The Dedalus Book of Literary Suicides

by Gary Lachman

  E. M. CIORAN

  It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.

  *

  WILLIAM JAMES

  On the suicide: “[…] the fact consecrates him forever. Inferior to ourselves in this way or that, if yet we cling to life, and he is able to ‘fling it away like a flower’, as caring nothing for it, we account him in the deepest way our born superior.”

  WILLIAM COWPER

  One evening in November, 1763, as soon as it was dark, affecting as cheerful and unconcerned an air as possible, I went into an apothecary’s shop, and asked for an half ounce phial of laudanum. The man seemed to observe me narrowly; but if he did, I managed my voice and countenance, so as to deceive him. The day that required my attendance at the bar of the House, being not yet come, and about a week distant, I kept my bottle close in my side-pocket, resolved to use it when I should be convinced there was no other way of escaping. This, indeed, seemed evident already; but I was willing to allow myself every possible chance of that sort, and to protract the horrid execution of my purpose, till the last moment; but Satan was impatient of delay.

  The day before the period above mentioned arrived, being at Richard’s coffee-house at breakfast, I read the newspaper, and in it a letter, which the further I perused it, the more closely engaged my attention […] The author appeared to be acquainted with my purpose of self-destruction, and to have written the letter on purpose to secure and hasten the execution of it. My mind, probably, at this time, began to be disordered; however it was, I was certainly given up to a strong delusion. I said within myself, ‘your cruelty shall be gratified; you shall have your revenge!’ and, flinging down the paper, in a fit of strong passion, I rushed hastily out of the room; directing my way to the fields, where I intended to find some house to die in; or, if not, determined to poison myself in a ditch […]

  Before I had walked a mile […] a thought struck me that I might yet spare my life; that I had nothing to do, but to sell what I had […] go on board a ship, and transport myself to France […] Not a little pleased with this expedient, I returned to my chambers to pack up all that I could at so short a notice; but while I was looking over my portmanteau, my mind changed again; and self-murder was recommended to me once more in all its advantages.

  Not knowing where to poison myself, for I was liable to continual interruption in my chambers from my laundress and her husband, I laid aside that intention, and resolved upon drowning. For that purpose I immediately took a coach, and ordered the man to drive to Tower wharf; intending to throw myself into the river from the Custom House quay […] I left the coach upon the Tower wharf, intending never to return to it; but upon coming to the quay, I found the water low, and a porter seated upon some goods there, as if on purpose to prevent me. This passage to the bottomless pit being mercifully shut against me, I returned back to the coach, and ordered it to the Temple. I drew up the shutters, once more had recourse to the laudanum, and determined to drink it off directly; but God ordained otherwise. A conflict, that shook me to pieces, suddenly took place; not properly a trembling, but a convulsive agitation, which deprived me in a manner of the use of my limbs; and my mind was as much shaken as my body.

  Distracted by the desire for death, and the dread of it, twenty times I had the phial to my mouth, and as often received an irresistible check; and even at the time it seemed to me that an invisible hand swayed the bottle downwards, as often as I set it against my lips […] Panting for breath, and in a horrible agony, I flung myself back into the corner of the coach. A few drops of laudanum which touched my lips […] began to have a stupefying effect upon me. Regretting the loss of so fair an opportunity, yet utterly unable to avail myself of it, I determined not to live; and already half dead with anguish, I once more returned to the Temple. Instantly I repaired to my room, and having shut both the outer and the inner door, prepared myself for the last scene of the tragedy. I poured the laudanum into a small basin, set it on a chair by the bedside, half undressed myself, and laid down between the blankets, shuddering with horror at what I was about to perpetrate […]

  At length […] with the most confirmed resolution, I reached forth my hand towards the basin, when the fingers of both hands were as closely contracted, as if bound with a cord, and became entirely useless. Still, indeed, I could have made shift with both hands, dead and lifeless as they were, to have raised the basin to my mouth, for my arms were not at all affected: but this new difficulty struck me with wonder; it had the air of a divine interposition […] The horror of the crime was immediately exhibited to me in so strong a light, that, being seized with a kind of furious indignation, I snatched up the basin, poured away the laudanum into a phial of foul water, and, not content with that, flung the phial out of the window […]

  I spent the rest of the day in a kind of stupid insensibility; undetermined as to the manner of dying, but still bent on self-murder […] I went to bed to take, as I thought, my last sleep in this world. The next morning was to place me at the bar of the House, and I was determined not to see it. I slept as usual, and awoke about three o’clock. Immediately I arose, and by the help of a rushlight, found my penknife, took it into bed with me, and lay with it for some hours directly pointed against my heart. Twice or thrice I placed it upright under my left breast, leaning all my weight upon it; but the point was broken off square, and it would not penetrate […]

