Even though Shakespeare's numerous poems and plays covered a wide range of issues and themes, those of corruption, violence, death, vengeance and destiny are the most frequent ones among his works, and especially among his well renowned tragedies.

The imminent example of the theme of corruption is in the story of Macbeth. In which a good Scottish general becomes an immoral and corrupted leader due to the power of ambition. The same idea is expressed in Hamlet, when the king's own brother, Claudius, assassinates Hamlet's father and marries his wife, the queen, in order become king himself. Likewise, we encounter this theme in King Lear, where a king's own daughters drive their generous father into insanity because of their growing avarice for his fortune. Through these depictions of corruption, Shakespeare conveys how greed and avarice are innate to human nature.

The theme of violence as an innate and destructive force is present in many of his works as well. Macbeth, considered by many as his darkest play, portrays the assassination of the king of Scotland, followed by deaths at all levels of the social hierarchy. The poor, the rich, the innocent, the guilty, women and children, are all vulnerable to suffer a violent death in what appears to be Shakespeare's pessimistic depiction of the tainted times in which he lived.

Death as a mysterious and ambiguous force is majestically depicted his tragedies. The story of Hamlet could be interpreted as Shakespeare's speculation on the afterlife. In Hamlet we encounter the ghost of King Hamlet, who is unable to rest in peace until his death has been avenged, and prince Hamlet, who vacillates between living an unbearably cruel life, and suffering eternal agony in hell. Interestingly, the bad characters end their lives in suicide in many of the plots.

In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, who is the person that drives the general to murder the king, and thus set the plot going, commits suicide upon realizing the failure of her plans. In King Lear, Reagan, the most manipulative daughter commits suicide as well. Last but not least, in Romeo and Juliet, both of the protagonists commit suicide because they could not endure life without each other.

All in all, the corruption, violence, and death displayed in most of Shakespeare's works convey the unstable times in which he lived. While writing about these topics, he expressed a subtle criticism of the contemporaneous society and monarchy.