Sin and Suicide: Goneril's Final Sin

Sin and Suicide

The Female Villain

• Society is fascinated by the female villain such as the Evil Queen in 'Snow White'
• For the 'good guys' to succeed, the female villain needs to be disposed of, but they can be notoriously difficult to get rid of in comparison to their male counterparts (consider Darth Vader and similar villains)
• Shakespeare effectively and successfully solves the timeless problem of how to dispose of the female villain: suicide.

Context

• "Nothing is more damnable, nothing more ungodly, then for a man to slay himself" 
• Committing suicide was seen as a crime worse than murder, but during the reign of Hnery VIII, the law was suddenly and severely enforced as it was seen as a crime "against the king, and against Nature"
• If you committed suicide in the 16th century, your goods, money and debts were forfeited to the crown
• Suicide was seen as a "sin of unparralleled evil which held no hope of redemption" so those who committed suicide were refused a Christian burial. Instead, they were…