  Not one hesitating thought now remained, but I fell greedily to the execution of my purpose. My garter was made of a broad piece of scarlet binding, with a sliding buckle, being sown together at the ends: by the help of the buckle, I formed a noose, and fixed it about my neck, straining it so tight that I hardly left a passage for my breath, or for the blood to circulate […] At each corner of the bed was placed a wreath of carved work, fastened by an iron pin, which passed through the midst of it: the other part of the garter, which made a loop, I slipped over one of these, and hung by it some seconds, drawing my feet under me, that they might not touch the floor; but the iron bent, and the carved work slipped off, and the garter with it. I then fastened it to the frame of the tester, winding it round, and tying it in a strong knot. The frame broke short, and let me down again.

  The third effort was more likely to succeed. I set the door open, which reached within a foot of the ceiling; by the help of a chair I could command the top of it, and the loop being large enough to admit a large angle of the door, was easily fixed so as not to slip off again. I pushed away the chair with my feet, and hung at whole length. While I hung there, I distinctly heard a voice say three times ‘Tis over!’ […] I hung so long that I lost all sense, all consciousness of existence.

  When I came to myself again, I thought myself in hell; the sound of my own dreadful groans was all that I heard, and a feeling, like that produced by a flash of lightning, just beginning to seize upon me, passed over my whole body. In a few seconds I found myself fallen on my face on the floor. In about half a minute I recovered my feet; and reeling, staggering, stumbled into bed again […]

  *

  From Foundations of a Metaphysics of Morals

  IMMANUEL KANT

  Firstly, under the head of necessary duty to oneself: He who contemplates suicide should ask himself whether his action can be consistent with the idea of humanity as an end in itself. If he destroys himself in order to escape from painful circumstances, he uses a person merely as a mean to maintain a tolerable condition up to the end of life. But a man is not a thing, that is to say, something which can be used merely as means, but must in all his actions be always considered as an end in himself. I cannot, therefore, dispose in any way of a man in my own person so as to mutilate him, to damage or kill him. (It belongs to ethics proper to define this principle more precisely, so as to avoid all misunderstanding, e.g., as to the amputation of the limbs in order to preserve myself, as to exposing my life to danger with a view to preserve it, etc. This question is therefore omitted here.)

  From the Phaed
o (translator Benjamin Jowett)

  PLATO

  Then tell me, Socrates, why is suicide held not to be right? as I have certainly heard Philolaus affirm when he was staying with us at Thebes: and there are others who say the same, although none of them has ever made me understand him.

  But do your best, replied Socrates, and the day may come when you will understand. I suppose that you wonder why, as most things which are evil may be accidentally good, this is to be the only exception (for may not death, too, be better than life in some cases?), and why, when a man is better dead, he is not permitted to be his own benefactor, but must wait for the hand of another.

  By Jupiter! yes, indeed, said Cebes, laughing, and speaking in his native Doric.

  I admit the appearance of inconsistency, replied Socrates, but there may not be any real inconsistency after all in this. There is a doctrine uttered in secret that man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away; this is a great mystery which I do not quite understand. Yet I, too, believe that the gods are our guardians, and that we are a possession of theirs. Do you not agree?

  Yes, I agree to that, said Cebes.

  And if one of your own possessions, an ox or an ass, for example took the liberty of putting himself out of the way when you had given no intimation of your wish that he should die, would you not be angry with him, and would you not punish him if you could?

  Certainly, replied Cebes.

  Then there may be reason in saying that a man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him, as he is now summoning me.

  Yes, Socrates, said Cebes, there is surely reason in that. And yet how can you reconcile this seemingly true belief that God is our guardian and we his possessions, with that willingness to die which we were attributing to the philosopher? That the wisest of men should be willing to leave this service in which they are ruled by the gods who are the best of rulers is not reasonable, for surely no wise man thinks that when set at liberty he can take better care of himself than the gods take of him. A fool may perhaps think this – he may argue that he had better run away from his master, not considering that his duty is to remain to the end, and not to run away from the good, and that there is no sense in his running away. But the wise man will want to be ever with him who is better than himself. Now this, Socrates, is the reverse of what was just now said; for upon this view the wise man should sorrow and the fool rejoice at passing out of life.

