Final answer:
Characters in literature and history employ strategies like negotiation, cunning, and pleas for mercy as means to avoid being killed. The survivors in these situations demonstrate the human capacity for resourcefulness and the strong will to live.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question asks about how characters in various situations attempt to avoid their demise. In historical and literary contexts, suitors or characters often attempt to negotiate, employ cunning strategies, or plead for mercy to escape being killed. For instance, in the ancient Roman gladiatorial games, as Seneca notes, there were no defensive armors or skills that could indefinitely postpone death, because the spectacles demanded death as a form of entertainment.
Meanwhile, in a fictional account, Gil-Dong faces assassins sent by his father, but through cleverness and supernatural elements, he manages to survive, disarming the assassins and granting them mercy on the condition they never attempt to kill again. Implicit in these stories is the use of various methods by individuals facing death: strategy, pleas for mercy, or clever deceptions.
In literary works, characters often use cunning or plead for their lives as a way to avoid being killed. The assassins after Gil-Dong are outwitted and plead for mercy, demonstrating a tactic of survival. Similarly, characters caught in threatening situations in other narratives may use dialogue, negotiation, or even psychological manipulation to attempt to survive. The overarching theme is that the desire to live can lead to resourceful strategies against seemingly insurmountable odds.