Berger, Harry, Jr. “The Early Scenes of Macbeth: Preface to a New Interpretation.” ELH 47, no. 1 (Spring 1980): 1-31.

Analyzes the portrayal of feudal kingship in Act I, scenes 2, 4, and 6 of Macbeth. From Berger's perspective, these scenes demonstrate that Scotland is beset by political conflict and instability, and that Macbeth's enemies are complicit in the evil that pervades the play.

Burns, Margie. “The Ending of The Shrew.” Shakespeare Studies 18 (1986): 41-64.

Challenges the notion that there is a lost or “missing” ending to The Taming of the Shrew. Burns points to structural, linguistic, and thematic parallels between the Induction and the final scene, as she traces the play's movement from hierarchical division to reciprocal exchange.

Butler, F. G. “Erasmus and the Deaths of Cordelia and Lear.” English Studies 73, no. 1 (February 1992): 10-21.

Interprets the ending of King Lear in terms of Renaissance views of life, death, and the human soul. Butler proposes that Gloucester's death is a liberation, Cordelia's is a sacrifice to atone for her father's errors and her own, and Lear's is a transformative one, because the once self-absorbed monarch dies entirely concerned with his daughter rather than himself.

Carroll, William C. “The Ending of Twelfth Night and the Tradition of Metamorphosis.” In Shakespearean Comedy, edited by Maurice Charney, pp. 49-61. New York: New York Literary Forum, 1980.

Relates Twelfth Night's recognition scene—the reunion of Viola and Sebastian—to literary antecedents that employ the drama of metamorphosis, including Ovid's Metamorphoses, the Italian commedia dell'arte, and two plays by John Lyly. Carroll argues that Shakespeare, unlike his predecessors, offers in this scene a series of equivalent conversions rather than an explicitly supernatural resolution to dramatize the enigma of doubleness.

Cunningham, Dolora. “Conflicting Images of the Comic Heroine.” In “Bad” Shakespeare: Revaluations of the Shakespeare Canon, pp. 120-29. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1988.

Asserts that the ending of All's Well That Ends Well raises serious doubts about a resolution of the conflict between Helena and Bertram. In Cunningham's judgment, obstacles to the heroine's happiness are still present at the close—despite the unusual degree of control she has had over the course of events.

Draper, John W. “Antecedent Action in Shakespeare's Earlier Plays.” In Stratford to Dogberry: Studies in Shakespeare's Earlier Plays, pp. 24-39. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1961.

Traces the development of Shakespeare's artistry in conveying information about events, situations, and character changes that occurred before the play begins. From Love's Labor's Lost to As You Like It, Draper shows the dramatist's advances in combining explanatory dialogue and action—rather than direct exposition—to impart a realistic sense of continuity.

Gross, Gerard J. “The Conclusion to All's Well That Ends Well.” Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 23, no. 2 (Spring 1983): 257-76.

Maintains that the final scene of All's Well That Ends Well reflects the tension between romance and realism that runs throughout the comedy. Gross suggests that the not entirely believable reconciliation of Helena and Bertram is consistent with Shakespeare's realistic treatment of romantic conventions in this play.

Halio, Jay L. An introduction to King Lear, by William Shakespeare, pp. 1-89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

A section—pages 29-34—of this introduction is devoted to the question of tragic reversal in King Lear. Halio notes that much of the action of Acts IV and V encourages audiences to be optimistic about the outcome of the play, although, in almost nihilistic or absurdist fashion, Shakespeare flouts our expectations.

Hodgdon, Barbara. “‘Let the End Try the Man’: 1 and 2 Henry IV.” In The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradiction in Shakespeare's History, pp. 151-84. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Reads 1 and 2 Henry IV as texts that link Falstaff with the unruly female body. The banishment of Falstaff at the close of both plays is necessary, Hodgdon proposes, because he exemplifies the subversive suggestion that history is comprised of lies and deceits. Hodgdon also comments on the interesting likelihood that the Epilogue to 2 Henry IV—which promises to continue the story in a new play, once again featuring “Sir John”—was originally delivered by the actor who played Falstaff.

———. “‘A Full and Natural Close, Like Music’: Henry V.” In The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradiction in Shakespeare's History, pp. 185-211. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Finds in the concluding scenes of Henry V a multiple perspective that, like the divided vision in the play, challenges political ideology. Narrative closure is achieved at the end of Act IV, Hodgdon points out, with the image of an egalitarian brotherhood forged at Agincourt, but this image is tainted by the expulsion of Pistol in V.ii; similarly, the depiction of Henry and Katherine's marriage as an emblem of social and political harmony is undercut by the words of the Epilogue, which call attention to the transient nature of not only Henry's achievements but also of theatrical representations that mythologize history.

