Jaime McBride

Male vs. Female Suicide

Suicide has been used throughout literature as a dramatic plot element.  The deaths of both male and female characters play a big part in a play to make it a tragedy.  The importance of a man’s life and a woman’s life is clearly seen when one encounters their death.  After committing suicide, a man is remembered as honorable and brave, while after committing the same act a woman is only remembered for her cowardly way of exiting her consequences.

            Suicide is the act of willfully ending one’s own life.  The Wikipedia encyclopedia exploits that suicide can be stigmatized or honored, depending on cultural context and its apparent reasons.  Those experiencing suicidal ideation, or thoughts about fatally harming one’s self, may struggle to be heard and understood, or might be people who willfully ignore others.  The person feeling suicidal may often be made to feel rejected and guilty by those they have confided their thoughts and feelings to (Wikipedia).  Almost every character in the Oedipus plays takes their own life.  Jocasta hangs herself in Oedipus the King, Antigone hangs herself in Antigone, and Oedipus brings great harm to himself by gauging out his eyes and exiling himself.  Out of these three deaths it is Oedipus that is mostly talked about as being honorable in his punishment.  If you were to give a class a quiz over the ways these characters committed suicide they would know right off hand how Oedipus tormented himself and mysteriously vanished, but they would probably have to think long and hard about how Jocasta and Antigone both took their own lives.  Antigone took after her father and stood by her words of remaining loyal and giving her brother a proper burial no matter what the consequences were so it is not fair that she can be seen as taking the easy way out by ending her life and Oedipus remains a hero.

      “In most countries, males commit suicide to a greater extent than females.  The 1998 suicide rate in the United States was 11.3 per 100,000 with a rate of 18.6 for males and 4.4 for females (Schwartz).  It is hypocritical for a male to still have the status of a hero after committing suicide and a woman a coward especially when statistics prove a higher percentage of males ending their own lives than women.  Is it only cowardly if a woman feels the only way out is suicide when men are using it even more, I think not!  When Antigone takes her own life she is making a point, she draws attention to the difference between divine law and human law and she too should be remembered as being brave for standing up to authority for what she believed was right.

      Male characters in literature usually commit suicide as an act of punishing themselves, to gracefully protect his honor.  Female characters in literature usually commit suicide in order to escape their consequences of their deceptive actions that mainly come about from men.  Suicide is not something that should be thought of as bravery or something that should be honored by men or women, yet we still praise it in terms today.  Heroic suicide, for the greater good of others, is often celebrated.  For instance Mahatma Gandhi went on a hunger strike to prevent fighting between Hindus and Muslims, he did not die, but came close and for this he earned respect (Silverman).  It is sad that in order to make a statement the means of life is jeopardized in literature and in society today.

            Males die much more often than females by suicide, while females attempt suicide more often.  Some medical professionals believe this is due to the fact that males are more likely to end their lives through violent means such as guns and knives while women primarily overdose on medications.  Typically males die from suicide three to four times as often as females (Bearman).  In Literature when a female commits suicide or dies usually more than one other person dies also.  Females are considered nurturers, they hold things together.  Oedipus commits his raged act upon himself after Jocasta has committed suicide and Antigone’s lover takes his own life after her learns his father has sent Antigone to her slow death. It is after Jamie’s mother dies that he falls off the wagon and is never able to get himself together which will most likely lead to his own death as well. Josie’s father threatens that if she were to have left he would have drowned himself in the ice lake because he would not have been able to make it without her. These examples could go on forever, but for the most part a male figure should not gain more of a heroic status than a female for taking their own life.

            Suicide makes a play intriguing; it gives it a powerful plot and helps to define it as a tragedy.  Male suicides outweigh female suicides in the terms of qualifying for heroic status when in some cases they were just as meaningful if not for better reasons. Suicide was going on back then and is still occurring today.  Some people find some suicides heroic and some find them as an escape, and easy way out.

Works Cited

Bearman PS, Moody J. “Suicide and friendships among American adolescents.” American Public Health. Vol. 4, (2004): p89-95 .

Schwartz, Robert.  “Theory and Practice.”  Counseling Psychology Quarterly. Vol.17, (2004): p 89-97.

Silverman MM, Maris RW. Suicide prevention: toward the year 2000. New York, NY: Guilford Press; 1995.

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 23 Oct. 2005. Wikimedia Foundation. 29 June 2006.  <http://en.wikipedia.org>.