Monthly Archives: February 2013

Power and Independence in The Spanish Tragedy

Although the play cover a range of themes such as revenge and justice, one theme that sticks out to me is that of independence. Although it is quite obvious that Bel Imperia is afraid to lose her freedom if she dedicated herself to Balthazar or even one man in general, I see fear in Lorenzo as well when it comes to securing his independence. Before moving on further to analyze how fear comes from the loss of independence I would like to mention that my definition of independence circulates around the word power, simply for this play. Each character has a pride in the character they carry.

Starting with the obvious character, Bel Imperia openly admits her fear in act three and scene ten. When Lorenzo tries to make Balthazar her new knight in shining armor for trying to protect her she merely replies that she has a fear of losing the independence she has. Even when she meets up with Horatio, she would set the date, time and place as if she ran the relationship. In a way it is as if she does not like to be a woman traded to another man, but would like to keep her power from being able to make her own choices and decisions. She has succeeded in doing so for some time, for example the way she would not marry although it was a concern for the King.

Moving away from the stated actor, Lorenzo also has a great deal of fear. His power comes from the way we characterize him. From class discussions he is seen as manipulative and self interested. He only takes part in activities that would benefit him. He helps the Duke of Portugal, Balthazar but instead kill Horatio. In act two scene one he offers to protect Pedringano in exchange for him giving up his sister’s secrets. All the helps he offers is not with a good heart ot a good intentions. It is a means of control over the people around him. He uses Pedringano as a puppet when he needs information; when Bel Imperia’s servant does not work with him, Lorenzo threatens him with the promise of protection.

The need for power leads to the need to always feel independent from the people around you. This can have a good or bad outcome. In Bel Imperia’s case she did not want to be a trade off from one kingdom to the next, she enjoyed her power because at the time it was limited and with marriage would become even more limited. In Lorenzo’s case the need for power and independence works in an evil way that harms the people around him.

Posted in Power struggles, The Spanish Tragedy | 2 Comments

The Spanish Tragedy: The value of life

One thing that really stuck out to me while reading this play was the value of life, or the lack thereof. Death seems to be such a common occurrence that it becomes the “quick fix” to many of the issues the characters face. Almost makes it seem like the characters in this play don’t fully understand how permanent and extreme death is. We can observe this through several characters actions. It all starts when Lorenzo finds out that Bel-Imperia rejects Balthazar because she’s in love with Horatio. His first and immediate thought is that he simply must be disposed of. This then leads to Lorenzo telling Pedringano to kill Serberine because of mere suspicion (mind you, no questioning or further investigation was done in order to confirm this). Pedringano performs this duty without a doubt in mind, and this leads to Pedringano’s death sentence.

We observe a death trend after Horatio’s death, including the suicide of three characters. Hieronimo kills himself after he gets his son’s revenge, Isabella goes mad and kills herself after Horatio’s death, and Bel-Imperia commits suicide after she murders Balthazar. There’s very little value of life in this book, possibly due to the culture of war at this time and also because death isn’t a concept that’s fully understood. These people obviously know HOW to kill, but haven’t grasped the concept and permanence of death; no longer existing. They’re desensitized to death from the constant killings that occur as a way to “right a wrong” or punish those who have committed crimes.

 

Posted in Life vs. Death, The Spanish Tragedy, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Revenge and Justice: Pivotal Themes In The Spanish Tragedy.

Thomas Kyd’s play, The Spanish Tragedy, portrays an immense amount of revenge and justice. These two themes harbor an intense desire within a majority of Kyd’s characters. Firstly and importantly, the audience is immediately introduced to Don Andrea, and the character of Revenge. Don Andrea relies primarily on Revenge to vindicate his murder. Bel-Imperia, the play’s strong willed female character, seeks a form of revenge and justice for the wrongs that have been done to her. She has loved and lost both Andrea and Horatio at the hands of a murderous act and therefore seeks revenge on Balthazaar that ultimately backfires. Kyd’s Act II opens up a new realm for revenge and justice upon the discovery of Horatio’s murder and lifeless body by his father, Hieronomo. Hieronomo vows to seek revenge on the person who committed this heinous crime and seek justice in the name of his son. At one point in time, Hieronomo considers joining his son in death and committing suicide, but ultimately decides against it in the name of revenge and justice.

