Cameron Irby

Dr. Guernsey-Pitchford

Shakespeare's Tragedies

24 November 2015

Curtain's Call: Last Words in Shakespeare's Tragedies

The key component in a tragedy is the final act, for it is here that everything that the play

has set up culminates into one ultimate conclusion that leaves the protagonist emotionally,

physically, or spiritually ruined, perhaps even some combination of the three. The hero's defeat

comes out of a collaboration between his own faults, the machinations of his enemies or former

allies, and the chain of events that led to this end. In Hamlet, for example, the titular character's

demise is caused by Laertes's poisoned blade, but Hamlet is still able to take his revenge against

his father's murderer, Claudius, before death consumes him. In King Lear, the death of Cordelia

shatters the elderly king's fragile mind and soul, causing him to die of a broken heart. Coriolanus,

in his own play, is betrayed by his rival Aufidius as a result of the former's attempt at peace with

Rome, but Coriolanus, like Hamlet, is defiant to the last and tries to hold his ground.

Unfortunately for him, he is unable to achieve his final goal of defeating Aufidius for he is

attacked by the army he once led into battle and slain. These endings are pivotal to defining each

of these plays as tragedies because they reveal the inner minds of the characters at the times of

their deaths by forcing them to acknowledge their mortality and their personal struggles before

they inevitably succumb to them.

The life of Prince Hamlet possesses all of the hallmarks of a great tragedy. First, his

father dies under dubious circumstances. Then, his uncle Claudius becomes king, a title that

should have been Hamlet's, and does so by marrying Hamlet's mother Gertrude shortly after

Hamlet Senior's death. This is a confusing situation for anyone, but the plot is complicated

further by the appearance of the former king's ghost, who tells Hamlet that it was “murder most

foul” that ended his reign (Hamlet 1.5.27). From here, the young prince plots his vengeance

against his uncle/step-father, but his noble nature demands that he follow “the aristocratic code

of revenge” and do so to the letter (Bromwich 138). Hamlet must not only be certain of

Claudius's guilt but must slay him at his most vile. Doing so is the only way he can justify a

regicide as well as a pseudo-patricide.

Nothing goes according to plan, however, as Claudius, one step ahead of Hamlet, has

Laertes wound the procrastinating prince with a toxic rapier. Because his own time has been cut

incredibly short, Hamlet kills Claudius with little regard for niceties and politics. It is here that

Hamlet collapses and cries out, “I am dead, Horatio” (Hamlet 5.2.275). Upon seeing his

childhood friend dying, Horatio picks up a poisoned drink to join Hamlet in death, but the young

prince rebukes him, commanding, “If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, / Absent thee from

felicity a while,/ And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain / To tell my story” (Hamlet

5.2.288-291). What is odd about these words is that they do not sound like “a man who is ready

to die or who has accepted his fate,” but they do sound like someone who has left something

unfinished (Foley 51). Hamlet intended to set Denmark on the right path after Claudius had been

deposed, but with his death his bloodline will end. In his final gasps of breath, he quickly relays

to Horatio with his “dying voice” that Fortinbras should take over the throne before declaring,

“The rest is silence” (Hamlet 5.2.298, 300). There is an assumption among some researchers that

Hamlet wanted to say more, as the sentence before his final words reads thus: “So tell him, with

th'occurrents, more and less / which have solicited” (Hamlet 5.2.299-300). This makes his last

statement all the more worrisome, as these become the words of a man who “dies not in peace

but in the middle of attempted action” (Foley 51). What else Hamlet wants to tell Horatio will

never be known, as the hero of Shakespeare's longest play can speak no more.

Like Hamlet, Coriolanus was cut down in the line of duty and did not pass willingly, but

the situation that surrounded his death was much more volatile and obvious. Stepping back to the

beginning of the play, we see Coriolanus as a very odd character. Compared to some of

Shakespeare's other tragic heroes, Coriolanus has an unlikable personality that demands attention

and authority under all conditions and circumstances. He enters upon the first scene, where the

plebeians of Rome are crying out for food, shouting, “What's the matter, you dissentious

rogues, / That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, / Make yourself scabs?” (Coriolanus

1.1.153-155). This is not exactly the best way to get on the people's—or, in any case, the

audience's—good graces, as Coriolanus eventually discovers when he attempts to run for Consul,

the highest political position in the Roman republic.

The key issue here is that Coriolanus is attempting to emulate the Aristotelian ideal of the

“magnanimous man,” who is “of self-conscious moral excellence, who thinks himself worthy of,

who is, indeed, genuinely worthy of, the greatest honors” (Holloway 353). In most respects,

Coriolanus succeeds in this regard, and his success actually includes some of the less wholesome

aspects of his character. For example, his lack of compassion for the common people stems out

of his desire for “virtue for its own sake,” meaning that he wants to represent everything good

about Rome but cannot do so when its own people's consensus is constantly in flux (Holloway

359). His desire is also accompanied by a “[preoccupation] with the integrity of his own

character” (Holloway 360). This preoccupation is what gets him into the most trouble when it

comes to the common people, as Coriolanus has a tendency to bark back at them with a

viciousness unmatched by those who criticize him. But Coriolanus's true flaw, as well as what

prevents him from achieving Aristotle's pinnacle of mankind, is that he mistakenly believes that

his courageousness in battle, “the one virtue that the regime exalts,” is all that is required for him

to become the elected ruler of Rome, unlike the magnanimous man who attempts to find a

balance between all of the noble virtues (Holloway 371). Because of this flaw, in addition to his

exceeding determination, he does not have the patience for political talks nor does he have the

understanding required to understand the peoples' needs. As a warrior, Coriolanus excels; as a

politician, he fails. This results in his banishment from Rome, and it is what leads him into the

arms of his rival Aufidius.

