Suicide as a plot resolution device

I just wrote about Ida, an interesting if imperfect film (well, what work of art is perfect? Mine surely aren't) from a Polish director. In one of the character's arcs, she suddenly commits suicide. It's rather a shock; perhaps I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. Was the suicide "logical" within the framework or world of the story? I don't know. I think so, though the motive is not clear. It could have happened for three or four reasons (her past crimes, her isolation from family, her being abandoned by the niece, her dissolute lifestyle with men and alcohol).

It raises a bigger question: do some writers use suicide as an easy plot resolution device. The character paints himself into a corner; financial ruin and shame are imminent, so bang, suicide to deal with it. In reality, suicide is a long-term process, rarely just spontaneous. From a whole different perspective, would it be better to have the character pay his dues, face consequences, than just disappear and not live in the consequences. The disappearance through suicide seems to take care of whatever was ailing the other characters, too.

Hedda Gabbler is one example. There are others. On the other hand, in Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov faces the penalties for murders he commits. We must deal with our realities, too.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               c