I’m a comedy guy and I enjoy a good laugh when watching a comedy movie that perhaps has a small dose of action. Drama was never one of my favorite themes, especially a violent one. I spent a significant amount of time thinking about a movie or any work of art that will even compare to the level of drama introduced in “Duchess of Malfi”.
After some time thinking about this I realized that it’s not the drama that I need to focus on but the revenge. I believe the revenge is a major driver for the drama that follows the play. Ferdinant with his brother plot against his sister after they find out about her double life. The play unfolds at that point by introducing the read to the violence.
The movie that came to my mind after switching gears and focusing on the revenge aspect was “Taken”. The main character in the movie played by Liam Neeson is on a mission to rescue his daughter from hands of European human traffickers. While rescuing his daughter the main character kills everyone on his way without any second thought. This reminds very much of the Cardinal in the “Duchess of Malfi” who kills everyone that stands in his way. Both characters are driven by the need of revenge and they harm people that violated their believes, restrictions or family.
Like a jacobean drama, which is filled with moral corruption, revenge, pursuit of immortality, gory violence, and crime, Vince Gilligan created his series Breaking Bad on these premises. The entire series from beginning to end was a story of innocent man in hopes to financially secure his family loses his identity and morality. His journey from finding financial stability to a journey of immortality through violence, crimes, revenge, and respect. The most iconic lines in the entire series, in my opinion:
“Say my name”
“Heisenberg”
“You’re GOD DAMN RIGHT”
Walter White was a high school chemistry teacher. Even though he was only a high school chemistry teacher, he was a genius for his time in the field of chemistry. Walter was diagnosed with lung cancer and it was potentially fatal. So to secure his family future he teamed up with a former student of his, Jesse Pinkman, to cook crystal meth. Since Walter was a genius in chemistry, he was an excellent cook. His meth was the purest that has ever been produced. His iconic “Blue Crystals” were the talk of the junkies and drug lord. In the beginning, Walter only wanted to be in the game long enough to secure enough money for his wife, son, and still unborn daughter. Walter was a loving and caring man. He had a huge passion for chemistry and even more passion and love for his family. However, as he starts to make a name for his self, complications got in the way.
Murder was out of the question for Walter. He didn’t wanted to hurt anyone. All he wanted was to cook and sell his product. When his distributor, Emillo, attempted to kill Jesse and himself, Walter chained him with a bicycle lock in the basement. Jesse wanted Emillo dead but Walter did not allow that. However, the kindness of Walter made Emillo a sandwich and served in on the plate. Emillo broke the plate and attempted to kill water with it. Walter strangles Emillo with the bicycle lock he was locked on and kills him. This was the birth of Heisenberg, the first of many moral corruptions.
When his partner Jesse was badly influenced by drugs. Walter refused to give him his share of the money until he got clean and sober. Jesse’s girlfriend at the time, Jane, was a heavy drug user as well. Walter believed Jane was a horrible influence on Jesse. On a routine check on Jesse, Walter stumbles in to see Jesse and Jane in bed intoxicated with heroin. Jane started to gag and vomited in her mouth, she begins to choke. Walter runs to try and save her but midway he stops and just stares as she chokes. He started to cry and you can see him struggling with himself to try and save her. But he knew she was a bad influence on Jesse and she cause Jesse’s drug habits. She finally chokes to death and Walters demeanor just change. As if he had no feelings for her death. Her death was worth it in his eyes, Heisenbergs eyes.
As Walter’s actions continued, he fed his alter ego Heisenberg. As the series continued, Walter goals of just making enough to support his family to running his own empire.
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Jacobean drama is usually characterized by moral corruption and gory violence, usually in the context of revenge with a cynical tone. The Red Wedding event from HBO’s “Game of Thrones” is a perfect example of a “modern day” Jacobean tragedy.
For some added real-life context, “Game of Thrones” is set in the fictional land of Westeros, presumably in the medieval times as there are no signs of modernization (electricity, advanced infrastructure, etc.), and tells the story of a massive civil war. The television series is based on the series of novels entitled A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin. The HBO adaptation of this particular event occurs in Season 3, Episode 9: The Rains of Castamere. In the first paragraph of this post, I put modern day in quotes because even though it is a modern day reference that is relevant, the setting of the story is still in medieval times.
