The Spanish Tragedy

1. Spanish Tragedy as a Revenge Tragedy.

   Answer: The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again[1] is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent murders and includes as one of its characters a personification of Revenge. The Spanish Tragedy was often referred to (or parodied) in works by other Elizabethan playwrights, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe.
   Many elements of The Spanish Tragedy, such as the play-within-a-play used to trap a murderer and a ghost intent on vengeance, appear in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

     A long time dispute among scholars has been the moral status of revenge. Because revenge is the most obvious theme of the play, a lot of debate has been made over it. One can make judgments on the morality of Hieronimo based on his revenge-focused goals but the question many scholars face is whether the fault of his intentions is truly his. Steven Justice theories that the judgment of the play falls less on Hieronimo than on a society in which the tragedy results from a way of life.[29] It is argued that Kyd used the revenge tragedy to give body to popular images of Catholic Spain.[29] Kyd tries to make Spain the villain in that he shows how the Spanish court gives Hieronimo no acceptable choice. The court turns Hieronimo to revenge in pursuit of justice, when in reality it is quite different.

5. Role of Servant (Pedringano, The page, Ambasador.)

Answer: Role of Servant:

Pedringano - Bel-Imperia's servant. Pedringano is easily bribed, and he betrays Bel-Imperia and is one of the gang of four murderers who kill Horatio. In fact, Pedringano seems to have no moral considerations, only following the person whom he thinks can help him most. Ironically, this leads him to trust Lorenzo, who ends up betraying him.

The Page  - The page is a messenger boy who brings Lorenzo's empty box to the execution, which is believed to hold a pardon for Pedringano. After the page looks inside, he does not tell anyone that it is empty, out of fear for his own life. This has a distinct impact on the play, since Pedringano's belief that he will be pardoned stops him from exposing Lorenzo as one of Horatio's murderers before it is too late.

The Ambassador  - The Portuguese Ambassador is the agent of communication between the King and Viceroy. His presence appears purely functional, exchanging information between the Portuguese and Spanish court.

6. Character Horatio, Lorengo, Bel Imperia

Answer:Horatio: The proud, promising son of Hieronimo. Horatio sense of duty and loyalty is shown in his actions towards Andrea, and he gives Andrea the funeral rites that let the ghost cross the river Acheron in the underworld. He also captures Andrea's killer, Balthazar, in battle, thus recovering Andrea's body. His sense of pride is shown in his confrontation with Lorenzo; though Lorenzo greatly outranks him in stature, he does not defer, but instead continues to argue his case in front of the King.

Lorenzo  - One of Horatio's murderers. Lorenzo's character remains fairly constant throughout the play. He is a proud verbal manipulator and a Machiavellian plotter. A great deceiver and manipulator of others, Horatio unsurprisingly has an enthusiasm for the theater. Lorenzo has a foil in Horatio; they are both brave young men, but Horatio's directness, impulsiveness, and honesty, contrast and highlight Lorenzo's guardedness, secretiveness, and deception.

Bel Imperia: Lorenzo's sister and Andrea's former lover. She finds "second love" in Horatio, if only partly to spite Balthazar. She eventually stabs Balthazar as a character in Hieronimo's play and commits suicide. Heironimo claims that the suicide is out of love for Andrea, but this point remains a matter of dispute. Her actions in the second half of the play are motivated by the desire to exact revenge .She is headstrong, as evidenced by her decisions to love Andrea and Horatio, both against her father's wishes. She is intelligent, beautiful, and, in moments of love, tender. She also is bent on revenge, both for her slain lover Andrea and for Horatio. She is seen to have "Machiavellian"- type traits which really surface towards the end of the play.

7. Lorengo as a Machiarellian hero.

Answer: Lorenzo is an example of the Machiavellian villain. He is typical of many Elizabethan tragedies and dramas. Lorenzo uses his verbal cleverness to lead the people around him to injustice, playing on their moral weakness as well as their lack of knowledge.

9. Use of Supernatural element?

Answer:Significance of the supernatural element in a most perfect descriptive manner in the spanish tragedy. The Ghost and Revenge act as the Greek-style Chorus to the tragedy. The Ghost acts as a metaphysical measure of good and evil. It is part of the afterlife that is removed from reality yet still plays a role in the unfolding of the future.

12. Play within the play?

Answer:  Of the nine deaths that occur on stage (not including Villuppo's and Andrea's), three of them are suicides. Of the three, Isabella and Hieronimo's suicides are the realization of a death wish expressed throughout the play: they desire to join Horatio in death. But this wish is not repeated by the Viceroy, an equally loving father. This difference is intriguing, as Hieronimo and his wife have a reason to delay their deaths (they must exact revenge), whereas nothing holds back the Viceroy-or so it seems. The lack of a real death wish may reflect a politically-oriented part of his character that complicates his desire to live in solitude after he discovers that Balthazar is still alive. Finally, Bellimperia's suicide remains an unexplained aspect of the play. Why does she unnecessarily keep to her role in Hieronimo's play-within-a-play? Hieronimo's explanation that she loved Andrea too much is unsatisfactory at best. Her death thus shows a vague but strong link between the fulfillment of revenge and the death wish.

