten alive. They don't bother talking to anyone to find out ''if'' they will be actually eaten.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheMayors": At the climax, [[spoiler:Prince Regent Wienis turns his blaster on himself and commits suicide rather than allow himself to be subjected to a religious trial for trying to attack the "holy planet" of Terminus, and also because he can't kill a force-shielded Salvor Hardin with the gun either.]]
* Averted in the Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold book ''Literature/{{Memory}}'', where the villain is denied the opportunity for suicide after he's caught.
* At the beginning of ''[[Literature/DuelOfSorcery Moongather]]'', Serroi panics and bolts, leaving a severely injured Tayyan behind. It's later revealed that Tayyan cut her own throat rather than be captured.

* ''Literature/NewJediOrder: Star by Star'':
** Viqi Shesh walks off the top of a Coruscant skyscraper rather than surrender herself to those who she betrayed.
** In the same book, [[SmugSnake President Fey'lya]] goes from SleazyPolitician to DoomedMoralVictor by [[TakingYouWithMe suicide-nuking]] a couple of divisions of the ScaryDogmaticAliens who're coming to arrest and/or torture-maim-kill him. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome While receiving their colonel behind his own desk in his own office, no less.]]

* One terrorist kills himself in the Literature/PaladinOfShadows book ''A Deeper Blue'' than be taken alive.

* The BigBad in the final series of Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''[[Literature/Timeline191 Southern Victory]]'' alternate history novel series averts this in the final book, ''In at the Death''. The dictator ruling the Confederate States of America, Jake Featherston, escaped Richmond and attempted to fly over now-occupied Georgia, hoping to [[IWillFightSomeMoreForever lead guerrilla warfare against the United States]] in Texas. His plane was shot down, and he was found and killed by Black partisans.

* In a ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'' novel, Praetor Tal'aura (the senator from ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'') finds out that a member of an important Romulan family has been plotting behind her back. When captured, he requests to take poison in lieu of a public execution, knowing that the latter will bring great shame to his family. She denies the coward. Later on, she allows a political rival, who was attempting to incite a revolt against her, to drink poison, having respect for the man. Given that Romulans are, essentially, the Roman Empire RecycledInSPACE, this makes sense.

* In ''Literature/TheMirage'', [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Donald]] [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Rumsfeld]] decides he'd rather take poison than be subjected to capture and torture by [[StateSec Al]] [[TheConspiracy Qaida]].
* ''[[Literature/CircleOfMagic Street Magic]]'' has the villain poison herself in her room rather than be arrested and humiliated for killing the local police's undercover agents, as well as countless commoners, since there's no chance in hell that her aristocratic family is going to protect her.

* The ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Thunder and Shadow'' features a bonus scene in the Barnes and Noble edition, in which Needlepaw (prior to us meeting her in the series) is picked up and carried off by an owl. She decides she'd rather die by falling (by her own choice) than let it kill and eat her, so she fights until it lets go (and survives the fall).

** ''The Eye of the World'', Perrin, Egwene, and Elyas are being pursued by an immense flock of demonically-possessed ravens, and suspect they can't reach safety in time. When they do escape, Elyas finds Perrin about to throw his axe into a pond, as he was considering killing himself and Egwene with it rather than allow them to be eaten alive. He asks Perrin which death he really thinks she'd have preferred, and Perrin decides to keep the axe.

** At the climax of the book the teens are backed into a corner and decide that it's preferable to go out fighting than to be experimented on or vivisected. Fortunately for them they manage to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard kill Doctor Franklin instead]].

* In ''Literature/DrFranklinsIsland'' as it sinks in for Semi that she and Miranda aren't going to be able to escape being [[ForcedTransformation transformed]] and either killed or turned into monsters, she goes berserk, bites an orderly, and flings herself at an electrified fence. The MadScientist owning the island had said in her hearing that the fence had been reactivated, but he was lying and anticipating that she'd do this, and despite Semi's struggles she's restrained again. At the climax of the book the teens are backed into a corner and decide that it's preferable to go out fighting than to be experimented on or vivisected. Fortunately for them they manage to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard kill Doctor Franklin instead]].

%%* Every single surviving human being on Earth in ''Literature/OnTheBeach''.