Author Archives: jl112805

Posts: 2 (archived below)
Comments: 2

Greed Doesn’t Pay

Posted on May 15, 2013 by jl112805

As we have recently seen in The Changeling, villainous greed is not a successful route to obtain your goals.  The same theme is reinforced here by Sir Giles Overreach in A New Way to Pay Old Debts.  Massinger’s Overreach makes it known his true colors of extortion and abuse of power; “‘Twas for these good ends/ I made him a justice. He that bribes his belly/ Is certain to command his soul” (2.1.8–10).  Going as low as helping his nephew Wellborn relieve himself of all his worth.  Overreach goes on to reveal pride that he “value not an atom” of the religious right and wrong, (2.1.26).  He creates devious plans to obtain the wealth of those around him concerned only with his position in the end.  However, just like Beatrice, all his scheming is for naught.  Overreach’s own greed becomes his downfall as he loses to the very people, good people, he planned to sabotage.

Happily, we end the semester with a comedy.  One with a valuable lesson.  Be weary of the over ambitious ones surrounding you, there is a fine line between ambition and greed.  Greedy people will walk all over you if allowed and we should all be aware of them.  I am glad to end with a play that didn’t require anyone’s tongue being cut out or children threatened to prove a point.  Somehow, this 400 year old play says a lot for what a group of good people can do regardless of the position held by the opposition.  Without becoming political, it amazes me how this play points out that if one greedy tyrant is stopped, many other lives can flourish.

Posted in A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Comedy, Stylistic qualities | 2 Comments

The Shoemaker’s Holiday, Love, Fate, and No Bloodshed

Posted on March 12, 2013 by jl112805

Up to the point of scene 13, we as a class have taken a harmonious holiday from the bloody affair that is love in Renaissance drama.  Unlike The Spanish Tragedy, Dekker’s characters have proposed a dubious, yet non-lethal scheme to achieving inter-class love.  Rose is attempting to reclaim her affair with Lacy but through his new identity of Hans.  Rather than Rose killing off her father or herself for love’s sake, she has devised a romantic plan of deception and triumphant love.  Surprisingly enough, Lacy seems to agree, and exits scene 13 with Sybil to go see Rose.  Ironically, the two characters are not desperately searching for each other, but have shown that they desperately love each other.  They fatefully cross paths at a celebration for Eyre.  It seems to me that Dekker substitutes bloodshed for fate.  If fate achieves love, then bloodshed may be avoided.

Also adding an ironic twist, Dekker gives us Hammon.  He desperately seeks love but cannot obtain it from a woman.  Whether from Rose or Jane, Hammon just wants somebody to love.  He “will do any task at your command” he tells Jane (12.37).  Hammon is a “gentleman” and from descriptions a handsome man, but he cannot woo a woman to love him.  What seems like fate to him, Ralph’s name on the list of the dead, is actually a lie.  After seeing Ralph’s name, Jane forces herself to agree that if she marries another man it would be Hammon.

It seems as though Dekker has removed the bloodshed to project his opinion on fate.  In the case of Rose and Lacy/Hans, their love is true and not sought for class, wealth, or to fill loneliness.  On the other hand is Hammon.  He so desperately wants love, but everyone he seeks it with loves another person.  His persistence forces Jane to believe her love is dead but gains no love for himself.  I can only hope in the following scenes that fate brings Jane and Ralph back together to show that fate and true love prevail.

Posted in Comedy, Love relationships, Power struggles, The Shoemaker's Holiday, Uncategorized | 1 Comment