Basic Trope: A character mourns the loss of a friend, family member, or Love Interest for an extended period of time, to the neglect of other things, sometimes everything.
- Straight: Alice and Bob were Happily Married for years, until Bob died of a sudden heart attack. Alice never remarries, wears a black dress for the rest of her life, and never smiles again.
- Exaggerated:
- After Bob's death, Alice never leaves the house again, never cooks or cleans, and stops looking after the kids. She just lays around in bed, staring listlessly at the TV.
- Alice copes with her grief by using drugs and/or alcohol, becoming an Addled Addict, as well as Self-Harm and having lots of empty sex.
- Alice wasn't Bob's wife, but rather a woman he'd been on two dates with.
- Downplayed: Every time Alice sees something that reminds her of Bob, she cries a little, even years later.
- She spends a few weeks drinking too much or having Sex for Solace, but eventually recovers and at least tries to get back to normal.
- Justified:
- This is a setting where There Are No Therapists, or where Alice can't afford one. Grief counseling is unavailable to her.
- Alice is already suffering from some kind of mental illness, such as depression. Bob's untimely death makes it all the worse.
- Inverted: As soon as Bob's coffin is lowered into the ground, or perhaps even before the ink on his death certificate has dried, Alice takes off her Widow's Weeds and her wedding and engagement rings, and hits the town looking for eligible young men.
- Subverted:
- Alice wears her Widow's Weeds even after the year of mourning is up, but secretly, she's aware that she looks lovely in black, and men find her pathos touching.
- Alice killed her husband and is only faking the grief.
- Double Subverted:
- Whenever her loveliness and grief touches a man's heart, Alice makes excuses to avoid him, unable to bring herself to actually find a Second Love.
- Alice's "grief" is real if only for herself.
- Parodied: Alice develops a Personal Raincloud.
- Zig Zagged: Alice is unable to move on from Bob's death. Even after she seems to, there are always instances that have her falling back.
- Averted:
- Bob is alive and well.
- Alice doesn't miss Bob at all.
- Enforced:
- Rule of Drama
- "How about a Broken Bird whose Dark and Troubled Past doesn't involve rape?"
- Lampshaded: "Alice hasn't been the same since Bob passed away."
- Invoked: Alice is already suffering from depression, and Bob dies suddenly and unexpectedly.
- Exploited:
- Someone tries to sell Alice bibles from the dead.
- Charles wants to get into a relationship with Alice, or at least have sex with her. He tells her that Bob would have wanted it this way.
- Defied: Widowed Alice knows that she still has a life to live, and she still has things to do and a family to care for. So she finds it within herself to move on.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Because of Alice’s mourning for Bob, people wonder how can she be able to get things done in the first place.
Back to Excessive Mourning
