This Pie Chart Takes a Tally of All the Deaths in Shakespeare's Plays

Caitlin Schneider
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The works of William Shakespeare can be divided into three basic categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. You can’t have a tragedy without a little bloodshed, but The Bard didn’t even need that as an excuse to rack up a number of deaths throughout his works. It’s those fatalities that are the center of a new play.

The Complete Deaths—opening in Northampton, England in May 2016—contains reenactments of all 74 scripted deaths in Shakespeare’s complete works. Alice Vincent, an entertainment writer for The Telegraph created the above chart to break down exactly how those dark endings occurred. From “stabbed” (Shakespeare really liked to employ this one) to “baked into a pie” (that one’s from Titus Andronicus), you can see the many ways the many players had their entrances … and exits.

Be sure to run your mouse over the chart for corresponding death count.

[h/t Improbable Research]

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