Shakespeare's Endings: A Study of Conclusions in His Works
Explore the fascinating endings of Shakespeare's plays, from tragic deaths to joyful unions. Delve into the textual construction of these endings and the aftermath when the curtains close. Discover how different genres influence the climax and resolution of Shakespeare's masterpieces.
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Shakespeares Endings Or, When can I go home?
Four questions/sections 1. What happens at the end? 2. When does the end begin? How are the ends constituted textually? 3. Are there generic differences coded into the end? 4. What happens when the theatrical event is over and everyone goes home?
1. What happens at the end? Hamlet ends with all of the living main characters dying in a botched duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Only Horatio remains, with Fortinbras emerging onstage at in the final lines to seize political control of Elsinore. Titus ends with the death of Saturninus, the emperor/king of Rome, as well as Titus own death just after he kills his daughter Lavinia; Tamora is also killed, while Aaron is left to die alone, buried waist deep in the earth. Lucius, Titus son, is left to take over the Roman reins with the backing of Rome s sometime enemies, the Goths. 1 Henry IV ends with the king s victory at Shrewsbury, with Hal starring as the killer of his namesake and doppelg nger Harry Hotspur. Hal emerges as the honourable victor, even releasing the Douglas from captivity as a prisoner of war. Henry s reign over the kingdom is secured.
Shrew ends when, as part of a wager, the three womenKate, Bianca and the Widow are summoned by their respective husbands onstage. Only Kate returns obediently, lecturing those on- and offstage as to the merits of being an obedient wife and a tamed shrew. This is the end of the play- within-a-play, though we are never removed to the frame narrative for its own conclusion. Finally, Midsummer ends with Puck addressing the audience, telling them that everything they have seen over the last couple of hours has been a dream and that the audience should not be scared. Or MND ends with the lovers marrying. Or MND ends with the mechanicals play
2. When does the end begin? Hamlet: Hamlet s end begins halfway through the final act. Titus: By me thou shalt have justice at this hands (IV.III.102) Act Four Scene Three is the beginning of the end of Titus when Titus begins to re-impose justice on the action. 1 Henry IV: His valours shown upon our crests today / Have taught us how to cherish such high deeds / Even in the bosom of our adversaries. (V.V.29-31) The battle itself that signals the beginning of the end for the play. The fighting itself begins in V.III, though the battle becomes inevitable after negotiations fail in V.I and V.II. In that sense, the end begins with Act V.
2. When does the end begin (2)? Midsummer: MND is the play that just refuses to end. Or: It also leaves us in this odd position: the ending of MND ends after Act V Shrew: The play begins to end with Bianca and Lucentio eloping at the start of V.I.
Transition, exposition, action? Exposition Action Action Transition Transition >> Action Hamlet Titus 1 Henry IV Taming Midsummer Exposition Action
Textual endings T. R. Baldwin: it was assumed that a respectable dramatist writing in the current style would write in acts. (On Act and Scene Divisions in the First Folio, p. 7) James Hirsh: One does not have to be a bardolater to be dissatisfied with Baldwin s notion that Shakespeare was a mere respectable dramatist who mindlessly followed the current style of English Renaissance public theater dramatists to write in acts, nor did those theaters introduce act intervals into performances until the very end of Shakespeare s career or later. W. W. Greg pointed out that, while the surviving prompt books for plays performed by boys companies at private theaters from 1591 to 1610 were divided into acts, the prompt-books of plays performed by men s companies at public theatres were not. [ ] [F]ive plays by Ben Jonson are the only ones divided into acts. [ ] Jonson divided his plays into acts not because it was the current style of the public theaters or because those theaters had act intervals but rather because a five-act structure was prescribed by Renaissance classicist critics [ and] Jonson was an ardent classicist[.] ( Act Divisions in the First Folio )
Number of scenes MND has 7 scenes. Act Five has one scene (plus an epilogue?) Taming has 12 scenes. Act Five has two scenes. Titus has 13 scenes. Act Five has three scenes. 1H4 has 18 scenes. Act Five has four scenes. H (in Q2) has 20 scenes. Act Five has two scenes. H (in F) has 19 scenes. Act Five has two scenes. The differences between the two editions, according to the Ard3editors, takes place in Acts Three and Four.
End of Acts Four? MND: Act Four ends with Bottom s return to the mechanicals without his ass s head. The remainder of the lovers have all been appropriately paired. Only weddings and the play are left. TS: Act Four ends with the arrival of Vincentio to Padua, so everything is set for its unravelling in the plot surrounding Bianca and Lucentio. Titus: Act Four ends with the reported arrival of Lucius leading the Goths, enemies of Rome, outside the city. This leaves Act Five to begin in a modified, though parallel, fashion as Act One. 1H4: Act 4 ends with the Archbishop of York sending letters to the rebels urging them not to fight the king s army. He fears their loss. This leaves Act Five to bear out the victory or defeat of the rebellion. H: Act Four ends with Laertes preparing to revenge Hamlet for the murder of his father, and for his sister s subsequent death. In this way, Act Five is set to bring Laertes and Hamlet together for their own private narratives.
