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 in literature his short stories included suicidal themes. The poet Sylvia Plath committed suicide by self-asphyxiation in 1963. “Once suicide was accepted as a common fact of society- not as a noble Roman alternative, nor as the mortal sin it had been in the Middle Ages, nor as a special cause to be pleaded or warned against- but simply as something people did, often and without much hesitation, like committing adultery, then it automatically became a common property of art." - diaz, 1971. Suicide in literature It is common to depict suicide in literature. Suicide, the act of deliberately killing oneself, is