M. E. Rothwell is asking, which character has the best death? This question is quite tricky and loaded; everything, of course, depends on what we mean by "best". I started writing a commentary to the original post, but the text grew and grew, and here we are. One can think of this as a CineFix-like list. Quite spoilery, mind you.
1. Best, as in "Most Terrifying"
As a kid, I was always terrified by the death of Heracles. Truly, death by a poisoned cloak, combined with a general unremarkableness, was terrifying to me, not just because of the implied pain and suffering but also because of the implied disgrace. The greatest Hellenic hero felled by a garment? Because of double jealousy (Nessus and Deianira)? Brilliant, but terrifying. Osiris was also gruesomely killed and dismembered—the stuff of nightmares for a young mind. Then, of course, comes Shakespeare, and he created dosens of the most gruesome deaths, but out of all of them, I believe, Lavinia's from "Titus Andronicus" gets the crown. If you don't remember the whole story, I won't spoil it; go and re-read. An honorable mention goes to almost any Brothers Grimm character. From our contemporaries, there were three that stabbed me in my very heart: the death of Delacroix from "The Green Mile" (we'll come back to King in a second), the death of the Clutter family from "In Cold Blood" and, finally, the death of The Man from "Blood Meridian". Simply heart-stopping.
2. Best, as in "Most Shocking"
Similar category, but not exactly. From the most chilling and cruel deaths, we're going to the most unexpected, the most "wait, what?" kind of deaths, in both a good and a bad sense. In children's literature, the death of the Wicked Witch of the West immediately comes to mind. That was a twist I could never expect, even though I read it first in a Russian adaptation. Continuing with Russian literature, almost nothing comes as unexpectedly as Lizaveta's death in "Crime and Punishment". Her sister's death was premeditated and planned, but she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the same vein, I would mention Mag from "The Beauty Queen of Leenane". Or, maybe, Father Welsh from "The Lonesome West". Or another half dozen characters written by Martin McDonagh, a master of this specific genre. Leslie Burke in "Bridge to Terabithia" deserves an honorable mention. And another prominent master here is, of course, good old George R. R. Martin, but everyone knows of these already. Any of the Starks, if you know what I mean. Any of the Starks. And to cap the list, The Grandmother's death in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is bizarre, shocking, and, after some contemplation, understandable.
3. Best, as in "Most Epic"
This is a category for self-sacrifice, for going out in a blaze of glory. Samson's death is a paragon here. But also Gandalf the Gray and later in the same book, Boromir, and later in the same book, Gollum. Man, this book is epic. Sherlock Holmes' death was definitely a death at the moment of writing, and so was Moriarty's. After all, what can be more epic than a fight on a cliff next to a huge waterfall? Sydney Carton's death in "The Tale of Two Cities" is epic in a sense. Dr. Yueh from "Dune" was trying to fight the Harkonnens till the end, and his death was epic even despite the failure. Steerpike's death in "Gormenghast" is as epic as his life. Ben Richards in Stephen King's "The Running Man" (told ya!) flies a plane into the mega-evil corporation building while giving them the finger. I think only one literary death beats this one: "Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee!" Captain Ahab takes the crown.
4. Best, as in "Most Mysterious"
As spoilery as this category sounds, it's probably the least spoilery of them all because it is dedicated mostly to detective stories, and that's where the death serves as an appetizer. Conan Doyle is king here. Of course, Enoch Drebber's death in "A Study in Scarlet" and Julia Stoner's death in "The Speckled Band" are iconic mysteries. One would also mention the slightly less known Fitzroy McPherson's death in "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane". If you don't remember this one, read the story! It is so bizarre that no modern scandi-krimi would come even close. Credit where credit is due: Samuel Ratchett's death in "Murder on the Orient Express" deserves a place on this list. Arthur Geiger's death in "The Big Sleep" is brilliantly conceived and written, as are General Sir Arthur St. Clare's and Major Murray's deaths in "The Sign of the Broken Sword" by G. K. Chesterton. But I believe first place in his category would go to Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter Camille's deaths in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. Both the mystery and the solution are brilliant.
