74 Ways Characters Die in Shakespeare's Plays Shown in a Handy Infographic: From Snakebites to Lack of Sleep

"The ear­ly work is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, cob­bled togeth­er from pop­u­lar Roman his­to­ries and Eliz­a­bethan revenge plays. And it is a tru­ly bizarre play, swing­ing wild­ly in tone from clas­si­cal tragedy, to satir­i­cal dark humor, to com­ic farce, and back to tragedy again. Crit­ic Harold Bloom called Titus "an exploita­tive par­o­dy" of the very pop­u­lar revenge tragedies of the time-its mur­ders, maim­ings, rapes, and muti­la­tions pile up, scene upon scene, and leave char­ac­ters and readers/audiences reel­ing in grief and dis­be­lief from the shock­ing body count."

"Part of the fun of teach­ing Titus is in watch­ing stu­dents' jaws drop as they real­ize just how bloody-mind­ed the Bard is. While Taymor's adap­ta­tion takes many mod­ern lib­er­ties in cos­tum­ing, music, and set design, its hor­ror-show depic­tion of Titus' unre­lent­ing may­hem is faith­ful to the text."

"Later, more mature plays rein in the exces­sive black com­e­dy and shock fac­tor, but the bod­ies still stack up. As accus­tomed as we are to think­ing of con­tem­po­rary enter­tain­ments like Game of Thrones as espe­cial­ly gra­tu­itous, the whole of Shakespeare's cor­pus, writes Alice Vin­cent at The Tele­graph, is "more gory" than even HBO's squirm-wor­thy fan­ta­sy epic, fea­tur­ing a total"

A graduate department regularly taught Titus Andronicus alongside Julie Taymor's film adaptation. The play likely represents Shakespeare's first tragedy, assembled from popular Roman histories and Elizabethan revenge plays. The tone shifts dramatically between classical tragedy, satirical dark humor, and comic farce before returning to tragedy. The play accumulates murders, maimings, rapes, and mutilations that overwhelm characters and audiences. Taymor's adaptation takes modern liberties in costume, music, and design while retaining the play's relentless mayhem. Later Shakespeare plays moderate some black comedy and shock tactics, but the overall corpus remains exceptionally gory compared with contemporary violent entertainment.

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