Spurned Into Suicide

"If I Can't Have You, I'd rather die!"

Someone (most likely a Yandere, or someone already dealing with heavy depression) can't deal with the fact that the person they love wants to leave them, becomes attracted to someone else, or is already in love with somebody else. Instead of killing their love rival or the object of their affections so they won't ever belong to someone else, they decide/threaten to kill themselves. Might also be used to guilt the object of their affections into choosing/staying with them. Of course, sometimes they even attempt to take the object of their affections with them in death as well.

When played more sympathetically or for tragedy, the rejected's despair and pain alone can be considered the impetus for suicide. Rather than spending the rest of their days with the intense psychache of unrequited love (because Unrequited Love Lasts Forever), removing themselves from the equation seems to be the easier solution. It may also be the corollary of a Break the Cutie process that either ran in parallel or took placve before the person was rejected.

In lighter or very sarcastic works this trope may overlap with Suicide as Comedy, even when people often say Dude, Not Funny in regards to it. See also, Not Good with Rejection.

Sadly, this is known to happen in Real Life. To anyone thinking of doing this: please don't.

As a Death Trope, there will be marked AND unmarked spoilers ahead. Beware.

Examples of Spurned Into Suicide include:

Anime & Manga

• In Princess Princess Sayaka threatens to jump off a cliff when Tooru tells her outright that he only ever thought of her as a sister, saying that "If Tooru-kun doesn't choose me, I'd rather die!" He gets her to come to her senses by slapping her and saying "Don't say you want to die so easily! If you kill yourself we won't be able to see each other anymore!"
• Played for Laughs in Slam Dunk. When the Hot-Blooded protagonist Sakuragi Hanamichi is yelled at by the girl he likes (she thought he'd beaten up the guy she liked, when it was someone else), he tried to jump off the roof of the building while crying Berserker Tears. Of course his friends kept him from jumping, the girl realized her mistake and apologized to Sakuragi, and it was never mentioned again.
• Happens at least twice in Detective Conan. The first time, the guy not only killed himself... but he made it look as if the Idol Singer who rejected him actually murdered him.
• Played straight and subverted in Gunslinger Girl. First, we have Elsa, who shot her handler Lauro and then put a bullet through her eye (the cyborg girls's only weak point) because Lauro did not return her feelings and was incredibly neglectful of her anyway. Many chapters later, Henrietta, who as of late had been ignored by Jose, frags him during a rampage against Dante's men brought about by Ski Mask Guy. Jose has her finish the job, but Henrietta puts one more through Jose... and Jose subverts the trope when he uses his last shot to shoot her through the eye, killing her instantly.
• Almost played straight (and for lulz) by Ai Ebihara in Persona 4. After she overhears that Kou doesn't care for her romantically and likes Chie better, Ai is so distraught that she runs off crying to the roof of the school and prepares to climb over the fence and jump over the edge. Luckily, Narukami (the protagonist) gives chase and manages to talk her out of it.
• Akari from Girl Got Game is a Type 2 Yandere for poor Kyo. She'd never try to hurt "him", no matter how much "he" refuses, but she is willing to threaten suicide for a date.
• In chapter 11 Rune of Karakuridouji Ultimo is perfectly willing to kill his best friend because he doesn't love him back and then commit suicide.
• Yoshino from Sakura Gari, who after being thrown out of the Saiki household tries to stab his ex-lover Souma and then commits suicide.
  • Not to forget Souma himself who tries to kill himself after Masataka tells him "I Wished You Were Dead", and then all that he had done to Masataka sank in...
• The main character of Riyoko Ikeda's Claudine, who shoots himself in the head when his third girlfriend leaves him for his brother.
• Played with in Haou Airen, since Reilan sets a cruel Thanatos Gambit in which she ends up being shot dead by the Bastard Boyfriend that abandoned her to hook up with the female lead -- specifically to both spit on the boyfriend's face and traumatise her love rival into hating the dude forever.
• Berserk provides a particularly depressing example with Griffith. After enduring a year of torture that left him permanently crippled, seeing all his dreams and ambitions go up in smoke, and finding out that both his love interests hooked up with each other, he tries to kill himself and fails. Then, It Got Worse.
• In a Rurouni Kenshin filler episode, Kenshin gave Kaoru a ring and she thought he had proposed to her. The actual owner of the ring, an Unlucky Everydude named Hikojirou, threw it away after he mistakenly thought his girlfriend Shiori was cheating on him, and Sanosuke had to stop him from pulling this trope after realizing how wrong he was.
• In Natsu e no Tobira, Claude slits his wrists and then throws himself into a river after his disastrous mix of Anguished Declaration of Love and Attempted Rape on Marion. Marion himself is devastated over it and blames himself..

