History NightmareFuel / WilliamShakespeare

!!Plays that have their own subpages:

!!Plays that don't:

!!Plays that have their own pages:

* As evidenced by the title, ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' has Petruchio psychologically wearing down his bride Katherine. She's DeniedFoodAsPunishment and subjected to a SleepDeprivationPunishment and even TwoPlusTortureMakesFive! Her speech at the end, urging women to submit to their husbands, demonstrates how fully Petruchio has crushed her spirit. The worst part is that, though some more recent performances have acknowledged the horror of what Katherine goes through (for example, by playing up the BrokenBird angle during her final monologue), [[ValuesDissonance more traditional versions play the whole thing for laughs!]]

* As evidenced by the title, ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' has Petruchio psychologically wearing down his bride Katherine. She's DeniedFoodAsPunishment and subjected to a SleepDeprivationPunishment and even TwoPlusTortureMakesFive! Her speech at the end, urging women to submit to their husbands, demonstrates how fully Petruchio has crushed her spirit. The worst part is that, though more recent performances have acknowledged the horror of what Katherine goes through (for example, by depicting playing up the BrokenBird angle during her final monologue), [[ValuesDissonance more traditional versions play the whole thing for laughs!]]

* As evidenced by the title, ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' has Petruchio psychologically wearing down his bride Katherine. She's DeniedFoodAsPunishment and subjected to a SleepDeprivationPunishment and even TwoPlusTortureEqualsFive! Her speech at the end, urging women to submit to their husbands, demonstrates how fully Petruchio has crushed her spirit. The worst part is that, though more recent performances have acknowledged the horror of what Katherine goes through (for example, by depicting playing up the BrokenBird angle during her final monologue), [[ValuesDissonance more traditional versions play the whole thing for laughs!]]

* ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' has Petruchio psychologically wearing down his bride Katherine. She's DeniedFoodAsPunishment and subjected to a SleepDeprivationPunishment and even TwoPlusTortureEqualsFive! Her speech at the end, urging women to submit to their husbands, demonstrates how fully Petruchio has crushed her spirit. The worst part is that, though more recent performances have acknowledged the horror of what Katherine goes through (for example, by depicting playing up the BrokenBird angle during her final monologue), [[ValuesDissonance more traditional versions play the whole thing for laughs!]]

* ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' has Petruchio psychologically wearing down his bride Katherine. She's DeniedFoodAsPunishment and subjected to SleepDeprivation and even TwoPlusTortureEqualsFive! Her speech at the end, urging women to submit to their husbands, shows how fully Petruchio has crushed her spirit. The worst part is that, though more recent performances have acknowledged the horror of what Katherine goes through (for example, by depicting playing up the BrokenBird angle during her final monologue), [[ValuesDissonance more traditional versions play the whole thing for laughs!]]

* The ending of ''Theatre/TheTwoGentlemenOfVerona'' may be this for Silvia. Her boyfriend Valentine briefly ''offered her to her would-be-rapist'' Proteus, who is his best friend, and thinks nothing of talking about how they will all live together (if his final line about "one feast, one house..." is to be taken literally).

* ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' (aka [[TheScottishTrope The Scottish Play]]):
** Bearded hags, apparitions of creepy, dancing children, potions brewed from dismembered animal and [[HumanResources people]] parts, murder, madness and general mayhem. Fun for the whole family. The Patrick Stewart telefilm version makes it worse. The witches murdering the captain from the beginning of the play, Banquo getting right back up after his murder, the witches using corpses to give Macbeth the infamous Birnam Wood prophecy... Goddamn.
** While you're at it, try scaring your kids with the [[WesternAnimation/ShakespeareTheAnimatedTales creepy animated film]] by the Russian studio {{Creator/Soyuzmultfilm}}. Everything about it is enough to do the job: bleak, desolate backgrounds; disturbing character designs (the witches themselves are bizarre); a gloomy colour palette, and plenty of surreal sequences. It ''perfectly'' captures the tone that Shakespeare was going for.
** The Witches tend to be creepy, but the Creator/PatrickStewart version ''really'' takes the cake; this adaptation really drives home the idea that the Witches are full on {{Humanoid Abomination}}s, appearing as a trio of nurses who move in near perfect synchronization, have a tendency to appear almost at random and slip into scenes undetected and have a [[VillainSong truly menacing version]] of their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WNicucFsYE infamous incantation]].
** The 2006 version has several moments, namely the deaths of [=MacDuff's=] family (also a TearJerker) and the [[NoYay sex]] [[FanDisservice scene]] between [=MacBeth=] and [[HotterAndSexier the younger, hotter versions of the Witches]].
** From the original play, the scene just after Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have assassinated King Duncan.

* The spectre from ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. We don't even know if it really is the soul of the dead king; it could be a demon planning to damn Hamlet. If so, '''it succeeds'''.

* ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' (aka [[TheScottishTrope The Scottish Play]]). Bearded hags, apparitions of creepy, dancing children, potions brewed from dismembered animal and [[HumanResources people]] parts, murder, madness and general mayhem. Fun for the whole family. The Patrick Stewart telefilm version makes it worse. The witches murdering the captain from the beginning of the play, Banquo getting right back up after his murder, the witches using corpses to give Macbeth the infamous Birnam Wood prophecy... Goddamn.

** While you're at it, try scaring your kids with the [[WesternAnimation/ShakespeareTheAnimatedTales creepy animated film]] by the Russian studio Creator/Soyuzmultfilm. Everything about it is enough to do the job: bleak, desolate backgrounds; disturbing character designs (the witches themselves are bizarre); a gloomy colour palette, and plenty of surreal sequences. It ''perfectly'' captures the tone that Shakespeare was going for.

** While you're at it, try scaring your kids with the [[https://youtube.com/qfnUq2_0FOY creepy animated film]] by the Russian studio Soyuzmultfilm. Everything about it is enough to do the job: bleak, desolate backgrounds; disturbing character designs (the witches themselves are bizarre); a gloomy colour palette, and plenty of surreal sequences. It ''perfectly'' captures the tone that Shakespeare was going for.

** While you're at it, try scaring your kids with the [[https://youtube.com/qfnUq2_0FOY creepy animated film]] by the Russian studio Soyuzmultfilm. Everything about it is enough to do the job: bleak, desolate backgrounds; off-model character designs (the witches themselves are bizarre); a gloomy colour palette, and plenty of surreal sequences. It ''perfectly'' captures the tone that Shakespeare was going for.