Everyone has a different approach to being confronted by moral dilemmas, especially if it comes down to literal matters of life and death: some might weigh their options and find whatever decision they can live with the most; others might try to wriggle out of the simple binary choice by finding an option that doesn't break any moral codes or hurt any innocent bystanders... but for a few morally-upstanding types, there is no such option, and the only alternative is death.
For these rare few, suicide is a more attractive option than wrongdoing. As for what kind of person would go through with such an act, the personality varies: in some cases, the character involved lives by an inflexible moral code that has made an impossible and likely immoral demand of them; in other cases, the character has lived immorally - but has finally found themselves forced to do something that even they find repugnant; or maybe the character is simply an ordinary human being pushed to the limits of morality in their efforts to survive, and cannot bring themselves to cross another line. There may even be Mind Control involved, and suicide is the only way to prevent the victim from committing an unforgivable act while under coercion. Whatever the case, the only sane option is to die.
A Sub-Trope of Honor Before Reason. May be classed as a Heroic Suicide. Compare and contrast Better to Die than Be Killed.
As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Watchmen: The finale forces the heroes to either accept Ozymandias' plan to prevent World War III or reveal the truth to the world - which will result in the reignition of hostilities and probably an apocalyptic nuclear war. Rorschach, by far the most morally unyielding of the team, cannot let all the villainy that's occurred for the plan to work go unpunished - though he knows that since Ozymandias has Doctor Manhattan on his side, there's no chance of stopping the supervillain. Instead, Rorschach tearfully unmasks and all but orders Manhattan to kill him.
Films — Live-Action
- The Dark Knight: As part of a social experiment, the Joker rigs two ferries to explode with the push of a button and places the triggers in the opposing boats, threatening to blow up both ferries if a decision isn't made before time runs out. On the ferry carrying convicted criminals, the guard with the trigger agonizes over the decision before a huge prisoner approaches him, demanding to be given the trigger so he can do "what you shoulda done ten minutes ago." The guard relents - only for the prisoner to toss the device out the window into Gotham Harbor, preferring to die rather than blow up a ship full of innocents. Thankfully, the person with the button on the other ferry can't go through with pushing it and Batman arrives in time to stop the Joker from carrying out his threat, sparing both groups.
- In the climax of The Devil's Advocate, Kevin Lomax is offered anything he could possibly want in exchange for participating in John Milton's plans; more to the point, his part in the plan involves impregnating Christabella his half-sister, in order to produce The Antichrist - and Kevin's been lusting after her for most of the film anyway. Despite clearly being tempted by the offer, Kevin can't bring himself to go through with it even after the moral decline he's suffered over the course of the story, especially since it'd mean betraying his wife, who's recently committed suicide thanks to his neglect. Instead, he opts to shoot himself, simultaneously depriving Milton of his victory and sparing Kevin from doing the unforgivable.
- In Final Score, it's "death before further dishonor". The Big Bad of the film is Arkady, one of the leaders of a bloody revolution in an Eastern European country 17 years prior, who is seeking his disappeared brother Dimitri (the other, less psychotic, leader of the revolution, went to the CIA and asked to be taken away to make it stop) and restart the whole thing. When Dimitri finally decides to oblige his brother's demands and meet him, he makes clear that he prefers the new life the CIA gave him and he doesn't want to go back. Arkady makes clear that he won't accept that and gives Dimitri a gun and orders him to shoot Danni - an innocent bystander and The Hero's niece - to prove that he still has commitment to the revolution. Dimitri blows his own brains out instead.
- In Star Trek (2009), Nero, a Romulan from an alternate future, loses the final battle against Captain Kirk and the Enterprise, and is now in danger of being crushed by the black hole he created with the intent of destroying Earth and similar to the one he used to destroy Vulcan. Kirk offers to beam the Romulan crew to safety on the Enterprise, but Nero defiantly insists he would rather die than be saved by the likes of James Kirk. And so he does.
Literature
- The Belgariad: Relg and Taiba debate this topic several times in Castle of Wizardry. Taiba is a rescued slave woman who had been raped on multiple occasions. Relg, a morally strict religious zealot, insists that she should have fought to the death or even killed herself instead of submitting to her attackers because giving herself up to it was sinful. She pointedly tells him she wasn't ready to die yet, and that while she believes cruelty and lack of compassion are sins, doing something you've been forced into when there's no possible way to avoid it is not.
- The Divine Comedy makes reference to Cato the Younger's decision to commit suicide rather than compromise one's freedom and rejecting tyranny. It is this virtue and love of just society that makes Cato fit to be Purgatory's guardian, but at the same time, Dante elsewhere condemns suicide as worse than murder, so his praise of Cato is very odd.
- Lord Belden in The Immortals dishonored himself pretty thoroughly in committing treason against Tortall, but when the plot was discovered and Lady Yolane decided to try to flee to their conspirators in another country, Belden decided that doing so would only further sully his name. "We have gambled, and we lost." Rather than actually face trial and execution, he took poison.
