What's Shakespeares's most violent play?

[padanarm]

There are regular reports in the media condemning films for being very violent. In earlier times, what was Shakespeares's most violent play and was it condemned for being violent?

[Mr Veritas]

I(and Wkipedia seems to agree with me) have always considered "Titus Andronicus" to be Shakeseare's most violent (and gory) play.
It is his earliest tragedy,so dependent on what it's reception was by the 16thC audience, it may be that further tragedies were tamed down by Shakespeare.However I doubt if Shakespeare took much notice of criticism,only box office receipts.
Two lines from Wikipedia say a lot though:~
"However, it was an extremely popular play in its day"
(in the 16th C)
"As Shakespeare's most gruesome play, Titus Andronicus has also been his most derided"
(In modern times,when we cannot stomach violent truths)
Have a look at Wikipedia for the plot etc,and see what you think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Andronicus

[Ice.Maiden]

I agree with Mr Veritas.

[andy-hughes]

Like any cultural icon, Shakespere was of his time, and in Shakespere's time, life for a lot of people was hard, brutal and short, lived in a lawless and violent society.

Elizabethans were perfectly capable of discerning the imagery of Shakespere's work, which is a word away from the CGI images we receive on modern films, which are entirely different.

It is more likely that Shakespere found the touchstone of aspects of life in his times that people cared about - love, lies, dishonour, bravery, trechary, intrigue, and so on, and wove them into his plays in a way that resonates today.

Included in that palette of the human condition is of course, violence, and Shakespere used it to invigorate his plots, in exactly the same way as film directors do today.

[Valda1965]

As the other writers say, Shakespeare wrote about the human condition, which if you look back compares well with society these days. If you consider another side of the coin ie. jealousy, you will see how Othello and The Winters Tale show how this emotion (not changed over time) takes hold and affects the people around the characters in a way that never changes, no matter how the human becomes more "civilised". The same with how we can laugh at plays such as "Twelfth Night" with misunderstandings of who we characters are. Likewise, Macbeth and King Lear show how far people can go in their quest for success or human fragility and Shakespeare therefore shows the human condition in all its timeless flaws.Unfortunately violence in many forms will always appear throughout history, but the flip side, such as the creativity and the power to make us think, centuries later, exist in the hands of thinkers such as Shakespeare.