This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 12.28.105.88 (talk) at 17:59, 7 February 2002. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 17:59, 7 February 2002 by 12.28.105.88 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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 Sorrows of Young Werther), 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.
Emile Durkheim, the founder of sociology, wrote a very famous study of suicide in the late 1800's.
See also: euthanasia, hara-kiri, kamikaze, marytrdom