13. Role of handkerchief.

Answer: The handkerchief starts off as a symbol of love and memory, becomes a symbol of the memory of a lost loved one, and then a symbol for the desire to avenge that loved one. Ironically, by the end of the play, it can be seen as a symbol of the need to erase memory through death. Before Andrea went off to war, Bel-Imperia gave him a scarf, which he wore into battle something by which to remember her. Initially a symbol of love between Andrea and Bel-Imperia, Horatio takes it off his friend's dying body as a memorial, and it then becomes a symbol of Horatio's remembrance of his friend, a symbol of love between Horatio and Bel-Imperia, and of Bel-Imperia's memory of her lost knight. Of course, Bel-Imperia's love for Horatio is itself a form of revenge against Balthazar, so the scarf begins to take on connotations of vengeance. After Horatio's death, Hieronimo presumably takes the same handkerchief. It is now a symbol of both love and vengeance, intertwined in Hieronimo's desire to avenge his beloved son. By the end of the play, it becomes a symbol of annihilation and erasure. Hieronimo holds the handkerchief up in the midst of the corpses onstage and then runs off to commit suicide, embracing death and the erasure of all memories.

10. Description of hell? (Gost)

Answer:   Except that he's dead. And that he and Bel-imperia were in love. And that he was killed by an un-chivalrous, cowardly act in war. And that he is very, very, impatient while waiting for the revenge he so desperately craves. Strangely enough, Andrea isn't alive at all in the play.He's a ghost. Boo!

   Even though he dies before the action of the play, we do get a ride-along with him as he tours Hell for three days. On the tour we learn that he was a lover and a fighter during his life, which leaves the administrators in Hell scratching their heads as to whether he should spend eternity with warriors or lovers. Since the hellish experts can't even make up their mind, we'll leave that alone for now.

   But in the process of describing his trip through Hell, Andrea gives us an early clue about a character trait that proves vitally important

   Basically, he's saying he's from the wrong side of the tracks compared to Bel-Imperia. And this is a big problem for the aristocratic snobs in the play. Given his warrior credentials and his boldness for dating way over his head, we can probably assume he is courageous. And since he's not the only courageous guy of humble birth in the play (we've got Horatio and Hieronimo, remember?), maybe the point is that you're not born with nobility, you earn it.

4. Role of Madness?

Answer: The role that madness plays in The Spanish Tragedy, indeed in all revenge tragedies, is a vital one; it provides an opportunity for the malcontent to be converted by the environment into the avenger. In almost all revenge tragedies, the malcontent takes the form of a renaissance man or woman who is confronted with a problem - the deed to be avenged. This crime, and the criminals that perpetrated it, effect that surroundings to such an extent that it is impossible to remain unchanged by them.

   Or as Hieronimo put it in The Spanish Tragedy, while holding a noose (this is to symbolise suicide, which is the ultimate form of withdrawal from the world) and a dagger (the tool that is most appropriate for the avenger to interact with the world with):

This way or that way? Soft and fair, not so:

For if I hang myself, let's know

Who will revenge Horatio's murder then?

2. Spanish Tragedy as a senecan Tragedy.

Answer:

The Spanish Tragedy belongs to a class of drama known as the revenge play, which comes from the pen of Thomas Kyd (1558-1594).  In all the plays of Seneca we find the revenge theme. Revenge was the main plot, main motive in his plays. Like him, Kyd also used the revenge theme. As we find The Ghost of Andrea, Bel-Imperia, Horatio, Isabella and Hieronimo all the characters want to take revenge. In Senecan plays, all the characters think that if they take revenge upon the killers who have murdered their dearest persons, it can never be a sin. Rather it is a sacred duty. Because by killing the murderers they will be able to get proper justice. Very same tendency we observe in the character of Bel-Imperia and Hieronimo. We see Bel-Imperia uttering: “But how can love find harbor in my breast, / Till I revenge the death of my beloved?” (1. 4. 64-65).

3. Use of Melodramatic element as a Spanish Tragedy.

Answer:

Melodramatic elements, such as declamatory speech, excessive passion, musically acted, cured appeal to poetic justice, all of such qualities were used by Seneca in his plays. Similarly Kyd in this play has employed such elements too. We find declamatory speech in Hieronimo’s soliloquies and excessive passion in Bel-Imperia’s dialogues. In Melodrama good characters are rewarded and bad characters are punished. The Spanish Tragedy does not maintain this rule of Melodrama properly.

            Seneca used horror elements, blood-shed, violence and terror, bloody atmosphere in his plays, so does Kyd. The brutal killing of Horatio, the preparation of the upcoming burning of Alexandro, the killing of Serberine, the stabbing scene of Isabella, the killing of Lorenzo, Balthazar, and Don Cyprion, the biting of Hieronimo’s tongue himself, all these elements of horror incidents, of blood-shed, create an atmosphere of terror and violence in the mind of the readers.