Jensen, Ejner J. “‘The Career of … Humor’: Comedy's Triumph in Much Ado about Nothing.” In Shakespeare and the Ends of Comedy, pp. 44-71. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Discerns throughout the play a number of episodes that prefigure the comic resolution of Much Ado about Nothing. Over-emphasis on the Hero-Claudio plot has inevitably led commentators to stress the dark or problematic aspects of this work, Jensen contends, but in his opinion, the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is the comedy's central and dominant concern.

Kirby, Ian J. “The Passing of King Lear.” Shakespeare Survey 41 (1989): 145-57.

Interprets the death of Lear in the context of medieval Christian beliefs and attitudes. The King overcomes his despair over Cordelia's death and dies in a state of grace, Kirby maintains; the critic further suggests that Lear's final moments are suffused with joy because he knows he will be reunited with his daughter in the afterlife.

Ko, Yu Jin. “The Comic Close of Twelfth Night and Viola's Noli me tangere.” Shakespeare Quarterly 48, no. 4 (Winter 1997): 391-405.

Relates the mixture of joy and pain in the recognition scene between Viola and Sebastian to the play's treatment of time and desire. In Ko's judgment, the poignancy of deferred satisfaction in their reunion is heightened by Shakespeare's implicit allusion here to the biblical narrative of the encounter between Mary Magdalene and the resurrected Jesus.

Lesser, Simon O. “Act One, Scene One, of Lear.” College English 32, no. 2 (November 1970): 155-71.

Identifies a combination of factors that motivate Lear's and Cordelia's conduct in the play's opening scene. Lesser argues that fear, anger, and unacknowledged feelings of incestuous love lead both the King and his daughter to act irrationally and contrary to their interests.

Magnusson, A. Lynne. “The Collapse of Shakespeare's High Style in The Two Noble Kinsmen.” English Studies in Canada XIII, no. 4 (December 1987): 375-90.

Examines Shakespeare's use of ornate rhetoric in the opening and closing scenes of The Two Noble Kinsmen. Magnusson proposes that Shakespeare employed highly wrought language and imagery in I.i to conceal the lack of thematic substance there, but in V.iv he used the same style to undermine the dramatic action and mock its farcical nature.

Merchant, Moelwyn. “Shakespeare's Sixth Act.” In Essays by Divers Hands, n.s. vol. XLII, pp. 78-90. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 1982.

Asserts that Shakespeare's mature plays overtly encourage us to speculate about the future beyond the time-sequence of the dramatic action. Merchant illustrates his thesis with a survey of the endings of King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest, among others.

Neill, Michael. “‘Exeunt with a Dead March’: Funeral Pageantry on the Shakespearean Stage.” In Pageantry in the Shakespearean Theater, edited by David M. Bergeron, pp. 153-93. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985.

Describes the scope and symbolism of Elizabethan funeral rites for important public figures, and demonstrates how these influenced the stage funerals devised by Kyd, Marlowe, and Shakespeare. Neill maintains that the form of funerals—as well as their placement—in Shakespeare's plays has profound significance. To support his argument, Neill surveys the opening funerals in 1 Henry VI, Richard III, and Titus Andronicus; the mid-play funerals in Hamlet and Julius Caesar; and the concluding ones in Troilus and Cressida, Timon of Athens, Othello, and King Lear.

———. “Finit coronat opus: The Monumental Ending of Anthony and Cleopatra.” In Issues of Death: Mortality and Identity in English Renaissance Tragedy, pp. 305-27. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Focuses on the double closing of Anthony and Cleopatra and the contrasting modes of encountering death. When Antony falls on his sword, Neill contends, he betrays once again his fear of losing his self-image as the Herculean hero. Cleopatra follows this with an extraordinary funeral oration for her lover, and there is the sense of an ending. Yet the play's final act depicts the monumentalizing power of art, Neill argues, as Shakespeare's Cleopatra carries out the precept of the Renaissance motto: “The end crowns all.”

Nochimson, Richard L. “‘The End Crowns All’: Shakespeare's Deflation of Tragic Possibility in Antony and Cleopatra.” English XXVI, no. 125 (Summer 1977): 99-132.

Asserts that Shakespeare purposely deflates Antony and Cleopatra throughout the play, even in the scenes of their death; so, what happens to them should be of very little interest to us. However, Nochimson declares, because these characters see themselves in tragic terms, and because of the influence of other historical and literary treatments of their story, we find ourselves responding to the legend of Antony and Cleopatra—not to Shakespeare's drama.

Palmer, D. J. “‘We shall know by this fellow’: Prologue and Chorus in Shakespeare.” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 64, no. 2 (Spring 1982): 501-21.

Outlines the function and dramatic effectiveness of Shakespeare's prologues and choruses. Palmer describes the playwright's adaptations and transformation of these traditional devices, and discusses their use in Romeo and Juliet, 2 Henry IV, Henry V, Troilus and Cressida, Pericles, and The Winter's Tale.

