She was being a typical wife to Brutus, being concerned for his actions, his behavior, his emotions and feelings. She was genuinely scared for Brutus, but Brutus, being the tough guy he is, brushed her off by saying that he is only sick. Eventually, Portia sliced herself to prove her love to Brutus. That is an act of desperation. She should not be doing this kind of behavior to get Brutus' attention, but she did so. Finally, in Act four, Scene three, Portia is declared dead by stuffing her mouth with hot coals. There are two things that came from this. Portia could have done it herself, to stay quiet about the conspiracy, or, Brutus' pals decided to kill off Portia to shut her up. From what I have read, it said that she "took hot burning coals and cast them in her mouth, and kept her mouth so close that she choked herself." That tells me that she killed herself. With her death, as a blow to Brutus, it does not affect the play in a big way. Brutus' actions were something like "oh, she's dead, oh darn, life goes on." It seems to me that Brutus does not care very much for Portia, only for himself. Portia has failed. She was not able to continue supporting Brutus, or even expose the conspiracy to the other people in Rome. It is a big failure, how she just decided to end her life. With hot coals in her mouth, it seems to me that she decided to punish herself, and used the hot coals to shut her up. Therefore, Portia did not do much in the play, just show concern for Brutus and decided to kill herself during the play. That shows a big tragic failure in Portia. .

             Thirdly, there is Hamlet. Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius. In the first act, Laertes has warned Ophelia about Hamlet's madness and tells her to stay away from him. Later, we meet Ophelia and she is frightened by Hamlet's actions. Then to make matters worse, Ophelia is used as a pawn in a game against Hamlet as displayed in Act Three, Scene one.