From here, the tragedy progresses. The combined forces of Aufidius and Coriolanus

threaten to destroy Rome, Coriolanus is persuaded by his mother and his family to broker a deal

for peace, and Aufidius, furious that his partner in crime betrayed the Volsces, plots his death. In

Act 5, Scene 6, Coriolanus attempts to come back to his adopted comrades, proclaiming, “I am

returned your soldier” (Coriolanus 5.6.72). Again, he places his wholehearted faith in his virtue

of courage, that courage alone is enough to absolve all slights and reward him with praise.

Aufidius, however, reminds his troops and conspirators that Coriolanus spared Rome when they

had almost captured it, labeling him a “boy of tears” (Coriolanus 5.6.103). The Roman warrior

does not take this insult well, as mentioned earlier, and he begins a tirade against his former ally.

“Measureless liar,” he spits spitefully, “thou hast made my heart / Too great for what contains it.

'Boy'? O slave!” (Coriolanus 5.6.104-105). After attacking Aufidius's own character, Coriolanus

dares his critics to “cut [him] to pieces” as he did to their soldiers in Corioles. As the crowd

demands for his blood to be spilled, Coriolanus draws his blade, shouting, “O that I had him with

six Aufidiuses, / Or more, his tribe, to use my lawful sword!” (Coriolanus 5.6.128-129). His rage

against his rival-turned-ally-turned-enemy has reached its peak here, and to kill Aufidius once

would not sate Coriolanus's bloodlust. Once he cries out this challenge, however, the crowd

surges forward and mutilates him. His last words reflect his exaggerated emphasis on courage

and martial prowess as the greatest of virtues and his outrage at his insulting yet impending

doom.

In comparison to the two previous plays, King Lear does not tell the tragic tale of a single

man. Where Hamlet was about Hamlet and Coriolanus was about Caius Martius Coriolanus,

King Lear is about the downfall of an entire country. The bastard son Edmund betrays his half-

brother Edgar by convincing their mutual father Gloucester that the latter is a murderous traitor,

which forces Edgar into a life of exile while disguised as a madman. Ironically, Gloucester later

learns that it was Edmund was the murderous traitor he should have been looking for, but his

mistake costs him his eyes. Intriguingly, this is only one of the many plot lines of King Lear.

There is also the story of Cordelia, who is unable to sweeten her love for her father King Lear

with honeyed words and can only say that she has “nothing” (King Lear 1.1.86). Her inability to

entreat her father to a satisfactory display of affection prompts the aging king to disown her,

giving his kingdom to his more verbose, yet more diabolical daughters Goneril and Regan. Then,

there is the tragedy of Lear himself, who is cast out into the elements by his two wayward

daughters and whose mind descends into delusions and fantasy.

The final act of King Lear, in which Cordelia is murdered moments before rescue,

continues to be one of the most controversial in Shakespeare's works. This is not due to some

obscene line or petty squabble, but instead it is the fact that it was simply too tragic. Unlike

Hamlet or Coriolanus, which attempted to “endow our lives with meaning, to give us a measure

of consolation and even perhaps hope, the bleakness of the end of Shakespeare's tragedy [of King

Lear] seemed shocking, scandalous” (Riemer 9). This outrage was sparked by two key factors.

The first is that Shakespeare altered the traditional narrative of King Lear, causing Cordelia to

die much earlier than in previous iterations. The second, on the other hand, was the reaction of

King Lear himself to the death of Cordelia.

And my poor fool is hanged! No, no, no life!

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,

And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you, undo this button. Thank you, sir.

Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,

Look there, look there! (King Lear 5.3.304-310)

After uttering these words, Lear dies. There is no consolation for his suffering, there is no moral

lesson to be gleaned from his death, and he offers no parting words to embolden his fellow man.

Lear dies knowing that the only one of his daughters who truly loved him has died and trying to

convince himself that such a fate cannot possibly be true by crying for her to draw breath once

more. Some critics believe that “Lear dies in an agony of joy and grief believing that Cordelia

lives,” but others attempt to embrace the nihilistic and “provocatively bleak” ending that

Shakespeare himself created (Riemer 10-11). Cordelia is dead, Lear is dead, and the kingdom

that was at one time in peace has fallen apart. There is nothing that can be said to muster any

form of hope here. In the end of the tragedy of King Lear, the greatest tragedy is that the power

of love could not stop death.

The last words of a tragic hero are almost always considered the most powerful lines in

the play because “he discovers what has happened to him, and learns how far his character is

implicated in his fate” (Bromwich 132). Hamlet, unable to bring himself into action, finds that he

has run out of time to do anything more. Coriolanus, desperate to prove his courageousness,

walks into a trap set by those who he betrayed during his ascent to glory. King Lear, incapable of

discerning what love really is, dies of a broken heart upon learning that no amount of love can

bring back the dead. All of these protagonists and their deeds will be remembered for one act or

another, but these final scenes are the ones we will recall when we are asked to tell the story to

the survivors of the cruelty of life.

Works Cited

Bromwich, David. "What Shakespeare's Heroes Learn." Raritan 29.4 (2010): 132-148.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.

Foley, Andrew. "Heaven Or Havoc? The End Of Hamlet."Shakespeare In Southern Africa 24.

(2012): 45-56.Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Holloway, Carson. "Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus' and Aristotle's Great-Souled Man." The

Review of Politics 2007: 353.JSTOR Journals. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.

Riemer, A. P. "The Promised End: Some Last Words On King Lear." Sydney Studies In

English 20.(1994): 3-19. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.

Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W.

Norton, 1997. Print.