Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

The Spanish Tragedy, Thomas Kyd
Elements of revenge tragedy
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Avenger keen on bringing revenge on group of people who committed a form of crime
against avenger’s close family members – typically murder/rape
o Acts to revenge because state cannot or will not right the wrong
o Hieronomo believes the king wouldn’t act against his nephew
o Social order is implicated in the crimes committed
o Cynicism within play suggests the playwright is criticising the social justice system
within Elizabethan government and society
o Does not benefit from carrying out revenge – dies as a result
o Those responsible for Horatio’s murder is killed (avenged)
Victim and villain
Staged violence – stabbings, hangings and tongue bitten out
Ghost/physical token of dead
Meta theatrical device – play within a play device – dumb show/disguise
Transgressive sexual activity – adultery, rape, incest – Bel Imperia has transgressive sexual
appetite as she has a thing for lower class males
Madness – real/feigned

Francis Bacon – ‘On Revenge’ – The more men take revenge they need to rethink it – “revenge is a
kind of wild justice”
Tragedy genre blurs boundary of whether avenger should pursue justice through revenge or leave it
to God to punish wicked
Handkerchief becomes a symbol of revenge – given to Don Andrea from Bel Imperia as a sign of love,
picked up by Horatio when DA is killed which implies their friendship, picked up by Horatio’s father
which becomes the symbol of revenge – a whole group of opposite ideas
Robert Watson – world of revenge tragedy is a human world – rule is to do unto others as you have
been done to – God is absent from such plays – but does refer to classical Gods than the Christian
God – are the Classical Gods more realistic than the Christian one?
Act 1 Scene 3 – “Fortune is blind”
Viceroy grieving as a father foreshadows Hieronomo’s grievance
Invention of printing allowed Greek/Roman texts to become available – aware of ancient history
such as Aristotle’s ideas about tragedy – influential in defining genre
Kyd was influenced by Seneca who was an advisor to Nero and wrote plays based on Greek stories
Seneca’s knowledge of plays informed Elizabethan playwrights – took violence that happened
offstage in Seneca’s performances and made it onstage
•

•

Thomas Kyd
o Little knowledge of his life
o 1593, he was arrested during investigations over inciting violence; aesthetic tracts
discovered; under torture he accused Christopher Marlowe of atheism
o Author of missing Ur-Hamlet – original story of Hamlet
The Spanish Tragedy

o
o
o
o
o

written in 1587 and published in 1592
11 editions between 1592 and 1633
Archetypal revenge tragedy and influenced other plays
Don Andrea is ghostly appearance demanding for revenge
Cassandra Clark – revenge tragedy illuminated tension in existing social structure

Act 3 Scene 6 – Pedringano’s death – his lawful hanging counterpoises with Horatio’s unlawful
hanging, black humour – Lorenzo and Page undercut/manipulate law as they know the black box
doesn’t contain his pardon, reminds Hieronimo to avenge Horatio
Hanging body image is repeated throughout play
Revenge is agent of transformation – Act 1 Scene 5, 6-9 – Revenge will reverse situations – use of
contrast is typical in Renaissance plays – contrast between violent action alongside elaborate
rhetoric
Significance of nationalities
•
•

Not set in England – dangerous to criticise own country
Spain and Portugal were enemies of England and a Catholic country

Act 2 Scene 4
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Set in a garden – Garden of Eden – able to parallel Adam and Eve to BI and Horatio – both
commit crimes – happens at night – Horatio gets hung from a tree
Wild justice – hidden away from everyone – private
“die” – pun on orgasm or actual death
Scene is transgressive as Horatio is of a lower class than she – Horatio gives her the power
over him because of social standing
Juxtaposition of romantic scene of BI and Horatio against quick murder – disjunction of
scene
Sardonic humour – laughing at Horatio’s ambition – lines 55 and 61
Rhyming couplets mirroring their actions of love



---