In this event, Lord Walder Frey is celebrating the wedding of his daughter, Roslin, to the Lord Edmure Tully. The man she was to betrothed to, Lord Robb Stark of Winterfell (also known as “the King in the North”) had not kept his promise and married his true love, Talisa. Lord Stark does indeed apologize for breaking the vow and Lord Frey does seem to accept the apology. However, at the actual wedding feast, once the bride gets taken up for the bedding ceremony, Lord Frey locks the banquet hall doors and proceeds to attack Lord Stark and his men. In the process, Lord Stark, his mother Lady Catelyn, his wife Talisa, and all of his bannermen were massacred. See below for the actual scene:
Lord Walder Frey’s reason for the massacre of the Starks was revenge for breaking the vow to unite the two families. Frey’s daughters aren’t particularly beautiful, which is why he was so desperate to marry them off. The vow originated from the need for the Stark army to pass through the Twins in a strategic mission to ambush an opposing army. Upon learning of Stark’s betrayal, Frey began to plot his revenge. This act is true to Jacobean characters in their quest for vengeance.
There are several tv shows today that have aspects of Jacobean Drama. One show that stands out to me is The Following. The Following is a show about a serial killer named Joe Carol, who patterned his killings after Edgar Alan Poe’s work. After several murders he was captured by F.B.I. agent Ryan Hardy and was locked away.
After being captured Joe used the internet to attract a following of like minded killers. Later after several murders Joe was believed to have died in a fire. Later, a woman by the name Lily Gray being so infatuated with Joe began to slaughter people following Joe Carols mode of operation. She used her adopted children to carry out the murders.
Agent Hardy killed one of her children during one of their attempts to murder random people. Here is where the Jacobean likeness occurs. Lily acting on pure rage and anger for the loss of her daughter has Agent Hardys niece Max kidnapped and hunted down by a deranged killer. His niece escapes.
She then kidnaps Hardy. His partner Mike Weston and niece go to rescue him and in the process his partner kills one of her twin sons. Lily was outraged by this and sent Hardys partner a video of which she had gone to Mikes fathers house and murdered him in cold blood as revenge.
Mike now on a rampage after seeing his father murdered in cold blood does everything he can to catch Lily. When he does finally catch her instead of arresting her he shot her to death.
The show is now in its third season and the main villain is Lily’s remaining son, out avenge his mother and brothers death.
The endless violence only causes more violence. No one is ever satisfied. At some point the killing you would think would stop but the characters continue to go an eye for an eye. The way these characters are murdered are so gruesome and horrific just in Jacobean time stories.
When Reading Jacobean Literature there are a couple of themes that come to mind. These themes include crime,Violence, Incest and immorality. A movie i choose that depicts most of these themes is Captain Phillips. Based on a true story, the story of captain phillips is pretty insane when you come to think about it. Tom Hanks ( Captain Phillips) takes over a container ship named the Maersk Alabama that was traveling to Kenya. One Day into the pirates were able to infiltrate the ship and take over command. The Pirates hold the captain as hostage while his crew is hiding and demands a ransom of 30 Million Dollars. Throughout the movie we see different instances that Jacobean drama is shown.
One particular scene where jacobean drama is shown is actually the final scene. The Maersk Alabama was vacated by the pirates as they went into the life boat. as the captain was showing them how to activate the boat the pirates trapped him and took off with him on it. With no food or water it was hard to survive out in sea for so long. the navy seals were called and the pirates blindfolded the captain and where going to kill him because they didn’t get what they asked for. Once the navy seals had three green lights they took the snipe and saw one bullet go through each ones head killing them instantly.Not knowing what happened and tasting the blood that was splattered Captain phillips had a break down and began to go crazy until someone was able to get him out of the boat. Although the scene was heroic, it was also very bloody and something you probably would’ve saw on a daily basis in the Jacobean Era.
There are many other scenes where we see this kind of violence including when the crew decided to fight back which they failed at the end. the crew filled the floor with glass so that when they would walk in he would step on it. By doing this they were able to capture on of the pirates and planned on exchanging him for their captain. they gave back the pirate but the captain wasn’t able t escape, causing an all out fight. Below is the final scene in the movie.
I believe that the movie Law Abiding Citizen, portrays the actions that we see in Jacobean Drama.
The actor Gerald Butler plays Clyde Shelton, who witnesses two burglars rape and murder his wife and five year old daughter. This makes me think it relates to Jacobean Drama in a way because there is always death to close family members such as the plays we read in class.
