History DrivenToSuicide / Literature

** Queen Helaena Targaryen during the Dance of the Dragons, as stated in ''Literature/FireAndBlood''. After being forced to make a SadisticChoice to sacrifice one of her sons, only to see the other being beheaded, she became depressed and eventually jumped from the window of Maegor's Holdfast. However, people speculated that she was actually murdered under the orders of her half-sister, Rhaenyra.

* The book ''{{Literature/Seventeen}}'' deals with a seventeen year old girl who decides to kill herself in seven days if her life doesn't improve. Her best friend abandons her to become a model, her other friend is raped, she's convinced that she's never been good at anything except diving, and her boyfriend dumps her on the side of the road when she refuses to sleep with him. [[spoiler: She goes straight to a bridge and jumps off. Halfway down, she changes her mind, puts her diving training into use, and swims to shore. The book ends without telling us if her life improves.]]

** In ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', Vera Claythorne is Driven To Suicide.

* In ''Literature/ThePrioryOfTheOrangeTree'', this is eventually revealed to have been the fate of [[spoiler:Galian Berethnet. When he discovered that he had married not his beloved Cleolind but his ''adoptive mother'' in hypnotic disguise, he hanged himself.]]

* Since the majority of ''Literature/HalfWorld'' takes place in the eponymous purgatory, this is a given. There are people in Half World caught in an endless loop, repeating their suicides over and over again. Suberted with Ms. Wei, who contemplated suicide but ultimately decided not to, but played straight with a character in ''Darkest Light''.

* ''Literature/MoDaoZuShi'':
** At the beginning of the story, Mo Xuanyu, unable to take his family's abuse any longer, sacrifices his own soul in a ritual to summon an evil spirit to take revenge on them.
** Xiao Xingchen slits his own throat after learning that Xue Yang had tricked him into [[spoiler:killing a lot of innocent people, including his close friend Song Lan]], shattering his soul.
** Qin Su stabs herself with a cursed dagger not long after finding out that her husband is [[spoiler:actually her half-brother]] and that he may have [[spoiler:played a role in their son's death at a young age]].

* In the ''Literature/RedMarsTrilogy'', Ann Clayborne, already of a depressive disposition, becomes full-on suicidal after accidentally getting Frank Chalmers killed by losing concentration while driving a rover. She leaves the rover and turns off her suit's life support, but Simon catches her before she dies. Although she doesn't attempt suicide again in the series, she spends most of the rest of it as a DeathSeeker.

* ''Literature/OnTheBeach'' has ''everyone left on Earth'' that hasn’t already been killed in the final nuclear war committing suicide via CyanidePills administered by the Australian Government, as it is [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled quicker and more painless than dying slowly from radiation sickness]].

* ''Literature/OnTheBeach'' has ''everyone left on Earth'' that hasn’t already been killed in the final nuclear war committing suicide via CyanidePills administered by the Australian Government, as it is [[BetterToDieThanToBeKilled quicker and more painless than dying slowly from radiation sickness]].

* ''Literature/TheAliceNetwork'': Charlie’s brother James and Captain Cameron both committed suicide because they couldn’t cope in peacetime. Eve was going to commit suicide after killing René because she couldn’t live with her guilt, but Finn and Charlie talked her down.

** Bria briefly contemplates suicide looking over the edge of a turbolift on Coruscant and realizing how easy it would be fall off, then she'd no longer have to suffer from her addiction, before Han pulled her back.

** ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'': Shallan and Kaladin finally connect when she describes his depression perfectly, in a way that makes him realize [[NotSoDifferent she must have experienced it herself]]. We don't get a scene of Shallan actually considering the act, but one of the things she mentions is being so depressed you can't even work up the willpower to kill yourself.
** Seems Radiants in general suffer from this, due to every single one of them being a BrokenAce. Teft even explains that part of their first Ideal ("[[MartialPacifist Life before death]], [[ComesGreatResponsibility strength before weakness]], [[ItsTheJourneyThatCounts journey before destination]]") is about not risking your life unnecessarily. So yes, there are ten entire orders of holy knights who are so depressed that they need "don't commit suicide" as an ironclad rule.

** Having lost a battle as well as his beloved eldest son Jonathan, King Saul falls on his sword when his armorbearer refuses to kill him, figuring it would be better to die by his own hand than to be [[AFateWorseThanDeath mistreated]] [[HonorBeforeReason and killed by the Philistines]]. An Amalekite, attempting to ingratiate David, takes credit for killing his old enemy, but is executed for his troubles as the new King David goes into a HeroicBSOD, ripping his clothes and screaming for the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. This makes this trope OlderThanFeudalism.
** Samson prays that God will give him strength to bring down the Philistine temple--and that he will die there and so [[AFateWorseThanDeath escape]].
** Racked with guilt for having betrayed Jesus, Judas Iscariot returned the reward money and hanged himself. (Matt 27:3-5)
** When an earthquake struck the jail at Phillippi, the keeper of the prison was going to kill himself, thinking the prisoners had fled, and he knew he'd probably die if that happened. He was stopped by Paul, one of the prisoners.

* In ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'', Peter somehow convinces Al to help out in a plot to kill Tris. He feels guilty afterwards, and when she refuses to forgive him Al throws himself into the chasm and takes his own life.

* Averted in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' series, but not for want of ''attempting''. [[spoiler: Katniss understandably attempts various suicidal things after the end of the war in the final book. None are successful naturally, although the fact she narrates the books isn't in itself a giveaway since the books are in present, rather than past tense]].
** This is also the climax of the first book: when the Capitol reneges on their previous ruling that Tributes from the same District could tie in the games, Katniss and Peeta threaten to both eat poisonous berries rather than fight to the death, meaning that the Games would have no winner. The Capitol allows the tie instead.

* ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'':
** Subverted. [[spoiler:Tessa makes the Magister ''think'' she killed herself so that he wouldn't get his hands on her power, but in reality she Changed into a woman who'd died by a gunshot wound seconds before the wound would prove fatal.]]
** [[spoiler:Played straight with Barbara Lightwood and her brother.]]

* Prior to ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', Celia Herondale killed herself when she heard about her husband Stephen's death, despite being pregnant at the time. [[spoiler:Valentine cut her son Jace out from her body and raised him as his own]].

* Creator/MarieCorelli's ''The Mighty Atom'' has eleven-year-old Lionel, homeschooled by a series of tutors by order of his FantasyForbiddingFather, who allows no speculation on religious or spiritual subjects, as he's supposed to have OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions. A chance encounter with Jessy, the daughter of the village sexton, introduces Lionel to the elements of the idea of a personal God. Upon her sudden death a few weeks later, Lionel decides to interview God in person.[[note]]Marie wrote this after hearing of an epidemic of child suicides in France -- 443 cases in one year -- possibly linked to an educational system based on atheistic freethinking (itself an attempt to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education_in_France#Third_Republic:_1871-1940 free elementary and secondary education from the control of the Catholic Church]]) -- actively telling kids that God didn't exist and it was a mistake to believe in him. The district of Nantes had responded with a decree that the basic idea of God should be allowed in school.[[/note]]