History Main / TheLostLenore

From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore\\

-->-- EdgarAllanPoe, ''The Raven''

->''"The woman I loved is... dead."''
-->-- Christian in ''{{Moulin Rouge}}''

* Satine in ''MoulinRouge''.

* Freya seems to be this in ''{{Series/Merlin}}''.
* The fact that he couldn't save his wife from a car wreck is what spurns David Banner to gamma experiments in ''TheIncredibleHulk'' (the TV series).

Nameless here for evermore.''\\
Edgar Allan Poe - "The Raven"

->''"The woman I loved is... dead."''\\
Christian in ''{{Moulin Rouge}}''

After her death, whether it occurs before the story begins or during its course the Lost Lenore is present in the the thoughts, dialogue and actions of living characters. However she can herself be a dynamic presence within a story through the use of Flashback and or direct interaction with living characters in the form of a SpiritualAdvisor. Conversely, [[BigBad forces of evil]] may evoke the memory of the Lost Lenore, or even masquerade as a manifestation of her, in order to manipulate living characters.

!!Examples

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* [[spoiler: Eliade]] in DGrayMan.

* [[spoiler: Wakaba]] in CrossGame is an early Type B. The rest of the manga is about Kou and the other characters trying to get over her.

* Hank Pym - then Ant-Man - first became romantically interested in young Janet Van Dyne (soon to be the Wasp) because she was a dead ringer for his late first wife, Marya Trovaya, who had been murdered by Communists.
* Some writers like to use Gwen Stacy this way for Spider-Man, even though he actually got over her death fairly soon in the 1970s. Jeph Loeb's ''Spider-Man: Blue'' is perhaps the most blatant example.

* Magneto was shown to obsess about his dead wife Magda quite a bit in a number of stories. When he became ruler of Genosha, he named the main square of the capital after her.

* Marni in ''[[RepoTheGeneticOpera Repo: The Genetic Opera]]''
* The dead wife in ''{{Memento}}''
* Elisabeta in Coppola's ''[[BramStokersDracula Bram Stoker's Dracula]]''
* Shelly in both the comic and movie adaptation of ''TheCrow''
* Murron in ''{{Braveheart}}''
* Satine in ''MoulinRouge''
* Claudia in ''InterviewWithTheVampire''
* Ellie in ''{{UP}}''

* Parodied in ''{{ErikTheViking}}''. The titular character connects briefly with a village maiden and saves her from a FateWorseThanDeath by [[spoiler: accidentally subjecting her to the latter]]. He remains haunted by her memory but when he reunites with her in [[spoiler: Valhalla]] she is less than thrilled to see him.
* Victoria from the Dr Phibes movies (''TheAbominableDrPhibes'', ''DrPhibesRisesAgagin'')

* Lily Potter in the ''HarryPotter'' series, though not to her son Harry... [[spoiler: but to Snape, her StalkerWithACrush ''and'' UnluckyChildhoodFriend.]]
* The titular ''{{Rebecca}}'' is an interesting subversion.
* Lilias Craven in ''TheSecretGarden'' and how!

* Deliciously parodied by Lemony Snicket in ''ASeriesofUnfortunateEvents'' where Beatrice serves as this for the narrator.
* [[{{MeaningfulName}} Annabel Leigh]] for Humbert Humbert in {{Lolita}}, complete with several references to the original poem. The reason H.H has his "[[{{Lolicon}} tastes]]" is his relationship with her [[{{ShoutOut}} when he was a child and she was a child]], which ended in the trope. He falls for Lolita because [[{{ReplacementGoldfish}} she looks so much like Anabell.]]
* Poke from ''Ender's shadow'' falls under this category, even if not necessarily a love interest to the main character.
* In ''Powers That Be'', the first book of AnneMcCaffrey's {{Petaybee}} series, the death of Yana's first husband is suggested to be the reason she joined the [[MegaCorp InterGal's]] military in the first place (which led to the injuries that led her to be shipped to Petaybee, the company's version of a desk job in a podunk town). Her growing feelings for Sean Shongili bring back memories of Husband #1.

* Freya seems to be this in the current TV series ''{{Series/Merlin}}''

* Inverted in a ''ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' sketch involving a parody of the film ''{{Rebecca}}''. The titular Rebecca arrives at her new husband's house only to find out he is obsessed with preserving everything in the house for his ''second'' wife.

* [[spoiler: Tasha Yar]] of StarTrekTheNextGeneration becomes this for Data, for all he doesn't have feelings. He keeps a hologram of her in his quarters, which becomes a plot point, and becomes friends with her sister [[spoiler: and is hurt when she betrays him]].

