Taking Their Own LivesLists about notable people who chose to end their lives, why they did it, and the effects their deaths had on those they left behind.
Updated June 15, 2019 2.3k votes 741 voters 58.4k views
In fiction we see characters go through the worst experiences of their lives. Sometimes they lose everything, from all their wealth to the love of their lives. Sometimes they have to deal with a great deal of adversity. Every character deals with their problems in their own unique way. While some fictional characters fight hard to fix their life’s problems, others are swallowed up by them. In those cases, sometimes the fictional characters choose to end their own lives.
The characters on this list, from books, movies, TV, plays, and other sources, all committed suicide. In the works of William Shakespeare, many characters choose to commit suicide to end their suffering, such as Romeo and Juliet. A lot of classic books and plays end with amain character’s death, such as Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina. Television and movies sometimes kill off a character for a shocking moment, such as in the case of "House" and "Mad Men."
This list features characters who killed themselves in some sort of fictional work, from books to movies. Though they ended their lives, many of these characters are some of the most iconic in all of fiction. Vote up the best characters who committed suicide below.
Neil Perry is a popular student at the prestigious Welton Academy in the 1989 film "Dead Poets Society." After his father threatens to send Neil to military school because he participated in a play against his wishes, Neil kills himself in his father's office.
Daisy Randone is a resident of the psychiatric hospital which was the setting for Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir "Girl, Interrupted" and the 1999 film of the same name. Daisy had an eating disorder, OCD and depression. She killed herself on her birthday.
Billy Bibbit is one of the residents of the psychiatric hospital which is the setting of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Billy is a cutter with suicidal tenancies. After Nurse Ratched threatens to tell Billy's mother about his breaking the rules, Billy kills himself by slitting his throat.
Ellen Ripley is the protagonist of the "Alien" film series. After discovering that an Alien embryo is growing inside her in the third film, Ripley kills herself and the Queen alien by diving into a furnace. She is later cloned for "Alien Resurrection."
