Many westerners view suicide as having a place in other
cultures, but not in their own. The place of suicide in eastern cultures is
briefly mentioned. The suicide of historical western figures (Ajax,
Pyramus and Thisbe, Lucretia, Cato, Judas, Anthony and Cleopatra,
Seneca, Cordelia and Boudica) is described. Their stories are traced
over time through fine art, music and literature to the present. Western
culture is currently shaped with suicide being an option in response to
shame, anger, protest and sorrow and grief.