Category Archives: Life vs. Death

Paulina’s Guise (The Winter’s Tale, Act III Scene II)

(The following post contains spoilers to the end of The Winter’s Tale)

While Paulina’s account of Hermione’s death may seem shocking and quite feverish in its delivery, with the later ‘reanimation’ of the Queen in mind, it is possible to read her delivery as a kind of act to disguise the truth of Hermione’s death.  Even before Paulina has left and returned to announce the Queen’s death, she hints at the potential fatality, she states, “This news is mortal to the Queen–look down / And see what death is doing.” This foreboding warning to Leontes cannot be mere happenstance. Perhaps Paulina and Hermione have decided to take advantage of her sons death in order to escape from the rampaging madness and rashness of the king. This would also allow Hermione to live a (relatively) free life, until the events of the play would allow for her return.

Paulina’s sudden hysterical reaction to Hermione’s death can easily be interpreted as an expression of grief for her departed mistress. Yet, Paulina’s previous behaviour in the play depicts her as an observant and persistent person. Even when she playfully calls Leontes a tyrant when she attempts to present his new born child to him, she remains witty and logical in her banter and advice/condemnation. To suddenly turn so explosive, so explicitly brutal in her tone and speech, is a auspicious turn of character for Paulina.

“What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? / What wheels, racks, fires? What flaying, boiling / In lead or oils?.”

Later when questioned about her explosive behaviour  by one of the gentlemen at court, Paulina rationalizes her actions as “the rashness of a woman.” This posture of Paulina’s could further indicate her pretense of Hermione’s death. Paulina understands the benefits that this performance affords her.  Socially, her role as a woman excuses her irrational behaviour, and by fulfilling that expected role of the over-emotional grief stricken woman, by conceding to these conventions (and hiding her normally rational behaviour–thus allowing Paulina to overcome this particular branch of madness, implying perhaps another win for the distaff sphere) Paulina can successfully hide the death of the Queen and convince the court of her sincerity.

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The Changeling

Beatrice and De Flores’ relationship in The Changeling was very peculiar to me. Throughout the play she was disgusted by him, but when taking him up on his service she was then almost attached to his fate. The first introduction the audience has of their relationship is De Flores coming to talk to her but then she cuts him off showing her dominating status over him. It wasn’t until her passion for another man led her to the beginning of her end.

Beatrice was flirting with her demise when she flirted with De Flores to get him to kill Antonio. At this point she shows a break in the social boundaries by telling De Flores to stand up, rising him to her level. After committing the act, De Flores comes back to gain his reward. Accept, contrary to what Beatrice thinks, the reward he seeks is much greater then any monetary value. I saw this as him outsmarting Beatrice and making her in debt to him.

By neither of the characters specifying the reward for De Flores’ servitude, it places him in the perfect position. As soon as she asked him for his help she sealed her fate. De Flores was then able to gain the upper hand and this is truly the point where they become equal. Him physically then taking her virginity enforces that she just gave away her power. Her virginity was in fact the thing that made her most desirable, and without it she was then portrayed as less then.

At the end when De Flores stabs Beatrice is again another peculiar scene. She cries out in a mixture of pain and pleasure confusing to those that hear it. De Flores was not only to blame for her loss of status but now her loss of life. As they died by each other it almost seems poetic, but the fact that he stabbed her just shows how desperate he was to be so truly equal if not overpowering her.

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Death and Its Release

Given the setting of the drama and the attitudes during the time it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that death was a release for the Duchess and the ones truly close to her. Instead of being bound by the rules and laws that are present she is able to escape all that. Death does not represent to her an end but rather a beginning. For in the next world she would be able to live freely and as she wishes (granted this would mean that there is a life after death but…this is not the time to argue on that matter). Granted at the time she thought that Antonio and her children were dead, so this furthered her belief that death would enable her to reunite with them. While we as the audience know that this is not the case at the moment, it allows her to face her impending execution with courage  and defiance.

Frankly I’m glad that the Duchess was killed. Had she remained alive it would’ve been for no other reason then for Ferdinand to gloat over the so-called power he has over her. With her execution Ferdinand kinda lost what he was trying so hard to keep in the first place. I could imagine the Duchess smiling down from whatever astral plane she is on and remarking on how she won in the end. True her death could have been avoided and maybe something could have happened that might have resulted in a happier ending, but given the circumstances it played out quite well.

 

 

 

Posted in Life vs. Death, Love relationships, Power struggles, The Duchess of Malfi, Tragedy | 3 Comments

Dilemmas and Devils

Christopher Marlow’s Doctor Faustus deviated from the Elizabethan tradition of presenting plays on the subjects of love, war, or courtly transgressions. The prologue’s Chorus focused our attention on our “muse,” Faustus whose fate was of considerable interest to the newly protestant Elizabethan/Jacobean audiences. Faustus was a man of great intellect who sold his soul to the devil for god-like powers, only to waste both his powers and his soul for what seemed like trivial achievements.
Faustus was described as the son of lower class parents who had excelled tremendously at the University of Wittenberg and was granted a Doctorate in Medicine and Theology. In his first soliloquy Faustus informed the audience that he had reached the pinnacle of every subject that he had studied (including philosophy, medicine, law, and theology) and that the only thing left to expand his mind and abilities was necromancy. Faustus knew that pursuing necromancy was a fatal sin against his god but came to the conclusion that divinity was baseless because all humans commit sin and thus to adhere to a religion that punished sin was illogical. Faustus asked “What doctrine call you this? Que sera, sera” (What will be, shall be). Faustus focused his desires and decided through some contemplation (with spirits like the Good Angel and Evil Angel and the magicians Valdes and Cornelius) that he would sell his soul to the devil for ultimate power.
One of the most comical scenes was when Faustus first performed the incantations to summon the devil Mephistopheles who appeared as an ugly fiend, to which Faustus commanded that he return in the image of a Friar. This scene was both comical and heretical in Marlowe’s time and furthered what seemed like a highly secular, almost atheistic jest of a play. The pact that Faustus made with Lucifer enabled him to use Mephistopheles as his personal servant for twenty-four years. Throughout this period Faustus pursued and personified the seven deadly sins, that were also presented to the audience in a dumb-play, and achieved nothing of any worth. He managed to play a trick on the pope, summon the spirit of Alexander the Great for Charles the V, and garner fresh grapes for a German Duke’s wife.
In the end, Faustus stood the fool for his time ran out and Lucifer owned his soul. He was torn to shreds and dragged off to hell. Faustus achieved nothing during his time as a great necromancer except sleeping with succubi and performing party tricks, however a deeper issue was presented to the audience. The issue of eternal damnation which was and is a terribly frightening issue for devout Christians. I imagine that the audience, being very religious, was left with a sense of content at Faustus’ fate.

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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