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Murder

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Murder was used by Shakespeare to either advance the position of a character or avenge a character.  Many of Shakespeare's plays include a 'murder most foul' to drive the plot and cause intrigue for the audience.

​People commonly flooded London theaters to get a glimpse at treachery, debauchery and murder (Mabillard).  While comedy is fun, Murder is exciting.  The audience has the ability to have knowledge that the characters of the play don't know.  They would be able to see the whole picture where most characters only had a small view of what was happening in their story. 

​Sometimes, even murder is too much.  For instance, the murder of the young twins who had the extreme misfortune of being the nefews of Richard III.  The suffering of those that are so young shows "human evil at its most ruthless" (Blake 295).

Below is a list of murders from Shakespeare's different plays along with a short description of the death:

Murder


Truth will come to light,
murder cannot be hid long.
The Merchant of Venice (2.2.76-7)

Desdemona (Othello)
Desdemona is smothered to death by her jealous husband, Othello, who thinks she has cheated on him.

Banquo (Macbeth)
Banquo is cornered by three murderers hired by Macbeth. Banquo is slain but Fleance, his son, escapes.

Lady Macduff (Macbeth)
Lady Macduff is chased down and slaughtered offstage by Macbeth's henchmen. Her son is also killed by the murderers.

Polonius (Hamlet)
After hearing a noise, Hamlet stabs through a curtain and kills Polonius.

Cordelia (King Lear)
Cordelia is hanged in her cell.

Emilia (Othello)
Emilia is stabbed by her husband.

Lavinia (Titus Andronicus)
Lavinia is murdered by her own father, Titus, to spare her further shame of being raped and having her tongue and hands cut off.

Gertrude (Hamlet)
The Queen drinks from a poisoned wine glass.

Claudius (Hamlet)
Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and then forces him to drink from the poisoned glass.

Titus Andronicus (Titus Andronicus)
Saturninus kills Titus Andronicus after Titus reveals that he has baked Tamora's two sons in the meat pie that Saturninus and Tamora are eating.

Tamora (Titus Andronicus)
Tamora is stabbed to death with a butcher's knife.

Regan (King Lear)
Regan is poisoned by her sister, Goneril.

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