I don’t know why I’m actively looking to hurt myself, but here we go. What are some examples of sad character deaths in literature?
I’ve recently read Of Mice and Men and Lennie’s death broke my heart. I remember crying about Winnetou so hard when I was 12 that my mom had to comfort me. And I’ve always felt like Anna Karenina was such a tragic figure.
I’ll forever remember Boxer for how valiantly he worked and how heartbreaking his death was.
What are yours?
by eteouhiver
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Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities for me
My favourite – perhaps not the saddest though – is the way Proust has Bergotte die in front of Vermeer’s View of Delft from indigestion caused by a badly cooked potato.
Werther’s suicide. It is almost comically tear-jerking.
John Coffey – The Green Mile
In the original draft of Nabokov’s *Pnin*, the main character – Timofey Pnin – was supposed to suffer a heart attack at the end of the book and die. This didn’t make it into the final draft, but if it did, I would have been sad. Pnin is a legitimately kind-hearted, selfless old man who often bends over backwards to accommodate people who abuse his kindness. Having him die would have been tragic, and also would have felt at odds with the comedy of errors style of the rest of the narrative.
Blevins in All The Pretty Horses. It was just sad.
The dogs in Where the Red Fern Grows. Had me bawling my eyes out in 3rd grade recess.