5. Best, as in "Most Poetic"/"Most Satisfying"
This is the one for the baddies, but not only. Of course, anyone would relish Milady's death from "The Three Musketeres", Anne Wilkes' death from "Misery", Saruman's death from "The Lord of the Rings", or a long line of deaths from "The Song of Ice and Fire" (Geoffrey Baratheon's one comes close, but to me, Tywin Lannister's is unbeatable). We would possibly welcome Heathcliff's death from "Wuthering Heights", and Nikolai Stavrogin's death from Dostoyevski's "Demons". Bellatrix Lestrange's death from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is deeply satisfying, as is Wolf Larsen's from "The Sea Wolf" by Jack London. But we need to remember that poetic justice is a sword that cuts both ways. John Hammond from "Jurassic Park" is possibly not a very good boss, but on a moral balance, he probably didn't deserve the gruesome end that he met in Michael Connelly's book. Berlioz from "Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov was not a very good man, but his death is satisfying not because he deserved it, but because it was predicted so impeccably. The death of the Bagdadian merchant from "The Appointment in Samarra“ is the epitome of this category, and one of its most tragic examples is probably Anna Karenina. But I think all of them are trumped by the Narrator's—and EVERYONE ELSE'S—death in Kurt Vonnegut's brilliant "Cat's Cradle".
6. Best, as in "Most Emotional"
Well, this is the sad one. Death is used, and sometimes overused, by authors to summon one of our strongest emotions. It's important to distinguish a Hollywoodian manipulation from an honest emotional moment. The former is an annoying trope that I call "killing the dog"; it's when a protagonist's cute or funny friend dies at the end of a second act. At this point, this trick is too formulaic, and I will not consider these examples for this list. What I'm looking for are moments of pure, overwhelming emotion, of creating a true and delicate bond between the character and the reader, and then, cathartically, severing this bond. Only a few names come to mind. The Little Prince's death is there to introduce us to the whole concept after teaching us about love and loss. William Stoner's death in "Stoner" by John Williams is sad, poignant, and quiet. Charlie Gordon's death from "The Flowers for Algernon", and John Coffey's death from "The Green Mile", and McMurphy's death from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and Gregor Samsa's death from "Metamorphosis" are all up there. But to me, still, after all these years, Maciuś's death in Janusz Korczak's brilliant "King Matt the First" is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about an emotional moment put into words.
7. Best, as in "Most Impactful"
To some extent, many deaths in detective stories belong in this category; after all, they are what starts the whole plot. However, I think we can go larger here. We can go beyond the book in question and focus on the impact of death on culture in general. Willy Loman's death is pretty important. Shakespeare makes a brilliant comeback here: without Julius Caesar's death, without Macbeth's or Othello's, without Romeo and Juliet's deaths, we would not be what we are now. Hamlet, however, trumps them all. Don Quichote's death is staggeringly important. Achilles dies in one of the most important moments in our literary history. Oedipus', Kronos', Baldr's, and Isaac's deaths are crucial to our cultural foundations. But let's not kid ourselves here. There would be only one name spearheading this category. The most impactful death in literature is the death of Jesus.
The Garden of Death, by Hugo Simberg (1896)
Did I miss something? I certainly did. Leave a comment; let’s make an Ultimate Literary Character Death List.
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Maybe you missed the fact that Jesus did not die in the end of the story. His followers were so convinced of this that they chose death themselves rather than renounce their beliefs. Even many of the faithful today would do the same.
On another note, the deaths of our hero’s is the hardest to accept. That “hero” can be a person well known in literature or someone closer to home like a parent, spouse or sibling.
We are drawn to the macabre like moths to a flame. It can haunt or even terrify yet we go back for more. I had to stop watching the walking dead as it became too nerve wracking. The creators did such an engaging job of character development that it felt truly traumatic to see them killed off so routinely. I still watch the occasional thriller movie and if it’s a good one I vow once again to swear them off.
This is a great list. I like how you look at the different types of deaths and in what sense they can be considered the best.