Suicide in Shakespeare
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There are eleven to thirteen suicides in Shakespeare's plays depending on what you count as a suicide.
The following are the thirteen characters with link to an extract of their last scene. If in their last scene we don't see them die this is followed by the scene where find out about their death.
Brutus (Julius Caesar)
Brutus, knowing that he has lost the battle with Antony and Octavius, asks Clitus a loyal servant to hold his sword as he runs onto it.
Cassius (Julius Caesar)
Cassius had decided that he would commit suicide if they lose the battle as he was not willing to be a prisoner. He wrongly thinks they have lost, and asks his slave Pindarus to kill him with a sword. Previously Cassius saved him from execution upon Pindarus' promise that he would grant any request.
Technically it is NOT a suicide as someone else does the killing.
Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra)
Cleopatra knows she will be taken prisoner by the Romans. For this reason and also possibly because Antony has killed himself, Cleopatra uses the deadly venom of two asps, one at her breast the another at her arm to commit suicide.
Eros (Antony and Cleopatra)
Mark Antony asks Eros a servant to kill him, but instead he kills himself. He says before he stabs himself he does this to "escape the sorrow" of Antony’s death. (This suicide is often overlooked or wrongly omitted when counting suicides.)
Goneril (King Lear)
Goneril, Lear’s daughter, after her schemes against her father and her husband Albany are exposed refuses to answer questions. She leaves and we shortly find out from a gentleman that she has just poisoned her sister and taken her own life by a knife.
Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)
Juliet seeing that Romeo has poisoned himself, kisses Romeo one last time and stabs herself with Romeo's dagger.
Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
Lady Macbeth sleep walks tortured by what her husband and she have done. Later a scream is heard and Macbeth is informed the queen is dead. (He then gives the soliloquy of to-morrow and to-morrow.) Near the end of the play we learn that Lady Macbeth took off her life.
Mark Antony (Antony and Cleopatra)
After being “nobly vanquished” Mark Antony tells Cleopatra he no longer wants to live and falls on his own sword.
Ophelia (Hamlet)
The double loss of both her lover, Hamlet, and the death of her father, Polonius, and also that Polonius was killed by Hamlet drives Ophelia insane.
Ophelia accidentally falls into a brook afte a tree branch she was hanging onto broke. She makes no attempt to save herself and sings a tune to herself. It could be argued that she did not deliberately try to kill herself as she did not have the sense to save herself as was not aware of the danger she was in, so did not really commit suicide. Or may be she did not care to save herself.
Othello (Othello)
Othello had killed his wife Desdomona as he believed she had committed adultery. When Othello finds out that Cassio had made it seem that Desdemonia had committed adultery but she was innocent he stabs himself. He kisses just before he dies just as he kissed Desdomona before he killed her.
Portia (Julius Caesar)
Believing her husband Brutus can not defeat Antony and Octavius army, Portia commits suicide by swallowing hot coals "swallow'd fire".
Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
Romeo believing Juliet to be dead says “Here's to my love!” then drinks a fast-acting poison.
Timon (Timon of Athens)
Timon retires to his cave. He is later found dead, an apparent suicide not wanting to live with mankind, on his epitaph it says "Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate".
BRUTUS
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CASSIUS
| Cassius. Come down, behold no more. | 5.3.35
| O, coward that I am, to live so long, | 5.3.36
| To see my best friend ta'en before my face! | 5.3.37
[PINDARUS descends]
| Come hither, sirrah: | 5.3.38
| In Parthia did I take thee prisoner; | 5.3.39
| And then I swore thee, saving of thy life, | 5.3.40
| That whatsoever I did bid thee do, | 5.3.41
| Thou shouldst attempt it. Come now, keep thine oath; | 5.3.42
| Now be a freeman: and with this good sword, | 5.3.43
| That ran through Caesar's bowels, search this bosom. | 5.3.44
| Stand not to answer: here, take thou the hilts; | 5.3.45
| And, when my face is cover'd, as 'tis now, | 5.3.46
| Guide thou the sword. | 5.3.47
[PINDARUS stabs him]
| Caesar, thou art revenged, | 5.3.48
| Even with the sword that kill'd thee. | 5.3.49
[Dies]
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CLEOPATRA
| Cleopatra. Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have | 5.2.328
| Immortal longings in me: now no more | 5.2.329
| The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip: | 5.2.330
| Yare, yare, good Iras; quick. Methinks I hear | 5.2.331
| Antony call; I see him rouse himself | 5.2.332
| To praise my noble act; I hear him mock | 5.2.333
| The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men | 5.2.334
| To excuse their after wrath: husband, I come: | 5.2.335
| Now to that name my courage prove my title! | 5.2.336
| I am fire and air; my other elements | 5.2.337
| I give to baser life. So; have you done? | 5.2.338
| Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips. | 5.2.339
| Farewell, kind Charmian; Iras, long farewell. | 5.2.340
[Kisses them. IRAS falls and dies]
| Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall? | 5.2.341
| If thou and nature can so gently part, | 5.2.342
| The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, | 5.2.343
| Which hurts, and is desired. Dost thou lie still? | 5.2.344
| If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world | 5.2.345
| It is not worth leave-taking. | 5.2.346
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EROS
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GONERIL
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JULIET
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LADY MACBETH
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| Malcolm. We shall not spend a large expense of time | 5.8.71
| Before we reckon with your several loves, | 5.8.72
| And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, | 5.8.73
| Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland | 5.8.74
| In such an honour named. What's more to do, | 5.8.75
| Which would be planted newly with the time, | 5.8.76
| As calling home our exiled friends abroad | 5.8.77
| That fled the snares of watchful tyranny; | 5.8.78
| Producing forth the cruel ministers | 5.8.79
| Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, | 5.8.80
| Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands | 5.8.81
| Took off her life; this, and what needful else | 5.8.82
| That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, | 5.8.83
| We will perform in measure, time and place: | 5.8.84
| So, thanks to all at once and to each one, | 5.8.85
| Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. | 5.8.86
[Flourish. Exeunt]
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MARK ANTONY
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OPHELIA
| King Claudius. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, | 4.5.216
