Why does Thomas Chatterton die in Alfred de Vigny’s play Chatterton?

In Alfred de Vigny’s play Chatterton (1835), the protagonist’s suicide is depicted as a direct consequence of the egoism of political authority and the harshness of a materialistic society.1

Vigny portrays the young poet as a symbolic figure of poetic idealism who is fundamentally misunderstood and rejected by the world around him. Within the narrative, the indifference and cruelty of figures such as the Lord Mayor of London, William Beckford, serve to provoke the poet's despair. Ultimately, the play uses Chatterton’s death to illustrate the "perpetual ostracism" that Vigny believed political regimes and society inflict upon the poet, highlighting the tragic conflict between artistic genius and a pitiless, utilitarian environment.21