Spoiler - Why did characters always try to solve things back then by...

...attempting suicide? Before Maisie left Abby alone I figured Abby was suicidal. As soon as Maisie left the room I said, "She's going to kill herself!" I just watched a classic film last week where once again a character succeeded in killing himself over something which ultimately wasn't worth it. I know suicide continues to be part of storylines to this day, but it seems like a staple in classic films.

I did like the speech in this film about how a lot of people would pick themselves up after a major crisis and move forward with their lives, but that Abby wasn't one of those types of people (yet). However after Abby became fully alert again it kind of felt like the subject of her mental state was swept under the rug as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. I get that it was near the end of the film and that they needed to wrap things up, but behaving as if Abby simply had a temporary physical illness was rather surreal.

Perhaps Shakespeare is to blame for overuse of suicide in fiction? "Suicide occurs an unlucky thirteen times in Shakespeare's plays." -- From Google.