1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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.