Revenge is a dish best served cold
Comments(2) Though we’ve only been assigned the first two acts of “The Revenger’s Tragedy”, several important themes seem to be prevalent. Among them are revenge, envy and incest(sort of). The play’s main character, Vindice(very subtle name), sets the tone for the play; carrying his former lover’s skull at the beginning of the play. Apparently, the current duke, lusting after Vindice’s lover, Glorianna, was denied in his lust and therefore poisoned her. Vindice is seen at the beginning of the play speaking to the skull and vowing revenge on the duke for his “Sin”.
Speaking of sin, this word is repeated constantly throughout the play. It would be wise to look for some religious theme to come to play here if it hasn’t already. Chastity and adultery are already used as a measure of sin. The sinner in the play seems to be he that commits adultery or is loose(Lussurioso) and the “purest” is also the most chaste(Castiza).
As far as envy is concerned, the Duke and Duchess’ son’s are all out to get each other killed. The Duchess’ son’s want Lussurioso dead and “the bastard”(what’s the story behind him? I think it turns out that he’s actually the Duke’s son, but of illegitimate birth. Of course) wants all of the children dead.
The incest here occurs with “the bastard” and the Duchess. Jeez!
That is what we call a play……….
I’m sure there will be lots more to come as we read(I haven’t even mentioned Junior Brother raping some woman at a masquerade and how it seems like he’s going to get away with it!). Revenge tragedy? Definitely a whole lot more……
One thing that I noticed as well is that certain words are capitalized, for example, “Vengeance”, “Tragedy”, “Revenge” ,“Opportunity” and “Occasion”, while these words written separately mean different things, if you put them together they do intertwine and make a very interesting story. I am eager to see how these words play out for the rest of the play. There has to be an Occasion for the need for Vengeance and wait for an Opportunity to take Revenge and it always ends in Tragedy.
In a world where according to the characters in the play, a person’s life could easily be traded with money, coin, and currency. People are treated like objects or more harshly said like “merchandize” that can be traded and exchanged easily. This seems to be a reoccurring theme during the years between the 15th and the 16th centuries. The rise of trading and currency in the world in those years helped shape the way literature was written.
The literature and the arts always give the person a glimpse of the times. Even though, The Revenger’s Tragedy takes place not in growing city of London and in an unidentified Italian court. The theme keeps cycling, people are treated like merchandize and the ones who possess the “coin” is at an advantage. Those who have money or have the ability to acquire money are able to get away with many crimes committed against those who do not possess money. While those who do not possess money have to find alternate ways to take care of the situation in which otherwise could have been resolve with money. So money means power and authority and the more coin that you possess the more powerful you are.
Bravo! I love this post! It sums up the first two scenes beautifully. I agree with you, this revenge play surely has our heads spinning. As the reader, we’re thrown into the drama from scene 1 act 1! The only thing I really have to comment on about your post is about Spurio. For now, we’re aware that he was conceived out of wedlock with the Duke and an unknown woman. This makes Spurio and the Duchess Step mother and Step son. Though it’s incest by marriage, it’s not incest by blood. (Oedipus complex anyone?)