Kyd portrays revenge and the act of justice as two pivotal themes in his play, but also in life. Elizabethans, and the readers of the twenty- first century, are both enraptured and familiar with these feelings of revenge and the urge for justice that so easily can harbor within ourselves.

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Revenge in The Spanish Tragedy: An Eye for an Eye

The Spanish Tragedy is clearly a revenge play, with Revenge even being a character in the play.  A question that has long been debated concerning the play and outside of the context of the play is whether Hiernonimo is morally just in seeking revenge.  One can argue that Hiernomino really had no choice in seeking revenge for his son’s death, since the court would not offer him any help, granted his class status (another theme of the play).

We see Hieronimo’s inner conflict in deciding if he should choose “this way or that way” in Act III, scene xii, when Hiernomino grapples with the options of either taking his own life, or taking the way of revenge and justice for his son’s death.  We see the negative connotations that are ascribed to taking the matter of revenge in one’s own hands in Hieronimo’s soliloquy, where he describes the path of revenge as a path through hell.  Horatio cannot simply take these matters to the king since there are several obstacles in his way, such as his social class and diplomacy.  Lorenzo is nephew of the king of Spain and Balthazar is a prince of Portugal who is a key figure in the negotiation between the two nations, so the possibility of Hieronimo finding justice by the way of the king seems unlikely.

In Act III, scene xiii, again we see Hieronimo struggling with the matter of vengeance.  He exclaims, “Vindicta mihi!” or “vengeance is mine,” and considers leaving the matter of revenge to God.  However, he comes to the conclusion that it is his destiny to find his revenge against his son’s murderers.

Hieronimo is a Knight-Marshal, hence carrying out justice is a part of his job.  Although committing murder is an un-Christian thing to do, it seems to be Hieronimo’s only choice  in a society where you cannot depend on the Crown for justice.

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Basic Instructions for Posting, Commenting, and Placing Video on the Blog

Part 1. Posting and Commenting

As stated in the course syllabus, you are asked to create four titled blog posts containing 2-3 paragraphs (the posting schedule is here) as well as to comment twice on blog posts about plays which you are not assigned to post about. To contribute your own post, do the following:

1. Go to the Blogs at Baruch website (https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/) and enter your username and password (they are the same as the username and password you enter to log in to your Baruch email).

2. Place your cursor over “My Sites” at the top of the screen, and click on “english renaissance drama.” You will see the site Dashboard–this is the back end of the site. To view the front end of the site, place your cursor over “english renaissance drama” and click on “Visit Site.” To create your own post, place your cursor over “+ New,” and click on “Post.” You may need to enter your username and password again, and then you will be in the post composition window. Write your post–remember, it should have a point of view and textual evidence. To publish your post, click on the “Publish” button on the right.

3. To comment on another student’s post, you should log in to the blog as described above and again hover over “english renaissance drama” and click on “Visit Site.” When you see a post that you would like to comment on, click on “Leave a Comment” or “X Comment(s)” at the bottom of the post and enter your comment in the box.

Part 2. Creating and Posting Scene Videos on the Blog

Later on in the semester, you will work in groups to videotape an interpretive reading of a scene from a Renaissance play. These videos should be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo and posted on the course blog. You will follow these basics steps to complete this assignment:

1. Work as a group to determine how you will stage and interpret your scene–closely follow the preparation instructions here. Film the scene using a phone videocamera, regular videocamera, or other videorecording device (such as an iPad).

2. Load your video onto your PC or Mac and edit as needed using a basic video editor, such as iMovie for Mac or Windows Live Movie Maker for PC (http://windows-live-movie-maker.en.softonic.com/).

3. Save the final version of your scene and then upload the file using YouTube or Vimeo (for both sites, simply log in or register, click on the Upload button, and follow the instructions to upload your video).

4. Start a new blog post (see 1-2 in Part 1 above). Copy and paste the YouTube URL into your blog post and hit “Publish.” For Vimeo, you can also simply copy and paste the URL, though you may need to change https:// to http://

Your video should appear and play within the published blog post. Here is an example from last semester:

Here is the link to the course website from last semester’s Shakespearean Scene Studies course:  https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng4140fall2012/

5. If you have any technical questions or run into trouble along the way, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Please don’t wait until the last minute to complete these assignments. You can expect me to respond to your email within 24 hours.

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