History Main / FaintInShock

* ''Film/{{Niagara}}'': [[spoiler:Rose plans to have her lover Patrick murder her husband George. Unbeknownst to Rose, George actually manages to kill Patrick in self-defense instead.]] When Rose[[spoiler:, confident that the plan has succeeded,]] is summoned to identify if the found corpse is her husband's, she faints instantly before uttering a single word upon seeing [[spoiler:Patrick's]] body in the morgue. [[spoiler:At this, everybody present ends up believing that the victim really ''was'' George as they wrongly presume that she fainted from grief. Many hours later, long after the police have been informed that George has ''not'' died, Rose was still lying on a hospital bed completely out cold from the shock of this moment.]]

** [[spoiler:He also faints when trying to defend his godfather, Sirius Black, from them, and casts his first Patronum spell to ward them off.]]

* ''Fanfic/PoundAndPumpkinCakesAdventuresAndMisadventuresInPottyTraining'': In "[[Recap/PAPCAAMIPTCh10StarlightTheFoalsitter Starlight the Foalsitter]]" Starlight Glimmer faints when the Cake twins prank her into thinking they've [[FunWithFlushing flushed themselves down the toilet]]. The twins regret their prank, since they weren't expecting her response to be ''that'' extreme.

* ''Series/TheOddSquad'': In the episode "[[Recap/OddSquadS1E21SixOClockToSixOFive 6:00 to 6:05]]'', Octavia faints when she realizes that she forgot to feed the dinosaurs... four-and-a-half hours too late. Luckily, Otto manages to catch her before she can get a concussion as well from hitting the hard floor.

* Grace Marks in ''Literature/AliasGrace'' faints frequently, at situations such as [[spoiler:being sentenced to death]] or [[spoiler:running for her life and hearing a gunshot that she mistakenly believes has hit her]]. Her most significant faint, however, is when she faints [[spoiler:from the grief and shock over the traumatic death of her dearest friend Mary]]: she stays completely out cold for ten hours, during which no one could wake her, before briefly waking up, evidently [[spoiler:possessed by Mary's soul]], and promptly passing out yet again, staying gone for almost as long.
* In the short ''Literature/AndHeBuiltACrookedHouse'', Mrs. Bailey repeatedly faints throughout the adventure in the tesseract house.

* Discussed in ''Literature/TheBippoloSeedAndOtherLostTales'', the story "Steak for Supper" involves six strange creatures following a little boy home. He fears that his "mother would faint and [his] father would roar" if they saw the creatures. Thankfully, the creatures run away, so the mother remains conscious and the father keeps quiet.
* In ''Literature/CharlottesWeb'', Wilbur is prone to this:

* Mary Jo Putney's ''Literature/TheChinaBride'' has Troth faint at the sight of a man who looks exactly like her deceased husband. It is not until she revives that she discovers that he is actually a twin that she never knew about.

* In ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'', not even ''personally witnessing'' [[spoiler:her mistress Linnet being presumably shot and killed by her own husband Simon]] can prepare Louise Bourget for actually ''seeing'' the gruesome sight of [[spoiler:Linnet lying dead in her bed with a bloody wound in the head]] the following morning. The poor maid screams and runs out of [[spoiler:her mistress's]] cabin before flopping unconscious into the arms of a steward on the deck.

* Dante faints in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' a few times:

* Ishmael from ''Literature/DontCallMeIshmael'' faints during his first debate because he is so nervous. Everybody else thinks it's hilarious, as Ishmael also [[ThanksForTheMammary accidentally gropes]] his LoveInterest Kelly as he faints.
* Many, many characters faint in ''Literature/DonQuixote'', but the most significant faint has to be Luscinda's. Already having agreed to marry her beloved Cardenio, Luscinda is placed under immense duress when her parents make her marry the nobleman Fernando instead. On the day of the wedding, Luscinda hides a dagger on her body, as well as a letter explaining that her loyalty belongs to Cardenio and that she plans to kill herself. During the wedding, however, Luscinda is unable to defy the pressure and ends up following through with the exchanging of vows and consents to the marriage in a weakened and dismayed voice. [[DespairEventHorizon Realizing the finality of the situation]], Luscinda faints on the spot. Not only does this cause Cardenio to storm out of the wedding feeling betrayed, but Luscinda's suicide plan is also foiled as both her suicide note and her dagger are discovered and removed from her unconscious body. Her despair is so great that she does not wake up from her faint until the following day.
* In the book ''Literature/DoubleStar'' the heroine faints quietly and without fuss after an intense scene which probably means the ruin of all they've been working for. Later another character reveals precautions have been taken and they're safe - whereupon she faints ''again''. Still, given what's at stake and the extended strain she's been under it's hard to blame her.
* In ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' Jonathan Harker pulling one of these fairly early on. He has just been overtly harassed by three beautiful vampire-ladies ''and'' [[HoYay apparently his own host.]]
* In the Literature/{{Dragonlance}} novel, ''Dragons of Winter Night'', the elven princess Laurana faints at a public banquet after her father [[SlutShaming calls her a whore]], and her older brother gives her a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.