Comic Books

• In an unusual instance of Black Comedy for an Archie Comics story, Big Ethel, standing on a bridge with Jughead, threatens to climb onto the ledge and jump off if he won't be hers. "Well," she says, "aren't you going to do anything?" Jughead smiles and gets down on his hands and knees, as though to give her a boost.

Fanfics

Fanfiction loves to use this trope for shippy drama, particularly in response to their OTP not being together in canon. Most of the time it will be an Interrupted Suicide followed by a love confession, but other times it ends with a dead character and the other half of the pair lamenting their foolishness in not choosing them.

• Back in the heyday of Cardcaptor Sakura fandom, fics where Tomoyo killed herself over Sakura hooking up with Syaoran were a dime a dozen.
• A few Voltron: Legendary Defender fics have had Keith either let himself die of illness or get himself killed on a mission because Shiro married Curtis instead of him.
  • Across the Multiverse has Akira/Keith and Takashi/Sven/Shiro in a Reincarnation Romance deal. The original one, Akira from GoLion, was cursed into such a deal by the Space Goddess as punishment for actually pulling this few after Princess Fala's enthronement as the Queen of Altea and marriage to Isamu. The Keith from the Lion Voltron timeline pretty much wills himself to die of illness (though not before oh so conveniently hooking up Princess Allura with Lance) when his Sven not only chooses Princess Romelle over him, but dies of illness few after marrying her -- all so Keith can reincarnate, chase after Sven's next reincarnation and start all over again, without giving a shit for the friends that he left behind.
  • One particular fic has Pidge killing herself by overdose over the aforementioned Shiro/Curtis wedding and whining that "everyone had true love but her" because she wasn't "brave enough" to win Shiro's heart. Considering the fact that she didn't go suicidal when she thought Matt died, this was quite out of character for her.
• A Fire Emblem Awakening fic had Henry falling in love with Ricken, but never saying anything to him until the very last moment. When Ricken didn't understand his vague confession, Henry brushed it off, told him to be happy with Nowi, then went to throw himself off a cliff.
• A lot of Gundam Wing fic back in the old days had Duo slitting his wrists because Heero wouldn't love him. Naturally, Heero would find the body and go into hysterics from the guilt. Bonus points if it was somehow Relena's fault Duo offed himself.
• One Fushigi Yuugi fic had Tomo slit his wrists over Nakago's rejection. The author wrote two endings: One where Nakago found him and saved his life before apologizing and telling him he was beautiful, and another where Tomo said it was too late and died at Nakago's feet.
• An old Rocketshippy fic had Jessie throw herself off a building when James broke up with her, and she saw him and his new girlfriend together. The fic was narrated by Jessie's ghost.
• Back in the heyday of Digimon Adventure fandom, it was common to see Mimi Tachikawa killing herself over Matt hooking up with Sora or Tai.
• Cori Falls's Pokémon fic "To Denounce the Evils of Truth and Love" has Jessie attempting this after a failed attempt to distract him from the Maiden's ghost by hitting on him. When the ghost taunts her for her weakness, Jessie turns her rage on it instead and attempts to fight it.
  • Happens again in "To Extend Our Reach to the Stars Above." While Jessie only plans to leap off a cliff after thinking she's wasted her life, it's a fight with James and her thinking he hates her forever that leads her down this dark line of thought. Wobbuffet stops her before she can try, though.
• The Weiss Kreuz fic "Damaged" has Omi shoot himself after Aya rejects his love confession. The fic ends with Aya preparing to kill himself in order to join Omi after reading his angst-filled suicide note.

