I've generally read that in most western cultures suicide has been looked down on being viewed at best as a sickness and at worst as a serious sign of moral fault. In Shakespeare, however, in plays such as Romeo and Juliet or Othello suicide seems to be very romanticized. How was suicide viewed in Elizabethan times and how would have people reacted to suicide in these plays?
Shakespeare was quite groundbreaking in his views on suicide - Hamlet, for example, takes a reasoned and logical approach to deciding if his life is worth living.
In Elizabethan times, suicide was regarded as a terrible sin. Suicides were often denied proper burials, or their bodies purposefully desecrated. A failed suicide would probably mark you out as insane/possessed by a demon.