** And for much worse, [[spoiler: Sweeney kills her ''without knowing it's her''.]]
* Lilias Craven in the musical theatre adaptation of ''TheSecretGarden''.

* In GhostTrick, The suicide of [[spoiler: Yomiel's fiancee Sissel]] is part of what drove him mad with isolation. [[spoiler: He even named his cat after her.]]

* Depending on the player's actions in ''{{MassEffect}}'', this [[spoiler: ends up happening. Liara, in particular, is affected by Shepard's death--though her character development is partially a facade due to emotional trauma and survivor guilt.]]

* [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] in ''TheSimpsons'' episode "I'm Goin' to Praiseland." When Ned Flanders invites his date Rachel Jordan to stay at his house (to sleep in separate rooms, of course), she's skeeved out by all the photos of his late wife Maude, the Maude-shaped bedsheet indentation he preserves with sprayed starch, the robe he hands her, monogrammed with her name, and his calling her "Maude." None of which prepares her for her discovery, upon awakening the next morning, that Ned has cut her hair to resemble Maude's.

* The suicide of [[spoiler: Yomiel's fiancee Sissel]] is part of what drove him mad with isolation. [[spoiler: He even named his cat after her.]]

* In ''Powers That Be'', the first book of AnneMcCaffery's {{Petaybee}] series, the death of Yana's first husband is suggested to be the reason she joined the [[MegaCorp InterGal's]] military in the first place (which led to the injuries that led her to be shipped to Petaybee, the company's version of a desk job in a podunk town). Her growing feelings for Sean Shongili bring back memories of Husband #1.

* [[Spoiler: Tasha Yar]] of StarTrekTheNextGeneration becomes this for Data, for all he doesn't have feelings. He keeps a hologram of her in his quarters, which becomes a plot point, and becomes friends with her sister [[spoiler: and is hurt when she betrays him]].

* Kanan from ''{{Saiyuki}}'' is Hakkai's Lost Lenore and may be the {{Most Triumphant Example}}, since she is also his {{Dead Little Sister}} AND {{I Let Gwen Stacy Die}} In The Origin Story!

* Freya seems to be this in the current TV series ''{{Merlin}}''

* Although not confirmed to have died, the original Katsura sister's parents in {{Hayate no Gotoku}} are this to Hinagiku after they abandoned her and her sister before the story started. It's part of the reason that she's so hesitant to acknowledge her true affections for anyone, including her love interest, is because of how much their loss hurt and she's afraid of having to suffer loss again because of it.

* Lily Potter in the ''HarryPotter'' series though not to Harry

* The dead wife in ''TheSecretGarden'' and how!

** However, given the astonishing [[AngstWhatAngst lack of Angst]] from Robin after her death, it is arguable that her demise did more for the CharacterDevelopment of Guy of Gisborne (her killer) than it did for Robin. And all things considered, Marian's death had very little effect on the main storyline of season three in which various characters vie for the position of Sheriff of Nottingham. [[SeasonalRot The BBC really didn't think this one through...]]

* Lily in the musical theatre adaptation of ''TheSecretGarden''.

* [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] in ''TheSimpsons'' episode "I'm Goin' to Praiseland." When Ned invites his date Rachel Jordan to stay at his house (to sleep in separate rooms, of course), she's skeeved out by all the photos of his late wife Maude, the Maude-shaped bedsheet indentation he preserves with sprayed starch, the robe he hands her, monogrammed with her name, and his calling her "Maude." None of which prepares her for her discovery, upon awakening the next morning, that Ned has cut her hair to resemble Maude's.

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Lost Lenores can be divided into two categories, Type A and Type B.
Type A: A PosthumousCharacter like the trope namer, ie, dead before the story begins
Type B: Dies during the course of the story. In determining whether a character who dies during a story can be classified as a Type B Lost Lenore, the third criterion above is the most important. ''In order to fit this trope, the character must have just as much, if not more, importance to the narrative dead than they do alive.''
For example, Anna in ''{{Van Helsing}}'' is the hero’s love interest and dies at the climax of the story, but she is not a Lost Lenore as all that happens after she dies is that Van Helsing is cured, lays her to rest, sees her happy with her family in the afterlife and roll credits. She does more for the story alive than she does dead.

It is not uncommon for characters who lost Lenore to become involved in other relationships, particularly if she is a PosthumousCharacter or the story is part of an ongoing series. However, in order to qualify for this trope it must be clear that the character who lost Lenore still grieves for her, and that subsequent love interests never entirely replace her.

If she left children behind, said children often have considerable emotional baggage to deal with, including a father (or father figure equivalent) whose grief can render them overprotective or neglectful, or abusive or absent. The child/ren may feel, or even be told explicitly, that they are either too much like the Lost Lenore, or else not enough like them. Angst ensues.