  The earnestness of Cebes seemed to please Socrates. Here, said he, turning to us, is a man who is always inquiring, and is not to be convinced all in a moment, nor by every argument.

  And in this case, added Simmias, his objection does appear to me to have some force. For what can be the meaning of a truly wise man wanting to fly away and lightly leave a master who is better than himself? And I rather imagine that Cebes is referring to you; he thinks that you are too ready to leave us, and too ready to leave the gods who, as you acknowledge, are our good rulers.

  Yes, replied Socrates; there is reason in that. And this indictment you think that I ought to answer as if I were in court?

  That is what we should like, said Simmias.

  Then I must try to make a better impression upon you than I did when defending myself before the judges. For I am quite ready to acknowledge, Simmias and Cebes, that I ought to be grieved at death, if I were not persuaded that I am going to other gods who are wise and good (of this I am as certain as I can be of anything of the sort) and to men departed (though I am not so certain of this), who are better than those whom I leave behind; and therefore I do not grieve as I might have done, for I have good hope that there is yet something remaining for the dead, and, as has been said of old, some far better thing for the good than for the evil.

  But do you mean to take away your thoughts with you, Socrates? said Simmias. Will you not communicate them to us? – the benefit is one in which we too may hope to share. Moreover, if you succeed in convincing us, that will be an answer to the charge against yourself.

  I will do my best, replied Socrates. But you must first let me hear what Crito wants; he was going to say something to me.

  Only this, Socrates, replied Crito: the attendant who is to give you the poison has been telling me that you are not to talk much, and he wants me to let you know this; for that by talking heat is increased, and this interferes with the action of the poison; those who excite themselves are sometimes obliged to drink the poison two or three times.

  Then, said Socrates, let him mind his business and be prepared to give the poison two or three times, if necessary; that is all.

  I was almost certain that you would say that, replied Crito; but I was obliged to satisfy him.

  From the Laws (translator Benjamin Jowett)

  PLATO

  And what shall he suffer who slays him who of all men, as they say, is his own best friend? I mean the suicide, who deprives himself by violence of his appointed share of life, not because the law of the state requires him, nor yet under the compulsion of some painful and inevitable misfortune which has come upon him, nor because he has had to suffer from irremediable and intolerable shame, but who from sloth or want of manliness imposes upon himself an unjust penalty. For him, what ceremonies there are to be of purification and burial God knows, and about these the next of kin should enquire of the interpreters and of the laws thereto relating, and do according to their injunctions. They who meet their death in this way shall be buried alone, and none shall be laid by their side; they shall be buried ingloriously in the borders of the twelve portions of the land, in such places as are uncultivated and nameless, and no column or inscription shall mark the place of their interment.

  *

  Ode on Melancholy

  JOHN KEATS

  NO, no! go not to Lethe, neither twist

  Wolf’s-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;

  Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kist

  By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;

  Make not your rosary of yew-berries,

  Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be

  Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl

  A partner in your sorrow’s mysteries;

  For shade to shade will come too drowsily,

  And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

  But when the melancholy fit shall fall

  Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,

  That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,

  And hides the green hill in an April shroud;

  Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,

  Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,

  ;Or on the wealth of globed peonies;

  Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,

  Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,

  And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

  She dwells with Beauty – Beauty that must die;

  And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips

  Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,

  Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:

  Ay, in the very temple of Delight

  Veil’d Melancholy has her sovran shrine,

  Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue

  Can burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine;

  His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,

  And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

  Dorothy Parker attempted suicide three times, hence her familiarity with the repertoire.

  Resume

  DOROTHY PARKER

  Razors pain you;

  Rivers are damp;

  Acids stain you;

  And drugs cause cramp.

  Guns aren’t lawful;

  Nooses give;

  Gas smells awful;

  You might as well live.

  *

  WOODY ALLEN: That’s quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn’t it?

  GIRL IN MUSEUM: Yes it is.

  WOODY ALLEN: What does it say
to you?

  GIRL IN MUSEUM: It restates the negativeness of the universe, the hideous lonely emptiness of existence, nothingness, the predicament of man forced to live in a barren, godless eternity, like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void, with nothing but waste, horror, and degradation, forming a useless bleak straightjacket in a black absurd cosmos.

  WOODY ALLEN: What are you doing Saturday night?

  GIRL IN MUSEUM: Committing suicide.

  WOODY ALLEN: What about Friday night?

  *

  EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

  I know a hundred ways to die:

  I’ve often thought I’d try one:

  Lie down beneath a motor truck

  Some day when standing by one.

  Or throw myself from off a bridge –

  Except such things must be