Witnessing this event has left Shelton scarred and the two burglars, Darby and Ames, were caught but the prosecutor, actor Jamie Foxx as Nick Rice, is more worried about keeping his high conviction rate and makes a secret deal with Darby to plead guilty to 3rd degree murder and he will have Ames sent to death row so he can get out from being sent to death row. This left Shelton to feel betrayed and he saw the corruption in the justice system.
10 years later…
Shelton kidnaps Darby and has his plans to get his revenge on him. I think this scene brings revenge to an extreme level because Shelton is on a mission due to having his family stripped from him. In this scene, Darby is strapped down and injected with adrenaline so he doesn’t bleed out and Shelton makes Darby watch everything while he tears limb by limb. This is Shelton’s revenge to Darby for killing his family and this is just the beginning.
Shelton starts going after anyone that had anything to do with the case such as the Judge who he killed by blowing up his cell phone. This movie has multiple scenes of revenge and Shelton’s main goal was to fix the Justice system because he didn’t get justice for the murder of his family. This reminds me of Jacobean Drama because from what we read so far it was a chain reaction of murder on top of murder. In this movie it is similar in a way because Shelton starts murdering the individuals, that contributed to Darby getting free, one by one in gruesome ways.
Before this scene, Jesse Pinkman and Walter White, the show’s main characters decided that in order to quickly sell all of the large amounts of meth they had produced they had to expand by selling in more places. The problem was that all other places were already occupied by rival drug dealers. Pinkman, knowing of the dangers of stepping into other’s territory, reluctantly agreed to send his long term friend Combo to sell in enemy territory. After a few days of selling meth, Combo encounters rival dealers who “eyeball him hard.” He calls friends to ask for back up and as soon as he hangs up the phone an innocent looking child on a bicycle approaches him, asks him a question, and appears to leave. Then, a gun cocking noise is heard and the young boy is shown behind Combo with a gun in his hand. I believe the rival drug dealers forced the boy to kill Combo on that street corner as revenge for selling drugs on their territory. This scene is just one of the many shocking and unexpected scenes that have made this show so popular. As the storyline goes on, we eventually learn that the 11 year old boy is the brother of Pinksman’s girlfriend; it turns out he was manipulated into joining the drug gang and the killing was all part of an initiation ritual. Consequently, Pinkman avenges his friend’s death by killing the two drug dealers seen in the clip.
A movie I thought related to Jacobean Drama was Gran Torino, which stared Clint Eastwood. This movie contains themes such as revenge, corruption, greed and violence. This movie is not your everyday love story, in fact it’s not a love story at all. This movie is about a Korean War veteran, Walt Kowalski, who recently lost his wife. His once all-white neighborhood is now mostly Southeast Asian, which once was predominantly an all-white neighborhood. He doesn’t get along with his sons and doesn’t really communicate with his grandchildren, all of whom seem more interested in getting his house than anything else. This reminds me of the Lord Ferdinand and the Cardinal because the opposed the Duchess’ marriage so much, even as far as to imprison her and have her strangled, to just so they can inherit her fortune. His pride and joy, however, is his mint condition 1972 Gran Torino. Up to this point, there’s not really any action, revenge or corruption taking place. But it reminds me of the plot in The Duchess of Malfi. Walt Kowalski is a widow who seeks “forbidden love” in a sense. Not in a sexual way of course, but he seeks friendship with a boy named Thao, who he has recently became very close with due to an encounter. Thao, who is challenged by his cousin and other local gang members (The Spider Gang) to steal Walt’s Gran Torino almost gets shot by Walt. Gradually, however, he realizes he has more in common with Thao and his neighbors than his own family and becomes something of a neighborhood hero when he prevents the gang members from forcing Thao into their car. He gradually takes Thao under his wing, teaching him a few things about life and helps getting him a job.
Although Thao is trying to make something of his life with his new mentor Walt, Spider’s gang continues to pressure Thao on joining their gang by assaulting him on his way home from work. After Walt sees Thao’s injuries, Walt visits the gang’s house, where he attacks a gang member as a warning. In retaliation, the gang decides to shoot up Vang Lor home (home of Thao and his family), injuring Thao. The gang also kidnaps and rapes Sue, who was Thao’s sister. There are no witnesses and the members of the community, including the victims, refuse to talk to the police about the crimes. The refusal to speak is like a major theme throughout Jacobean drama, even though it may not be clearly stated, but it is a theme of secrecy. No one wants anyone to know what’s going on, keeping things between themselves or a selected few.
