Death Theme in Shakespeare´s Plays

1022 Words3 Pages

How did Shakespeare use death in his plays in this part of the Elizabethan Era?
Shakespeare uses ways of death in his plays by suicide, murder, and the most in the old age combat. Murder and combat were the most common types of death because of the old age, there were a lot of wars so people were mostly killed in combat and murder was just another way of saying ”I am going to kill you!”.

Shakespeare uses suicide in many of his plays by showing random suicide and/or because of their loss to victory. For example, Cleopatra had the best life according to Shakespeare, but her method of suicide was the deadly venom of 2 asps (Antony and Cleopatra; Mabillard). On the other hand Brutus convinces his servant to hold his sword as he can throw himself upon it just because Brutus has lost the war against Antony and Octavius ( Julius Ceasar; Mabillard).

Sometimes suicide is the only way to let go of their feelings and/or their expressions of their loved ones. Two star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet have fallen in love. They are from their enemies’ houses, but knowing that they are from opposite houses they still didn’t let their enmity come in between. When it was Juliet’s marriage, she couldn’t marry Paris because she was married to Romeo so she took a fake poison to pretend she was dead when she was asleep so the her Romeo could come and take her, but unfortunately Romeo hears that Juliet is dead because of a bottle of poison so he took real poison and killed himself upon Juliet meeting/kissing her one last time(Romeo and Juliet;Mabillard). Once Juliet woke-up she realized that Romeo had taken real poison to kill himself so she also meet/ kissed one last time and took Romeo’s dagger and she also killed herself (Romeo and Juliet; Mabill...

... middle of paper ...

...4/goriest-shakespeare-deaths_n_917348.html#s320835&title=Chiron_and_Demetrius>
Mabillard , Amanda. "Violence in Shakespeare: Suicide, Murder, and Combat in Shakespeare's Plays." Violence in Shakespeare: Suicide, Murder, and Combat in Shakespeare's Plays. N.p. 19 Aug, 2008., Tues. 29 April, 2014
< http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/violenceinshakespeare.html >
Crystal, David & Ben. "Shakespeare's Words | Home | William Shakespeare."Shakespeare's Words | Home | William Shakespeare. N.p., May, 2008, Tues. 29 April, 2014
< http://www.shakespeareswords.com/ >
Denton, Jaques Snider. “The System of Shakespeare's Dramas”. St. Louis: G. T. Jones and Company, 1877. 20 Aug. 2009., Tues. 29 April, 2014 < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet/hamletpolonius.html >

Open Document