- In Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, one of the Xenos decides to sacrifice herself before she's taken advantage of by members of the Ikelos Familia.
- The normally unflinching Inspector Javert of Les Misérables is left bewildered when Jean Valjean — who he had believed was an immoral ex-con — spares his life and risks his own to save a young man. For the first time, Javert finds himself unable to act lawfully and morally at the same time: arresting Valjean would be an unjust act, but letting him go free would be a breach of the law Javert values above all else. With his worldview in tatters, the inspector despairingly jumps into the Seine.
- Shogun, part of James Clavell's book series Asian Saga, has Blackthorne live under Toranaga's aegis on a small property. After killing a rabbit, Blackthorne hangs his prize on a fencepost to cure the meat. This violates the sanctity of the grounds, and the groundskeeper mustn't allow this infamy, yet if he removes the rabbit, he violates his master's wishes. The poor fellow is caught in a Morton's Fork and removes the rabbit. He is executed by beheading that morning for dishonoring his master, which the man accepts quietly.
Live-Action TV
- During the second contest in Squid Game, Player 119 loses the Deadly Game and holds one of the guards at gunpoint in a desperate attempt to save himself. However, he orders the guard to unmask... and discovers that his hostage is a teenager at the most. Horror-stricken, unable to find any other way out, 119 turns the gun on himself.
- Star Trek: Some warrior races find capture in battle to be dishonorable and will engage in what amounts to suicide runs rather than surrender and be taken as prisoners of war, even by forces such as Starfleet which treats their captured enemy combatants with kid gloves.
- The Romulans:
- In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Balance of Terror", the Enterprise and a Romulan warbird are locked in a game of cat and mouse. Eventually, Captain Kirk outmaneuvers his foe and permanently disables the warbird. He then offers to beam survivors aboard the Enterprise. The Romulan Commander tells him it is not the Romulan way to be taken prisoner. He laments that they could not meet on more civil terms and then triggers his ship's self-destruct sequence, destroying the ship and killing the crew.
- The Klingons: Their battle motto is "Today is a good day to die."
- In the series premier of Star Trek: Enterprise, a Klingon is found on Earth injured and in critical condition. The humans consult the Vulcans who advise them they'll take the body back to the Klingon homeworld. This surprises the humans as the Klingon is alive and expected to recover. But the Vulcans inform them that Klingon would rather die than be carted back wounded and shipless.
- In the Enterprise episode "Sleeping Dogs", Reed, Hoshi, and T'Pol are trapped on a disabled Klingon cruiser. The humans, new to space exploration and galactic politics, look for escape pods, but T'Pol, the Vulcan officer, informs them they won't find any because the Klingons believe abandoning ship is dishonorable.note The episode also provides a translation for this trope's name: "Heh Cho'mruak tah".
- The Romulans:
Tabletop Games
- In Vampire: The Requiem, the bushido-themed Sotoha bloodline are bound to a strict My Master, Right or Wrong code of honour. However, a Sotoha can commit public Seppuku in protest against their lord (being vampires, this only leaves them comatose) to be freed from their oath if they survive, or commit Suicide by Sunlight to free all their lord's other vassals.
Video Games
- In the first act of Dragon Age II, Hawke must escort a Qunari mage called Ketojan out of the city. Upon exiting the tunnel, the party is confronted by the mage's handlers, and regardless of how Hawke interacts with said handlers, the Qunari group will turn hostile and attack. At the end of the altercation, Ketojan magically immolates himself rather than disobey the tenets of the Qun. He can first have a conversation with Hawke about this decision, in which they may exchange the following:
Hawke: You want to die?Ketojan: I want to live... by the Qun.
- In Mass Effect, Fai Dan is mentally directed by the Thorian to kill Commander Shepard; despite having been in symbiotic cooperation with the Thorian like the rest of Zhu's Hope up until now, Fai Dan draws the line at killing people and opts instead to shoot himself.
- In Mass Effect 3, Justicar Samara is sent to an Ardat-Yakshii monastery in order to prevent the Reapers from converting the inmates into Banshees... and by sheer bad luck, it's the one where her daughters were imprisoned. In the aftermath, her youngest daughter Falere has survived, but the monastery has been ruined - and Ardat-Yakshii cannot be allowed to roam free. Faced with a choice between breaking the Code of the Justicar or killing her last surviving daughter, Samara opts to shoot herself instead, and will go through with it if you don't stop her in time. Thankfully, Falere is able to resolve the situation by pointing out that she could have left the monastery at any time, but instead chooses to remain behind and rebuild her home rather than escape.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: When Zuko reaches out to try and save Zhao from being dragged to his death by the Ocean Spirit, Zhao refuses to take it, choosing death over accepting help from his sworn enemy.
- Little Princess: In "I Want My Crayons", the Admiral states that he'd rather Walk the Plank than steal a crayon.
Real Life
- Adam Czerniaków, leader of the Judenrat Council of the Warsaw Ghetto, killed himself via Cyanide Pill rather than deport his constituents to the death camps.
