I’m going to kill myself. I’m going to blow my brains out right on the air, right in the middle of the Seven-o’clock News. Network 1976 Network starring Faye Dunaway & Peter Finch & William Holden & Robert Duvall & Wesley Addy & Ned Beatty & Beatrice Straight & Jordan Charney & William Prince & Lane Smith & Marlene Warfield & Conchata Ferrell et al, director Sidney Lumet
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like at this moment to announce that I will be retiring from this program in two weeks’ time because of poor ratings. Since this show is the only thing I have going for me in my life I have decided to kill myself. I’m going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today. ibid.
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 1996 starring Leonardo DiCaprio & Brian Dennehy & Christina Pickles & Dash Mihok & Jesse Bradford & Zak Orth & Claire Danes & Paul Sorvino & Diane Venora & John Leguizamo & Harold Perrineau & Pete Postlethwaite & Paul Rudd & Vondie Curtis-Hall et al, director Baz Luhrmann
Why rail’st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth,
Since birth and heaven and earth, all three, do meet
In thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose ...
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet III iii 118-120 & 144, Friar Laurence to Romeo
Let’s stab ourselves. William Shakespeare, Henry V IV v Folio, Dauphin
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar I iii 93
But I do find it cowardly and vile
For fear of what might fall so to prevent
The time of life. ibid. V i 103-105, Brutus
So every bondman in his own hand bears the power to cancel his captivity. William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar 1970 starring Charlton Heston & Diana Rigg & Jason Robards & Christopher Lee & John Gielgud & Robert Vaughn & Richard Chamberlain & Richard Johnson & Jill Bennett et al, Vaughn as Casca
Coward that I am to live so long. ibid. Cassius
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! William Shakespeare, Hamlet I ii 129-132, Hamlet
To be, or not to be – that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? – To die – to sleep –
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to; ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die – to sleep –
To sleep! Perchance to dream. Aye, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office...’ ibid. III i 56-73
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she changed snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress. ibid. IV xii 173
If thou needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Othello, Iago, Globe Theatre production Sky Arts 2012
You ever gentle gods, take my breath from me.
Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
To die before you please. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear IV v 108-210, Gloucester
And it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds,
Which shackles accidents and bolts up change. William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra V ii 4-6, Cleopatra
Where art thou, death?
Come hither, come. ibid. V ii 45-46, Cleopatra
He that hath a will to die by himself fears it not from another. William Shakespeare, Coriolanus V ii 104-105, Menenius
Those who committed suicide suffered alongside murderers. Mysteries of the Bible s3e9: Heaven & Hell, A&E 1996
Nearly 300 people are killed on British railways every year. The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track VI: North of the Border, BBC 2013
Most fatalities on the railways are suicides. ibid.
A rising suicide rate is linked to the increasing use of solitary confinement. Prison Nation, National Geographic 2007
Woy-Woy is a good place to commit suicide. Spike Milligan interview, cited The Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan, Spike, BBC 2006
Just when I had made my today
Secure with safe yesterdays
I see tomorrow coming with its pale glass star called hope.
It shatters on impact
And falls like splinters of cruel rain
And I see the red oil of life
running from my wrists
onto tomorrow’s headlines. Spike Milligan, Hope
The pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it, and it kills in many instances because its anguish can no longer be borne. The prevention of many suicides will continue to be hindered until there is a general awareness of the nature of this pain. William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V. Virginia Woolf
So he was deserted. The whole world was clamouring: Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself, for our sakes. But why should he kill himself for their sakes? Food was pleasant; the sun hot; and this killing oneself, how does one go about it, with a table knife, uglily, with floods of blood, – by sucking a gaspipe? He was too weak; he could scarcely raise his hand. Besides, now he was quite alone, condemned, deserted, as those who are about to to die are alone, there was a luxury in it, an isolation full of sublimity; a freedom which the attached can never know. Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
You’re fucked. You thought you were going to be someone, but now it’s obvious you’re nobody. You haven’t got as much talent as you thought you had, and there was no Plan B, and you got no skills and no education, and now you’re looking at forty or fifty years of nothing. Less than nothing, probably. That’s pretty heavy. That’s worse than having the brain thing, because what you got now will take a lot longer to kill you. You’ve got the choice of a slow, painful death, or a quick, merciful one. Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down
In Japan you must always commit suicide to avoid embarrassment. The Office US s5e8: Business Trip, Michael’s business trip advice, NBC 2008
Kids, just remember suicide is never the answer. All right? It is the easy way out. You are not alone. The Office US s6e8: Koi Pond, Michael to Halloween children in warehouse
Scientologists who had come out of their group have reported the highest incidents of suicidal and self-destructive tendencies afterward. Jim Siegelman, cult specialist
WE HAD A DEATH
PACT
I HAVE TO KEEP
MY HALF OF THE
BARGAIN.
PLEASE BURY ME
PTO
NEXT TO MY BABY.
BURY ME IN MY
LEATHER JACKET,
JEANS AND MOTOR
CYCLE BOOTS
GOODBYE Sid Vicious