Tragedies Romeo And Juliet Othello Hamlet Macbeth King Lear Cymbeline Timon Of Athens Coriolanus Julius Caesar Anthony And Cleopatra Troilus And Cressida Titus Andronicus Pericles

Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth

Shakespearean tragedy is the classification of drama written by William Shakespeare which has a noble protagonist, who is flawed in some way, placed in a stressful heightened situation and ends with a fatal conclusion. The plots of Shakespearean tragedy focus on the reversal of fortune of the central characters which leads to their ruin and ultimately, death. Shakespeare wrote several different classifications of plays throughout his career and the labeling of his plays into categories is disputed amongst different sources and scholars. There are 10 Shakespeare plays which are always classified as tragedies and several others which are disputed; there are also Shakespeare plays which fall into the classifications of comedy, history, or romance/tragicomedy that share fundamental attributes of a Shakespeare tragedy but do not wholly fit in to the category. The plays which provide the strongest fundamental examples of the genre of Shakespearean tragedy are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbethand Antony and Cleopatra.

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Shakespeare's Comedy of The Merchant of Venice

Set in 1860s Venice, a young Venetian borrows money from a Jew who gives him the money on the security of one pound of flesh. Upon default the Jew insists on payment of his bond and the young Venetian is rescued by the heroine disguised as a male lawyer.