Last lines Hamlet: FORTINBRAS Go, bid the soldiers shoot. Titus: LUCIUS Then, afterwards, to well order the state, That like events may ne er it ruinate. Taming: LUCENTIO Tis a wonder she will be tam d so. Midsummer: PUCK Give me hands if we be friends And Robin shall restore amends. 1 Henry IV: KING And since this business so fair is done, Let us not leave till all our own be won.
3. Generic differences? Comedies Taming: BAPTISTA Gentlemen, importune me no farther, For how I firmly am resolved you know: That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter Before I have a husband for the elder. (I.I.48-51) Midsummer: EGEUS Full of vexation come I, with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia. Stand forth Demetrius. My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her. Stand forth Lysander. And, my gracious Duke, This hath bewitch d the bosom of my child. (I.I.22-7)
Play Marriage (when?) Marriage (after) Marriages (after) Marriage (during) Marriages None (though Egeon/Abbess marriage part of resolution) Marriages Marriages after the play (maybe?) Marriages offstage Marriages during, but not end of play Marriages Yes (offstage) None (though the entire play is about enforced/desired marriage) Marriages (offstage and after) Marriage (after the play) The Tempest Two Gentleman of Verona Merry Wives of Windsor Measure for Measure The Comedy of Errors Much Ado About Nothing Love s Labour s Lost Midsummer Merchant As You Like It Taming All s Well Twelfth Night Winter s Tale
Affective Individualism Lawrence Stone: This fundamental shift in human values and in the social arrangements that went with them in the period from 1560 to 1640 has been well described by one historian as a shift from a lineage society , characterized by bounded horizons and particularized modes of thought, to the more universalistic standard of values of a civil society . (The Family, Sex & Marriage in England, 1500-1800, p. 134). OBERON: Effect if with some care, that he may prove More fond on her than she upon her love. (II.II.265-6)
3. Generic differences? Histories HOTSPUR And food for [He dies.] HAL For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart. (V.IV.84-6) No, Percy, thou art dust
King John: John is on the brink of death, but Prince Henry has the full support of the lords as he prepares to accede to the crown. Richard II: Henry IV is firmly installed as king, though he has personal guilt he wishes to cleanse. 2 Henry IV: Henry V firmly installed as king, finally rejecting completely his playboy days with Falstaff. Henry V: Henry V is the saviour of the forces of Britain and Ireland, securing permanent territory in France. 1 Henry VI: Henry VI is king, but there is certain unease about the machinations of Suffolk who has sought to control the king through the soon-to-be queen, Margaret of Anjou. *** 2 Henry VI: Henry VI s throne is under threat from the Yorkists. This kingship is an uneasy one at this point. 3 Henry VI: Edward IV is installed as king following civil war between the Lancastrians and Yorkists. Although this seems like a secure ending, Richard of Gloucester is beginning to scheme in the background. Richard III: Henry VII is installed as king, uniting the disparate Houses of York and Lancaster in the Tudor Rise. All is True (Henry VIII): Henry VIII is happily king, and his daughter, Elizabeth the future queen of England has just been baptised.
1H4 as revenge HOTSPUR Yet time serves wherein you may redeem Your banish d honours and restore yourselves Into the good thoughts of the world again, Revenge the jeering and disdain d contempt Of this proud king, who studies day and night To answer all the debt he owes to you Even with the bloody payment of your deaths. (I.III.179-85) HOTSPUR He does; he does. We ll be revenged on him. (I.III.285) FALSTAFF A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! marry, and amen! (II.IV.110-11)
KING I know not whether God will have it so, For some displeasing service I have done, That, in his secret doom, out of my blood He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me; But thou dost in thy passages of life Make me believe that thou art only mark d For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven To punish my mistreadings. (III.I.4-11) BLOUNT [to Douglas] I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot, And thou shalt find a king that will revenge Lord Stafford s death. (V.III.11-13) HAL (to Falstaff) What, stands thou idle here? Lend me thy sword. Many a noble man lies stark and stiff Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies, Whose deaths are yet unrevenged. (V.III.40-3) KING Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke. (V.V.1)
3. Generic differences Tragedy Anagnorisis: recognition Hamartia: Fatal flaw/fatal mistake Peripeteia: reversal of fortune GHOST Revenge his most foul and unnatural murder! (I.v.25) https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/clip/26000
Tragedies end EDGAR The weight of this sad time we must obey, Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most, we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long. (V.III.322-5) FALSTAFF You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vanguard of our youth, I must confess, are wags too. (I.II)
Hamlets end FORTINBRAS Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, For he was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royal. And for his passage The soldiers music and the rite of war Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this Becomes the field but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot. (V.II.279-87) Let four captains
Jigging https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1B70P6pjT8
Jigging (2) Mary Crane: These jigs evidently involved plots centered on cuckoldry or rustic wooing, bawdy songs, and exuberant (and sometimes obscene) dances. ( Linguistic Change, Theatrical Practice, and the Ideologies of State in As You Like It , 362)
Remembering the play Tiffany Stern: Plays often indicate that an actor has privately learnt his role, but does not know what parts his fellow actors are playing [ ], or whom he is supposed to be addressing. [ M]any actors, having learnt to deal primarily with their own parts in private study, had not learnt to think of the play as a unity. (quoted in Wilder, Toward a Shakespearean Memory Theater , p. 158)