11. Use of Greek Mythological character?(Pluto, Proserpine, Hactas, Lacherron, Charan).

Answer: Pluto:The ancient Roman people were afraid to utter the name of Pluto for fear it would attract the attention of the deity known as the judge of the dead. Pluto was also a god of wealth, as the lord of all the metals and riches that lie under the ground. His name is derived from the Latinized form of the Greek name Plouton, which means wealth.

  Pluto was previously referred to as Dis Pater, meaning Father of Gods. However, he is best known for his role as ruler of the underworld and as the counterpart to the Greek god Hades. When the Romans conquered Greece, the gods Hades and Pluto were combined and replaced Dis Pater as the god of wealth, the dead and agriculture.

Prosepine: Proserpine ("to emerge") (Proserpina) is a Goddess of the Underworld, her story is the basis of a myth of springtime. Her Greek goddess equivalent is Persephone. She was abducted by Pluto who wished to marry her and live together in the underworld. Her mother Ceres searched for her, but was unable to find her, in sorrow she stopped the fruits and vegetables from growing.

Eventually Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina. Before letting her go he made her eat three pomegranate seeds which meant she would have to live three months of each year with him. In spring when Ceres receives her daughter back, the crops blossom, and in summer they flourish.

Hades: Hades, Greek Aïdes (“the Unseen”), also called Pluto or Pluton (“the Wealthy One” or “the Giver of Wealth”), in Greek mythology, god of the underworld. Hades was a son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and brother of the deities Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, and Hestia.

After Cronus was overthrown by his sons, his kingdom was divided among them, and the underworld fell by lot to Hades. There he ruled with his queen, Persephone, over the infernal powers and over the dead in what was often called “the house of Hades,” or simply Hades. He was aided by the dog Cerberus. Though Hades supervised the trial and punishment of the wicked after death, he was not normally one of the judges in the underworld, nor did he personally torture the guilty, a task assigned to the Furies (Erinyes). Hades was depicted as stern and pitiless, unmoved by prayer or sacrifice (like death itself).

Chiron: Chiron, in Greek mythology, one of the Centaurs, the son of the Titan Cronus and Philyra, an Oceanid or sea nymph. Chiron lived at the foot of Mount Pelion in Thessaly. Unlike other Centaurs, who were violent and savage, he was famous for his wisdom and knowledge of medicine. Many Greek heroes, including Heracles, Achilles, Jason, and Asclepius, were instructed by him. Chiron frequently appears in the legends of his grandson, Peleus, and his great-grandson, Achilles. Accidentally pierced by a poisoned arrow shot by Heracles, he renounced his immortality in favour of Prometheus and was placed among the stars as the constellation Centaurus.

12. Role of letter?

Answer:  Balthazar is captured by Horatio, son of Hieronimo.  Bel-Imperia falls in love with Horatio, only to find that Balthazar is in love with her. Bel-Imperia and Horatio meet in secret, but she is betrayed by her servant, Pedringano, to her brother, Lorenzo, and Balthazar. Horatio is murdered and Bel-Imperia taken away.

   Hieronimo finds his son’s body and vows revenge. He receives a letter from Bel-Imperia revealing the identity of the killers but  suspects it is a trick. Lorenzo tries to cover his tracks by disposing of witnesses, using Pedringano. Hieronimo realises Lorenzo’s guilt and the truth of  the letter, but his struggle to obtain justice and the breakdown of his wife, Isabella, make him go mad. Bel-Imperia’s betrothal to Balthazar is announced.

    Hieronimo and Lorenzo seem reconciled, but secretly he and Bel-Imperia vow to avenge Horatio’s death. After Isabella’s suicide, Hieronimo arranges a play, in which the characters take part. Hieronimo stabs Lorenzo, Balthazar and Bel-Imperia, explains the reason for the killings, bites out his tongue so he won’t reveal more and kills himself.

14. Diary of Hieronimo.

Answer: Hieronimo is one of the principal characters in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. He wrote a play on his dairy. The screen of the play was  the nine deaths that occur on stage (not including Villuppo's and Andrea's), three of them are suicides. Of the three, Isabella and Hieronimo's suicides are the realization of a death wish expressed throughout the play: they desire to join Horatio in death. But this wish is not repeated by the Viceroy, an equally loving father. This difference is intriguing, as Hieronimo and his wife have a reason to delay their deaths (they must exact revenge), whereas nothing holds back the Viceroy-or so it seems. The lack of a real death wish may reflect a politically-oriented part of his character that complicates his desire to live in solitude after he discovers that Balthazar is still alive. Finally, Bellimperia's suicide remains an unexplained aspect of the play. Why does she unnecessarily keep to her role in Hieronimo's play-within-a-play? Hieronimo's explanation that she loved Andrea too much is unsatisfactory at best. Her death thus shows a vague but strong link between the fulfillment of revenge and the death wish.