History Main / DeathByDespair

!!'''As a DeathTrope, many Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

** Not a few cases in Creator/JRRTolkien's Middle-earth (''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', etc.), both Elven and Human. Specifically notable as a way of death for the immortal Elves. Elven spirits are noted to have a much greater influence over their physical bodies, so if they have the appropriate willpower and determination they can live and pull through almost anything; however it also works the other way round - if they lose their hope and will to live, their bodies just give out. In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' there almost seems to be a tradition for the men to be killed and their wives dying of despair shortly afterward; this happening to Rian, Gloredhel, and Lúthien (although Lúthien's case is [[BackFromTheDead a little unique]]).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' fic ''Fanfic/TheVow'', this happens to Lord Shen's parents when there isn't any more news of the son -- that they had to banish for committing mass murder -- being alive somewhere.

* In ''WesternAnimation/LovingVincent'', Pere Tanguy says this happened to Theo: after Vincent's death, he lost his will to live.

* ''Film/{{Incendies}}'': It's implied that this is the cause of Nawal's death, after a life of being a {{determinator}}. Her daughter suddenly finds her catatonic, and she dies soon afterwards. Her will refers to a mysterious "broken promise" and asks to be given a pauper's unmarked grave until her promise can be upheld by her children. At the end of the film, we discover what drove her into sudden despair -- namely, the discovery that [[spoiler:her long-lost son (the brother that Jeanne and Simon never knew they had) and the man who raped and tortured her in prison (the father they never knew) were one and the same]].
* In ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', Alan learns that after he disappeared his father gave up everything he had to try to find him. His eventual death of a broken heart likely wasn't helped by rumors that he himself had murdered Alan and hidden the body.

* Contact with the "ghosts" of J-Horror film ''Kairo (Pulse)'' results in this. The ghosts don't even ''do'' anything, they're just there, but coming face to face with one results in the victim realizing that, [[AuthorTract even in death, everyone is completely and utterly alone]]. The soul-crushing despair from this revelation causes the victim to simply shrink away, their will to live fading, until they literally become [[CessationOfExistence nothing but an eerie stain of soot on the wall]].

* In ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', General Macarthur's wife Leslie died of a broken heart after her lover, Arthur Richmond, falls victim to her husband's UriahGambit in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Macarthur himself loses the will to live and so [[spoiler:is easy prey for the murderer]] (it helps that was did feel quite guilty over the whole thing, unlike most of the characters).

* In Anne Mcaffrey's ''[[Literature/DragonridersOfPern Dragonflight]]'', we learn that, when a rider dies, his/her dragon goes Between (a bitter cold, blackness through which dragons teleport), never to return. Also, dragon riders whose dragons die can become this.

* Happens to the Aboriginal boy in ''Literature/{{Walkabout}}''. He believes the girl's fear of him is because she's seen the spirit of Death on him (in fact, she's just afraid because she's been taught Aboriginals are savages and never actually met one before). Because he thinks death is coming for him, he then more or less wills himself to die. More precisely, he catches the flu from the girl's brother but has neither the inherited resistance nor the will to fight it. (The movie is more explicitly DeathByDespair: he hangs himself after the failure of his courtship dance.)

** When one of Anne's "lovers" claims he might die of this, Cromwell reflects bitterly that it's not that easy--''he'' wanted to die after the deaths of his wife, his daughters, and Wolsey, but his body kept on breathing anyway because "God takes your heart of flesh and replaces it with a heart of stone."
* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' some people are so traumatized by the [[ZombieApocalypse horrors]] and hopelessness sometimes just go to sleep... and never wake up.
* Catherine Earnshaw-Linton of ''Literature/WutheringHeights'' -- although the literal cause is premature childbirth while suffering from BrainFever, her despair is what causes those two things. Nellie Dean personally believes Heathcliff died of this too and was not DrivenToSuicide -- she sees his refusal to eat or sleep for days as a "result" of his illness rather than a cause.
* In Creator/MadameDAulnoy's FairyTale ''Literature/TheYellowDwarf'', Toutebelle dies of a broken heart after the titular villain murders her fiance.

* One of the regular "callers" on ''The Coodabeen Champions'' was Digger, an aged fan of the [[UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball Collingwood Magpies]]. On one show, Tony asks him if there is a Mrs. Digger, and he reveals that she died "In 1970, around this time of year (late September), about halfway through the last quarter, trying to ram a can of Fanta down her throat." - the implication being that it was at the 1970 Grand Final, where Carlton staged a MiracleRally to defeat Collingwood. "They told me it was asphyxiation, Tony, on the can of Fanta, but I knew. I knew it was the 'pies letting us down what had done it."

* Elsa of Brabant in ''Lohengrin''. She's tricked by her WickedStepmother into learning her beloved husband Lohengrin's true name and revealing his origins -- which means that he must leave and never return. Once Lohengrin does this and takes off, [[spoiler: releasing Elsa's younger brother from the spell that [[ForcedTransformation had turned him into a swan in the process]] ]], Elsa's grief and guilt reach a breaking point and she drops dead.

* In ''Waterfall'', after Noppon leaves Katherine and marries his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood friend Pree]] instead, Katherine succumbs to the same heart condition that befell her mother, in other words, a literal broken heart. Similar to ''Tristan & Iseult'', Katherine's maidservant Nuan summons Noppon to her deathbed, where they confess their love for each other before she dies.

* This is how ''WebAnimation/NyanNekoSugarGirls'' ends, believe it or not. Raku-chan dies of a broken heart due to a failed LoveConfession, because her crush Hitoshi-san had entered a homosexual relationship with his [[AbductionIsLove kidnapper]].

* Padmé in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' suffered this according to the medbot attending her. Watching her husband turn evil and everything she worked for come crashing down around her as she witnesses the rise of a totalitarian government, combined with the stress of an impromptu and messy child birth, was likely too much for her although tt's unclear how much her husband Force choking her had to do with it.

* Padmé in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' suffered this according to the medbot attending her. Watching her husband turn evil and everything she worked for come crashing down around her as she witnesses the rise of a totalitarian government, combined with the stress of an impromptu and messy child birth, was likely too much for her although. It's unclear how much her husband Force choking her had to do with it.

* ''Literature/TalmaGordon'':

* In ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'', Marinell grows increasingly sick and nearly dies of a broken heart upon learning that Florinell is captured by Proteus.