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In Shakespeare's plays how many suicides are recorded?

Question #99659. Asked by star_gazer.
Last updated Aug 23 2016.

Related Trivia Topics: Literature  
kwdesigner star
Answer has 7 votes
kwdesigner star
22 year member
21 replies

Answer has 7 votes.
13 suicides total.

Romeo and Juliet - 2
Julius Caesar - 3
Othello - 1
Hamlet - 1
Macbeth - 1
Antony and Cleopatra - 5

link http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/facts/facts.htm

Sep 23 2008, 11:20 PM
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looney_tunes star
Answer has 9 votes
Currently Best Answer
looney_tunes star
19 year member
3319 replies avatar

Answer has 9 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
There appears to be some disagreement between sources! Here is a list of 13:
"Suicide occurs an unlucky thirteen times in Shakespeare’s plays. It occurs in Romeo and Juliet where both Romeo and Juliet commit suicide, in Julius Caesar where both Cassius and Brutus die by consensual stabbing, as well as Brutus’ wife Portia, in Othello where Othello stabs himself, in Hamlet where Ophelia is said to have "drowned" in suspicious circumstances, in Macbeth when Lady Macbeth dies, and finally in Antony and Cleopatra where suicide occurs an astounding five times (Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and Eros)."

link http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/facts/facts.htm

But this list does not include Goneril (King Lear) and Timon (Timon of Athens), who are included in another list (previously available, now offline), which showed these 12:
Goneril (King Lear)
Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)
Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra)
Brutus (Julius Caesar
Mark Antony (Antony and Cleopatra)
Cassius (Julius Caesar)
Ophelia (Hamlet)
Othello (Othello)
Portia (Julius Caesar)
Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
Timon (Timon of Athens)

Taking them together, there may be up to 15! Or, counting only those that are agreed on by both list-compilers, there may be as few as 10.

Response last updated by looney_tunes on Aug 23 2016.
Sep 24 2008, 12:49 AM
Arpeggionist star
Answer has 4 votes
Arpeggionist star
21 year member
2173 replies

Answer has 4 votes.
And don't forget the play of Pyramus and Thisbe within a Midsummer Night's Dream, in which both title characters kill themselves, only to have the actors who play them immediately stand right back up...

Sep 24 2008, 4:31 AM
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