Film

• The originally planned ending of Fatal Attraction had the trope namer for Bunny Boiler commit suicide at the end... before Test Audiences said no.
• This is prominent plot point in The Rules of Attraction and is also subverted in it (when Sean Batemen repeatedly and ineffectually tries to kill himself after Lauren Hynde rejects him).
• This happens in the first five or so minutes of Wristcutters: A Love Story.
• In Don Juan Demarco, rejection by the one woman who really mattered is what prompts the title character to attempt suicide, and so set the plot in motion.
• Used rather cleverly in He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not. The first half of the movie sets up that a girl named Angélique is the lover of a doctor and nearly commits suicide upon learning that he will not be leaving his wife to marry her.
• Play Misty for Me: Dave (Eastwood) is a womanizing DJ who constantly gets calls from a woman asking him to play the song "Misty". He eventually meets the woman, Evelyn, and has a one-night-stand with her. Evelyn insists on making herself part of Dave's life and, at first, Dave likes the attention. However, his ex-girlfriend Tobie, moves back to town and Dave decides to patch things up. After he attempts to tell Evelyn that he's not interested, she responds by attempting suicide.
• Susanna from Legends of the Fall.
  

Jokes

• There's a Polish joke about a man who comes home early to find his wife in bed with her lover. He pulls out a gun and holds it to his own head. His wife starts laughing, and he responds, "What are you laughing about? You're next!"

Literature

• Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther: a young wangster kills himself because his lover Charlotte is married to his friend.
  • In the Chilean novel Golondrina de Invierno, a young would-be poet and Expy of Werther commits suicide when the female lead's cousin, whom he fancies, is engaged to marry a rich friend of hers.
• A Tale of Two Cities and Last of the Mohicans feature similar endings, i.e. the spurned lover sacrifices himself to save the one she chooses; effectively, they are spurned into suicide and take I Want My Beloved to Be Happy to its biggest extremes.
• Les amitiés particulières (Special Friendships). Fourteen-year-old George is forced to return his twelve-year-old boyfriend Alexandre's letters, a classic method of breaking up. Alexandre promptly takes poison.
• Borderline example in Daddy Long Legs After Judy rejects his marriage proposal, Jervis Pendleton believes she doesn't love him (which she actually does, but she refuses him due to the social class difference, so he goes hunting in Canada and nearly dies as a result. He wasn't deliberately trying to kill himself, but he was so utterly depressed that he had a very difficult time recovering. And he still isn't recovered when Judy visits him, learns that he's her dear DLL, and they reconcile.
• Dido in The Aeneid kills herself after Aeneas leaves her. She had sacrificed her honor for him and betrayed her late husband, as widows were not supposed to remarry or take a lover. Add this to the fact that her feelings were goddess-induced and rather obsessive, and that Aeneas was kind of a jerk...
• Sybill Vane in The Picture of Dorian Gray, who takes a fatal dose of poison right after Dorian cruelly dumps her.
• The ending of Bonjour tristesse. The Fille Fatale protagonist Cécile interfers way to much in the relationship of her dad Raymond with a woman named Anne, an old friend of Cécile's Missing Mom, since she fears that her and her dad's carefree and hedonistic lifestyle won't last if he marries Anne. Hoping that Anne will break off her and Raymond's engagement and leave, Cécile ultimately manipulates her father into visiting his old mistress Elsa, and Anne sees them kissing in a forest; the poor woman completely cracks upon seeing that, and then she drives her car into a cliff, killing herself. Everyone believes it was an accident, and Cécile is the only one who knows the truth.
• In Peter Moore's Caught In The Act Ethan tries to tell Lydia (who's Yandere for him) that he is not dating her. Apparently heartbroken by the news, she attempts to take hers and Ethan's lives.
• This is the modus operandi of the Deathtalker in the Portals series.

