Suicide in literature a crime of passion in "Othello". The play "Antony and Cleopatra" ends with five suicides, including the deaths of both Antony and Cleopatra. Ophelia commits suicide in "Hamlet" following the death of her father. The subject of suicide itself is controversial. While the act of suicide can be symbolic in literature, the act itself still possesses the ability to cause controversy in the real world. Kate Chopin's novel, "The Awakening", was extremely controversial when it was released in 1899. Some authors who have created characters that commit suicide have committed suicide themselves. Ernest Hemingway shot himself in 1961; Some of
Suicide Act 1961 before the event took place would be a better solution than criminalisation of what amounted to an act of despair in this context. Sir Charles Fletcher-Cooke was the principal figure behind the emergence, introduction and passage of this legislation. Before it was introduced in July 1961, Fletcher-Cooke had been unsuccessfully trying to introduce such a bill for the decriminalisation of suicide for over a decade beforehand. While Home Secretary Rab Butler supported the bill, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan did not. In the event, the bill passed into law easily, decriminalising suicide, but creating an offence of "assisting, aiding or abetting