Julius Caesar: Death & Marriage Totals

OK! Julius Caesar is over, the dust has settled, and it's time to look back at what REALLY happened during the play. Let's start off with some good old death and marriage totals:

20180301-JuliusCaesar-Death&MarriageTotals.jpg

Some points of note:

  1. Flavius and Murellus, who pull scarves off of Caesar's statues in the first scene, are reported as being "put to silence", which sure sounds like they've been executed. However, historically they were apparently just stripped of their titles as tribunes. So they might not actually be dead.

  2. Brutus and Messala's letters don't agree on how many senators were killed along with Cicero; Brutus's letter says 70, Messala's says 100. I'm only counting Cicero, the only executed senator whose name we know. The other gets lumped under "plus assorted..." at the end.

  3. No marriages. That's how you know it's REALLY not a comedy.

Tune in next week, when we'll sum up the entire play in a single page for those of you who haven't been paying attention!

Romeo and Juliet: Death & Marriage Totals

So you think "that's all one, the play is done", do you? NOT SO FAST! We still have some important work to do! First, let's take a look at how many people died and how many people got married, so we can scientifically determine if this is a tragedy or a comedy. 

Let me crunch the numbers here... mmmhmm... yeah, this is a tragedy.

Spare a thought for poor Lady Montague, who dies offstage, is mentioned in a throwaway line that nobody pays much attention to, and is hardly ever remembered as having lived, let alone died. 

If you've been too busy or impatient to follow my exhaustive Romeo and Juliet retelling over the past several months, tune in next week for a handy-dandy one-page summary of the entire play! And then we'll be done. 

Twelfth Night: Final Summary

Aaaand we're finally done with Twelfth Night! In case you missed the last four months of comics, and don't have time to go back and read them all, here's what happened:

Finishing a play means it's time to add up the numbers and decide whether it's a comedy or a tragedy. Let's take a look!

Three marriages and no deaths of named characters means this play is almost certainly a comedy. Hurrah! (Just don't ask me how long I think Sir Toby and Maria's marriage will last..)

Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5, part 1 | 1.5, part 2 | 1.5, part 3|2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3, part 1 | 2.3, part 2 | 2.4, part 1 | 2.4, part 2 | 2.5, part 1 | 2.5, part 2 | 3.1, part 1 | 3.1, part 2 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4, part 1 | 3.4, part 2 | 3.4, part 3 | 3.4, part 4 | 3.4, part 5 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 5.1, part 1 | 5.1, part 2 | 5.1, part 3 | 5.1, part 4 | 5.1, part 5 | 5.1, part 6 | Summary

On Break! 

Hey all! Due to several time-sensitive projects that I need to wrap up (one of them being the long-awaited flowchart poster) plus the very inconveniently-timed mental breakdown of the hitherto-but-no-longer trusty computer on which I draw all my comics, I will be taking next week off. I'll be back on Tuesday, October 11 with your regularly scheduled Shakespeare comics. Thanks for your patience and understanding! 

Macbeth: Death and Marriage Totals

The dust has settled a bit on the sad and sorry story of Macbeth, so let's take a look at who died and who got married:

This is not counting all the various animals and occasional people who fell afoul of the witches and got put into the cauldron. Those would increase the total a lot. THAT POOR TIGER NEEDED THAT CHAUDRON. I'M CALLING THE SPCA ON YOU, YOU FIENDS.

Tune in again on Thursday as we say farewell to Macbeth with a one-page summary of the entire play!

Macbeth
Dramatis Personae | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Death and Marriage Totals

A Stick-Figure King Lear: Summary

Well, we've finally reached the end of King Lear. Thanks for sticking with me! It's taken a long time. In case you've forgotten everything that's happened over the past two months, here is a quick one-page summary:

I think that covers most of the highlights.

Before I leave King Lear, I must do my obligatory "Death and Marriage" count. As you know, the rule with most Shakespeare plays is that if everyone dies, it's a tragedy, whereas if everyone gets married, it's a comedy. Let's take a look at how King Lear measures up:

Surprise, surprise. 

(Thanks to Josh Freeman for reminding me about the Captain. I forgot all about him.)

Join me again on Wednesday, when I'll have... actually, I'm not sure what I'll have up on Wednesday, but it sure as heck won't be King Lear. Toodles!

Coriolanus: Death and Marriage Totals

Coriolanus

Dramatis Personae | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Death & Marriage

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if a Shakespeare play ends with a lot of dead people, it's a tragedy, and if it ends with a lot of marriages, it's comedy. Let's see how Coriolanus measures up:

For a play that starts out so bloody, it's kind of surprising what a low death toll there actually is in the end. Aufidius doesn't massacre Volumnia and throw Young Martius from the walls of Rome, Virgilia doesn't eat hot coals, Menenius doesn't impale himself on a sword. It's relatively demure. In fact, the only other tragedy I can think of with such a low body count is Timon of Athens. 

Tune in again tomorrow, where I will be presenting a one-page summary of the entire play. 

Coriolanus

Dramatis Personae | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Death & Marriage