Partee, Morriss Henry. “Edgar and the Ending of King Lear.” Studia Neophilologica LXIII, no. 2 (1991): 175-80.

Avers that the resolution of the political crisis in the kingdom diverts the audience's attention from the pathos of Lear's death. Partee believes that by the end of the play, Edgar has developed sufficient insight and compassion to be worthy of the responsibility Albany bestows on him.

Pechter, Edward. “Falsifying Men's Hopes: The Ending of 1 Henry IV.” Modern Language Quarterly 41, no. 3 (September 1980): 211-30.

Maintains that the lack of resolution in the closing lines of 1 Henry IV reflects the play's responsiveness—and ours—to a broad range of human experience. After the scene in the Boar's Head tavern, Pechter contends, we are gradually led to accept Hal's purposiveness as preferable to Falstaff's spontaneity, but we continue to empathize with Falstaff's inventiveness and his perspective on life.

Rovine, Harvey. “The Final Silence.” In Silence in Shakespeare: Drama, Power, and Gender, pp. 91-98. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987.

Summarizes the ways in which audiences may react to the final silence of Shakespeare's plays. In the course of his discussion, Rovine considers how the playwright manages different transitions from language to silence at the close: for example, with increasing use of pauses between speeches, as in Hamlet; with epilogues or pageants, as in Love's Labor's Lost; or with no apparent preparation, as in Measure for Measure.

Shaw, John. “King Lear: The Final Lines.” Essays in Criticism XVI, no. 3 (July 1966): 261-67.

Calls attention to the contrast between Albany's last two speeches in the concluding scene of King Lear. The formal one (V.iii.297-305) promises justice and the restoration of order, Shaw points out; but the second speech, following Lear's death, is humble and subdued, signaling Albany's understanding that there can be no return to normalcy after this intolerable tragedy.

Siemon, James E. “The Merchant of Venice: Act V as Ritual Reiteration.” Studies in Philology, LXVII, no. 2 (April 1970): 201-9.

Argues that the final act of The Merchant of Venice comprises a festive reenactment of the events of Acts I through IV. Siemon maintains that Shakespeare here represents the earlier dramatic action as ending in harmonious reconciliation, in order to distract the audience's attention away from Shylock's unresolved dispute with Venetian society.

Sugnet, Charles J. “Exaltation at the Close: A Model for Shakespearean Tragedy.” Modern Language Quarterly 38, no. 4 (December 1977): 323-35.

A survey of the final self-affirmation of the central figures in Shakespeare's mature tragedies. At the outset, Sugnet observes, external authority endows Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Othello, and Cleopatra with iconic status, but in the end, having lost faith in this authority, each of them creates a self-definition based on an internal source of values.

Weimann, Robert. “Thresholds to Memory and Commodity in Shakespeare's Endings.” Representations 53 (Winter 1996): 1-20.

Discusses Shakespeare's deferred endings in the context of social changes that accompanied the shift from the premodern age to early modern culture in Elizabethan England. Audiences who were not adept in the traditional art of story-telling would be less likely than their predecessors to successfully recollect a theatrical representation after it was over, Weimann argues. Thus Shakespeare suggestively gives epilogue-like speeches to his characters, in which they pledge to discuss the dramatic action further among themselves after the play concludes—much as the audience members must do if they are to continue to enjoy the representation once they've left the theater.

Westlund, Joseph. “Omnipotence and Reparation in Prospero's Epilogue.” In Narcissism and the Text: Studies in Literature and the Psychology of Self, edited by Lynne Layton and Barbara Ann Schapiro, pp. 64-77. New York: New York University Press, 1986.

A psychoanalytic reading of the epilogue to The Tempest which asserts that Prospero is speaking here as a dramatic character, not as Shakespeare's intermediary. Westlund maintains that in this speech, Prospero is trying to manipulate the audience—as he earlier controlled Miranda, Ariel, and Caliban—into affirming his godlike self-image.

Willson, Robert F., Jr. “Citizens in Revolt: Street Scenes in Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra.” In Shakespeare's Opening Scenes, pp. 166-92. Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik Universität Salzburg, 1977.

Evaluates the opening scenes in Shakespeare's Roman plays in terms of the one-sided perspectives they provide on the subsequent dramatic action. In Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra, Willson proposes, the initial scenes depict resentment as well as concern—on the part of patricians, tribunes, or ordinary citizens—that their leaders are more concerned with personal issues than with the fate of their country.

———. “King Lear: From Nothing to Nothingness.” In Shakespeare's Reflexive Endings, pp. 39-57. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990.

Characterizes Lear at the moment of his death as more pitiful than tragic. In Willson's judgment, the King never recognizes that excessive passion blinded him to the consequences of his division of the realm, nor does he accept responsibility for unleashing the forces of lust and ambition that annihilate his daughter and nearly destroy his kingdom.