* ''Literature/DrGretaHelsing'': [[spoiler:Leonora van Dorne]] takes a ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney attitude to life's problems, but collapses when she gets her first glimpse behind the {{Masquerade}} and sees a {{Mummy}}. Fortunately for her, the mummy is of the [[NonMaliciousMonster non-malicious]] stripe and catches her, though not without a bit of ironic lurching.

* In the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', Eragon faints when his mentor, Brom, is fatally stabbed. But then, he faints at the end of almost every chapter.
* In ''Imieniny'' by Creator/MalgorzataMusierowicz the protagonist, Pyza, faints very romantically after her little brother gets lost. [[spoiler: He turns up safe and sound, and the nice boys who helped him are very happy to offer their help to Pyza.]]

* Creator/HPLovecraft's ''The Last Test'' Georgina overhears a conversation late at night that leads her to believe that [[spoiler:her brother is involved in carrying out brutal human experiments and savage sacrifices]]. The thought of this increasingly terrifies her until eventually she faints while lying in her own bed, and remains in her dead faint until the next morning. After she awakens, she mistakenly believes that what she overheard and subsequently thought late last night was a dream (since they were the last things she remembers before waking up in the morning). It's not until noon, when she personally witnesses [[spoiler:a subject being captured in front of her]], that she realizes that the conversation last night [[ThatWasNotADream was real]], upon which she instantly faints once again and does not wake up until late into the afternoon.
* In ''Literature/LittleWomen'', Marmee faints when she receives the news that her husband has contracted pneumonia while serving as a chaplain in the American Civil War.
* Parodied mercilessly by Jane Austen in ''Literature/LoveAndFreindship'' [sic], In it, Laura and Sophia ''repeatedly'' faint, which [[spoiler:eventually proves fatal to Sophia when she faints and lies unconscious outside in the rain for more than an hour, catching a cold that soon worsens into deadly tuberculosis]]. The aftermath of this provides our page quote.
* In ''Literature/TheMadKing'' by Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, King Leopold faints when he realizes that [[spoiler:he's going to be executed as a traitor if he can't convince anyone that he's himself and not his fugitive IdenticalStranger cousin]]. One of many repeated reminders that Leopold is not an admirable manly man like the novel's hero.
* In ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', during the island getaway episode, the shy time-travelling Mikuru faints promptly upon seeing the stabbed body of the mansion owner, and stays out of the action for a while under Yuki's supervision, providing Haruhi and Kyon an excuse to go exploring alone together.

* Fantine faints in ''[[Literature/{{LesMiserables}} Les Misérables]]'' upon realizing that Mayor Madeleine is a genuinely kind man who is willing to help her reconnect with her estranged daughter Cosette.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'': Duchess Millidiana Claes, while accompanying Geordo in his marriage proposal to her daughter Catarina, finds her daughter ''farming''. The Duchess immediately faints upon seeing such unladylike behavior from her daughter.

* Samuel Richardson's ''[[Literature/{{Pamela}} Pamela, or: Virtue Rewarded]]'' sees its title character faint whenever Mr. B attempts to force himself onto her, with each faint lasting progressively longer (the first time she stays out for two hours, the next time for three) as though the depth of her unconsciousness corresponds with the audacity of Mr. B's actions and the severity of her plight.
* In ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'':

* Invoked In ''[[Literature/{{Quiller}} The Quiller Memorandum]]'', Quiller is faced with torture. He attempts to delay it by putting himself into syncope, through breathing heavily then holding his breath to drop his blood pressure. He is under massive stress, and he uses this to make his enemies believe he is weak.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheSilverChair'': When Eustace falls off a cliff, Jill collapses to the ground and hopes she'll faint, but the author comments it's not that easy.
* The revelation that ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'' is a talking, sentient skeleton causes Stephanie to faint.
* In ''Literature/TheSorrowsOfYoungWerther'', Charlotte, upon hearing of Werther's suicide, sinks into a faint so deep that others begin to fear for her life.
* Cathy of ''Literature/TeamHuman'' faints upon being reunited with the boyfriend she thought had abandoned her, but it's pointed out that she also hadn't eaten much in the past week, what with her love-stricken distress and all.
* The Poem "The Tummy Beast" by Creator/RoaldDahl ends with the eponymous beast speaking, then the protagonist saying, "Now do you believe me, mummy?", only to find his mother unconscious on the floor.

* Tamaris faints at the height of her rescue in the Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian story ''Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn''. After months of ColdBloodedTorture and [[GoMadFromTheIsolation isolation]], having your sister try to feed you to a monster and and then finding yourself in the middle of a battle do make a good excuse.
* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Veil of Shadows'', [[spoiler:a group of rebels tries to kill the false Bramblestar. Three of them are killed in the ensuing fight, and Bristlefrost faints when she sees that one of the dead cats is Stemleaf, who she had once wanted as her mate.]]
* ''Literature/TheOrdinaryPrincess'': When the titular princess runs away, her letter causes her two ladies-in-waiting it to scream and/or faint, leaving only one standing to deliver the letter to the king and queen, then cry.