Live Action TV

• Cheers episode "A Ditch in Time". Sam Malone gets involved with Amanda Boyer (Carol Kane), who becomes obsessed with and possessive of men she goes out with. When he tries to break up with her she implies that she'll commit suicide if he does.
• In the 1973 Brazilian telenovela O Bem-Amado, the local pharmacist Libório constantly tried to commit suicide whenever he doubted about his Femme Fatale wife Odete's fidelity.
  • The same happened in the Chilean remake from 1996, Sucupira. Among other methods, the "Chilean Libório" alias Segundo tried to: hang himself, blow his brains out, throw himself in front of a train, etc. over his dear Olguita Marina. The poor guy was featured trying to strangle himself with his tie in the OP sequence of the series.
• Sophia in Skins. Bonus points because this suicide is how we first become aware of her existence, and the reasons for her death and her importance to other characters lives are only discovered later.
• In an episode of Supernatural, Sam and Dean have to protect a girl from a spirit who kills people who have been involved in other's deaths. The girl's past includes a boyfriend who threatened her with this trope when she tried to break up with him. When she left anyway, he did go through with it and she's felt guilty ever since.
• In Oz after Beecher rejects him for the final time Keller ultimately responds by committing suicide.
• Two and A Half Men: When his wife left him, Walden tried to drown himself in the ocean. Apparently he didn't realize that the water would be really cold.
• Fran of The Nanny gets her own stalker in the form of Jeffrey Needleman, an old classmate from middle and high school. He threatens to fling himself out a window if Fran doesn't start a relationship with him.
• In Desperate Housewives George became very obsessed with Bree after she rejected him and ultimately killed himself by overdosing on sleeping pills.

Music

• "The Letters" by King Crimson.
• The song "I Can't Stand Losing You" by The Police is a darkly humorous example. It's implied that he won't go through with it, though.

Newspaper Comics

• A now infamous series of strips in the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic had Mickey attempting to commit suicide after being rejected by Minnie.

Opera

• Cio Cio San, the protagonist in Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly.
• "Tit Willow" from The Mikado is about a bird who commits suicide due to "blighted affection"; the song is Koko trying to persuade Katisha that he feels similarly infatuated with her.
• Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas ends with Dido committing suicide after Aeneas is tricked into leaving Carthage by a false "Mercury". The story is loosely based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid.
• The title character in Stanisław Moniuszko's Halka is jilted at the beginning of the opera, and kills herself over it at the very end; the plot is basically her spiral into despair.

Video Games

• In one of the bad endings of School Days, Kotonoha falls into such a despair after being rejected by Makoto in favor of her love rival Sekai, that she throws herself off the top of the building Makoto lives in and dies in front of both of them. We later learn that the trauma drove them to break up a while later, and Makoto felt so guilty that he decided to never ever fall in love again.
• Azelle and Arvis's father, Lord Viktor of Velthomer in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
• If you manage to get Natsuki Kuga in the Mai-HiME Dating Sim, then Shizuru Fujino will commit suicide out of spite and despair.
• Alexander can fake this in King's Quest VI.
• In Crescendo, a student who crushed hard on Nurse Kaori killed himself when she turned him down. . This is why she refuses to get in near any kind of relationships -- unless Ryou romances her.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick has Therkla, although in her case it was more "made a conscious decision not to come back to life" than commit suicide. It also wasn't the only factor in her decision- she had just been betrayed by her long-term mentor, and was likely to face prison time for her assistance in his crimes, Heel Face Turn notwithstanding.

Western Animation

• In the Tom and Jerry cartoon "Blue Cat Blues", Tom is sitting on a railroad track, waiting to be run over, after his girlfriend leaves him for another. The cartoon itself tells how did this happen, plus Jerry's attempts to help him. At the end, Jerry joins him after his own girlfriend does the same.
• The Planet Express Ship from Futurama. She tries to kill herself and the rest of the crew after Bender breaks up with her.
• In the Family Guy episode "Barely Legal" Meg threatens to kill herself after her date for the dance rejects her and also threatens to kill herself if Brian refuses to go to the dance with her.
  • In the episode "Peter-assment", Peter's boss Angela tries to off herself when Peter refuses to sleep with her.
• In a Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" segment, Homer starts flirting with the Tracy Ullman Show version of Marge. Modern Marge gets so pissed off she decides to kill herself in revenge by sticking her head in the oven. (But not before she cleans it first.) This causes a chain reaction of death until both families are ghosts. Luckily, modern Homer and Marge are able to make up.