Suicide
Whether a character was in an unthinkable situation or just couldn't see any other way out, suicide is a tool used to kill off a character on their own terms. Just as Brutus ran on his sword and Cleopatra allowed herself to be bit by a snake they had the last word in the way in which they died.
In Romeo and Juliet, the characters looked at suicide as a form of relief because they could not see themselves living without the other. Many characters feel that they are in situations that have no clear way out. If Lavinia, from Titus Andronicus could have, she would have likely killed herself, instead of having to wait for her father to do it for her.
Below is a list of suicides from Shakespeare's different plays along with a short description of the death:
Suicide
We have no friend
But resolution and the briefest end.
Antony and Cleopatra (4.15.91-2)
Brutus (Julius Caesar)
Brutus, knowing that he has lost the battle with Antony and Octavius, convinces a servant to hold his sword as he throws himself upon it.
Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra)
Cleopatra chooses the deadly venom of two asps as her method of suicide.
Goneril (King Lear)
Goneril, the depraved scoundrel who concocts nefarious schemes against her father, Lear, and her husband, the Duke of Albany, commits suicide when her plots are exposed.
Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)
As she kisses her beloved Romeo one final time, Juliet stabs herself with Romeo's dagger and falls dead upon his body.
Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
Although we are told in Act 5, Scene 5 that Lady Macbeth is dead, it is not until the closing lines of the play that we learn her death was a suicide: ...
"his fiend-like queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life." (5.7.100-2)
Mark Antony (Antony and Cleopatra)
Antony falls on his own sword but lives longs enough to meet one final time with Cleopatra.
Cassius (Julius Caesar)
Cassius, certain that he will soon be captured by Antony and Octavius, kills himself with his sword.
Ophelia (Hamlet)
Ophelia, driven insane by Hamlet's cruelty and the murder of her beloved father, plunges from a tree branch into the current below. Although her fall is an accident, Ophelia makes no attempt to save herself, and thus her drowning is viewed as a suicide.
Othello (Othello)
When Othello discovers that his wife, Desdemona, whom he has murdered, is not guilty of adultery, he drives a dagger into his chest and falls dead beside Desdemona's body.
Portia (Julius Caesar)
Convinced that her husband, Brutus, will not be able to defeat Antony and his army, Portia commits suicide in her Roman home.
Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
Carrying the fast-acting poison he has purchased from an apothecary in Act 5, Scene 1, Romeo arrives at the tomb of Juliet. He believes her to be dead and drinks the fatal potion, exclaiming, "Thus with a kiss I die." (5.3.121).
Timon (Timon of Athens)
Wandering through the wilderness, Timon can no longer take the hypocrisy of mankind. He is found dead in his cave -- an apparent suicide.
Murder
Assassination
Death in Combat
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