* ''Webcomic/FurWillFly'': Tammy faints on Brad's first night in the apartment when he pops his shoes off. She seems to think that he's removed part of his body, because this is a wold of {{BarefootCartoonAnimal}}s that has apparently never invented footwear.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' has featured this in a couple of episodes:
** Rimmer does it in "Psirens" after viewing a graphic demonstration of how and what the eponymous monsters eat.
** In "Epideme" The Cat freezes up and keels over after seeing Kochanski apparently chop off her own arm. (Amusingly, he's just left lying on the floor, incredulous index finger still extended.)

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In the episode "Krusty Dogs", Mr. Krabs takes away Krabby Patties from the Krusty Krab menu and puts hot dogs in their place. [=SpongeBob=]'s reaction is to faint from shock, just as two paramedics immediately arrive and revive him. [=SpongeBob=], however, faints again upon seeing Mr. Krabs take out the kitchen oven.

* ''Series/TheMagicians'': In [[Recap/TheMagicians2016S05E06OopsIDidItAgain "Oops!...I did it again"]] Alice passes out when Penny tries to travel to the moon and ends up {{TeleFrag}}ing himself.* ''Series/MagnificentCentury'': After learning that she can marry the man she loves, Hatice passes out.

-->'''April:''' ''[hyperventilating, already in great shock from seeing the turtles]''
-->'''Michelangelo:''' ''[suddenly jumps to right behind her]'' No, no, no, no. Whoa. Whoa. Chill.
-->'''April:''' ''[hyperventilates even harder]''
-->'''Michelangelo:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint It's just a mask. See? Don't freak out.]] ''[takes off bandana, making it '''even more undeniable''' that they're turtles]'' Right?
-->'''April:''' … Haah. ''[eyes glaze over and roll back]''
--> '''*THUD*'''

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'': Upon encountering the turtles for the first time, April O'Neil mutters "I can't handle this" and sinks to the ground unconscious. She stays out cold throughout the time it takes for them to transport her to their hideout and onto a bed. On waking and sitting up, she then immediately sees ratlike Splinter offering her some tea. At the sight of this, she mechanically utters "I don't believe this" and [[ExaggeratedTrope flops right back onto the bed, gone a second time]]. Somehow, Donatello was able to wake her up easily this time by simply grabbing her hand, but not the previous time.

-->'''Howard:''' Who had money on faints?\\

-->'''Stephen Hawking:''' Great. [[OhNoNotAgain Another fainter]].

* On ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Sheldon tends to faint when he can't process the stimulus his brain is receiving; for example, when his hero Steven Hawking points out an arithmetic error in a paper Sheldon wrote.

* ''Series/MagnificentCentury'': After learning that she can marry the man she loves, Hatice passes out.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'':
** The museum curator faints in a cop's arms "Monkey See, Doggy Do" after the girls make a huge mess in the museum while trying to look for the one who stole the Anubial Jewels.
** In "Little Miss Interprets", Professor Utonium gives three cakes to [=Roger McDongle=]. Roger asks if he can eat the cakes and the Professor says yes. [[OutOfContextEavesdropping Since the Girls have mistaken the Professor's complaining about the cakes for being about]] ''[[OutOfContextEavesdropping them]]'', Bubbles faints upon hearing this.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': Bubbles faints in [[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS6EP6LittleMissInterpretsNightMayor "LittleMissInterprets"]] when she thinks that the clown, who she believes has been hired by the professor to get rid of them, is going to eat them.

* ''Roleplay/DanganRoleplayRoundTwo'': Sycamore faints when he sees Lysandre [[spoiler:fake his death]]. *''Roleplay/ItsCurtains'': Eliza faints at the first body discovery.

* Roleplay/AstralCabal:

* Roleplay/RouletteRampage: In Chapter 3, Etsuko Reiki faints when she opens the bag [[spoiler: with the very much dead Oten Kouei inside]] that she was supposed to bring into the Cathedral.

* Creator/HPLovecraft's ''The Last Test'' Georgina overhears a conversation late at night that leads her to believe that [[spoiler:her brother is involved in carrying out brutal human experiments and savage sacrifices]]. The thought of this increasingly terrifies her until eventually she faints while lying in her own bed, and remains in her dead faint until the next morning. After she awakens, she mistakenly believes that what she overheard and subsequently thought late last night was a dream (since they were the last things she remembers before waking up in the morning). It's not until noon, when she personally witnesses [[spoiler:a subject being captured in front of her]], that she realizes that the conversation last night was real, upon which she instantly faints once again and does not wake up until late into the afternoon.

* ''Film/StrippersVsWerewolves'': One of the girls asks to faint at one point, and does so when given permission.