| Or you deny me right. Go but apart, | 4.5.217
| Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will. | 4.5.218
| And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me: | 4.5.219
| If by direct or by collateral hand | 4.5.220
| They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give, | 4.5.221
| Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours, | 4.5.222
| To you in satisfaction; but if not, | 4.5.223
| Be you content to lend your patience to us, | 4.5.224
| And we shall jointly labour with your soul | 4.5.225
| To give it due content. | 4.5.226
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| Queen Gertrude. There is a willow grows aslant a brook, | 4.7.181
| That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; | 4.7.182
| There with fantastic garlands did she come | 4.7.183
| Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples | 4.7.184
| That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, | 4.7.185
| But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: | 4.7.186
| There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds | 4.7.187
| Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; | 4.7.188
| When down her weedy trophies and herself | 4.7.189
| Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; | 4.7.190
| And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: | 4.7.191
| Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; | 4.7.192
| As one incapable of her own distress, | 4.7.193
| Or like a creature native and indued | 4.7.194
| Unto that element: but long it could not be | 4.7.195
| Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, | 4.7.196
| Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay | 4.7.197
| To muddy death. | 4.7.198
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OTHELLO
| Othello. Soft you; a word or two before you go. | 5.2.389
| I have done the state some service, and they know't. | 5.2.390
| No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, | 5.2.391
| When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, | 5.2.392
| Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, | 5.2.393
| Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak | 5.2.394
| Of one that loved not wisely but too well; | 5.2.395
| Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought | 5.2.396
| Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand, | 5.2.397
| Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away | 5.2.398
| Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes, | 5.2.399
| Albeit unused to the melting mood, | 5.2.400
| Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees | 5.2.401
| Their medicinal gum. Set you down this; | 5.2.402
| And say besides, that in Aleppo once, | 5.2.403
| Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk | 5.2.404
| Beat a Venetian and traduced the state, | 5.2.405
| I took by the throat the circumcised dog, | 5.2.406
| And smote him, thus. | 5.2.407
[Stabs himself]
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PORTIA
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ROMEO
| Romeo. In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face. | 5.3.75
| Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris! | 5.3.76
| What said my man, when my betossed soul | 5.3.77
| Did not attend him as we rode? I think | 5.3.78
| He told me Paris should have married Juliet: | 5.3.79
| Said he not so? or did I dream it so? | 5.3.80
| Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, | 5.3.81
| To think it was so? O, give me thy hand, | 5.3.82
| One writ with me in sour misfortune's book! | 5.3.83
| I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave; | 5.3.84
| A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter'd youth, | 5.3.85
| For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes | 5.3.86
| This vault a feasting presence full of light. | 5.3.87
| Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd. | 5.3.88
[Laying PARIS in the tomb]
| How oft when men are at the point of death | 5.3.89
| Have they been merry! which their keepers call | 5.3.90
| A lightning before death: O, how may I | 5.3.91
| Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife! | 5.3.92
| Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, | 5.3.93
| Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: | 5.3.94
| Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet | 5.3.95
| Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, | 5.3.96
| And death's pale flag is not advanced there. | 5.3.97
| Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? | 5.3.98
| O, what more favour can I do to thee, | 5.3.99
| Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain | 5.3.100
| To sunder his that was thine enemy? | 5.3.101
| Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet, | 5.3.102
| Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe | 5.3.103
| That unsubstantial death is amorous, | 5.3.104
| And that the lean abhorred monster keeps | 5.3.105
| Thee here in dark to be his paramour? | 5.3.106
| For fear of that, I still will stay with thee; | 5.3.107
| And never from this palace of dim night | 5.3.108
| Depart again: here, here will I remain | 5.3.109
| With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here | 5.3.110
| Will I set up my everlasting rest, | 5.3.111
| And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars | 5.3.112
| From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! | 5.3.113
| Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you | 5.3.114
| The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss | 5.3.115
| A dateless bargain to engrossing death! | 5.3.116
| Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide! | 5.3.117
| Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on | 5.3.118
| The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! | 5.3.119
| Here's to my love! | 5.3.120
[Drinks]
| O true apothecary! | 5.3.121
| Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. | 5.3.122
[Dies]
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TIMON
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| Alcibiades. [Reads the epitaph] 'Here lies a | 5.4.81
| wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft: | 5.4.82
| Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked | 5.4.83
| caitiffs left! | 5.4.84
| Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: | 5.4.85
| Pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay | 5.4.86
| not here thy gait.' | 5.4.87
| These well express in thee thy latter spirits: | 5.4.88
| Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, | 5.4.89
| Scorn'dst our brain's flow and those our | 5.4.90
| droplets which | 5.4.91
| From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit | 5.4.92
| Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye | 5.4.93
| On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead | 5.4.94
| Is noble Timon: of whose memory | 5.4.95
| Hereafter more. Bring me into your city, | 5.4.96
| And I will use the olive with my sword, | 5.4.97
| Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each | 5.4.98
| Prescribe to other as each other's leech. | 5.4.99
| Let our drums strike. | 5.4.100
| [Exeunt]
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