The next day, Thao asks for Walt’s help to enact revenge. As Walt is preparing for his fight against the Spider Gang, he locks Thao in his basement and tells him that he has been haunted by the memory of killing an enemy soldier who was trying to surrender. He persuades Thao that he should never be haunted by killing another man, especially with his whole life ahead of him.
The movie takes an interesting turn when Walt goes to the gang members’ house, where they draw their weapons on him. He loudly shouts outside there house and accusing them of the crimes they committed. He put a cigarette in his mouth, he asks on of them for a light, then puts his hand in his jacket and provocatively pulls it out as if he were holding a gun, causing the gang members to shoot and kill him. As he falls to the ground, his hand opens to reveal the Zippo lighter. The crazy part of the ending was that he was unarmed. Jacobean Drama contains a lot of violence, revenge and love. Walt essentially loved this boy as a son of his own as he got to know him. Thao had no father, so he looked up to Walt as a mentor and father-figure. And it wouldn’t be a Jacobean Drama if the violence and revenge didn’t have some kind of meaning behind it. In order to stop the Spider Gang from harming Thao and his family, and even the entire neighborhood, this old man steps up and defends those who needed a hero at the time. The scene after Sue’s rape “lighted a match” in Walt causing him to seek revenge, but for a good cause. The fact that Walt died for someone he loved without even hesitating, relates to the Duchess’ death scene where she died because of a secret marriage to Antonio, a man who she truly loved. This movie relates to the Duchess of Malfi in some interesting ways. It also depicts a strong Jacobean style in it’s plot.
While discussing Jacobean drama and the distinct themes of corruption, violence, and revenge, the movie “Man on Fire” staring Dekota Fanning and Denzel Washington came to mind. In this film, Denzel acts as the bodyguard/companion of little Dekota in the corrupt neighborhood of Mexico City in the height of a kidnapping epidemic. After Lupita, played by Dekota fanning is dramatically kidnapped, Joyhn (played by Denzel Washington) sets out to take revenge and ultimately return Lupita to safety. Throughout his journey, Joyhn goes through multiple bloody and violent altercations that involve the corrupt Mexican kidnappers who have Lupita hostage.
One specific scene that comes to mind that displays multiple traits of Jacobean drama is when Joyhn is in the car with one of the Mexican men and he proceeds to cut off each of his fingers as he forces him to release information regarding Lupita’s location. In the scene you see blood splatter across the car window, loud screaming by the man, and you are able to imagine the pain that he is experiencing. In this scene alone we see how the movie covers three major themes of Jacobean drama. Joyhn is taking revenge for what has been done to Lupita, he is doing it in an extremely violent and disturbing way, and the movie depicts the scene with blood and screaming to express the extreme violence-taking place.
Overall, the movie Man on Fire is about one mans way of taking revenge on those who kidnapped, and he does so in many extremely violent ways. These themes of Jacobean drama stand out in multiple scenes throughout the movie. Although the specific finger cutting scene is not available, attached is the trailer for the film.
One of the main themes we we will notice a lot in the Odyssey is disguises so I would like to focus on the importance of disguises and help you notice this reoccurring theme throughout the books. We see, early on, the power Athena has to transform and use disguises to communicate with Telemachus. Often, in Greek literature, the gods take form of something or someone else to communicate with mortals. Personally, I would say that it’s very interesting how very rarely a human will see the true form of a god. The quote that stood out to me is on page 30, lines 103-112. It states,
lighted in the land of Ithaka, at the doors of Odysseus
at the threshold of the court, and in her hand was the bronze spear.
She was disguised as a friend, leader of the Taphians, Mentes.
There she found the haughty suitors. They at the moment
in front of the doors were amusing their spirits with draughts games,
sitting about on skins of cattle whom they had slaughtered
themselves, and about them, of their heralds and hard-working henchmen,
some at the mixing bowls were combining wine and water,
while others again with porous sponges were wiping the tables
and setting them out, and others cutting meat in quantities.
This quote is about Athena disguising herself and taking the form of Mentes when she enters Odysseus’ home. In Odysseus’ home, Athena notices all the suitors who have taken advantage of Penelope and of their hospitality. There is alcohol present and they are eating all of Odysseus’ food. We know that Athena wanted to tell Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, that his father is alive. However, why do you think she needed to disguise herself? Couldn’t she have just kicked out the suitors herself? Does this hiding undermine her power as a powerful god or do you think a male god would bother to disguise himself?
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