Suicide

Suicide is the act of voluntarily ending one's own life. It is considered a sin in many religions and often a crime as well, however some cultures have also viewed it as a honorable way to exit certain embarrassing situations.

Among the famous people who have committed suicide are Hannibal, Nero, Alan Turing, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Marina Tsvetaeva and Kurt Cobain.

In the late 18th century, Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, the romantic story of a young man who comits suicide because his love proves unattainable, caused a wave of suicides in Germany.

Albert Camus saw the goal of existentialism in establishing whether suicide was necessary in a world without God.

A study of suicide in literature was written by the poet [Al Alvarez]?, entitled The Savage God.

See also: euthanasia, harakiri, kamikaze

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