There is also Machiavellian Malcontent, Bosola, a rascal who also indulges in satiric reflections on life. Also read; Characteristics of Tragic plot according to Aristotle. It is a typical example of the revenge tragedy, The chief features of the Revenge tragedy are: 1. Tags: revenge trady definition revenge tragedy examples. Supriya Maity November 7, A short note on Scottish Text Society and its publications.
Discuss subjectivity and objectivity and its examples. As a consequence, avengers were thought to be damned eternally and punished with physiological and psychological problems in the course of their lives as well.
The exception of this rule was manslaughter, meaning that the revenge had been an immediate reaction out of affect, which was actually forgiven. Thus, an avenger had to receive the same punishment as any other murderer. It was a crime connected to Italy and Spain, a prejudice which had its basis on Machiavelli. The only thing the relatives of the victims could do was to wait patiently until God took his divine revenge [11] or to engage the law courts, in order to take public revenge.
Next to the theory that the Elizabethans totally condemned private revenge there exists the idea of a less strict attitude against the ethics of the time. It can be suggested that, even though the morality of the time forbid private revenge and the Elizabethans regarded its as a crime and a sin, they tolerated it in certain cases. Since the revenge plays dealt with this theme and, moreover, with the influence it could have on the avenger and his morality, they became very successful.
The current problems and situations of the time, such as the discussions on the morality of revenge, were reflected by the plays and therefore they were very appealing to the audience. On the one hand, the audience sympathised with the avenger in the play because he fulfilled his duty towards his murdered family member. On the other hand, however, they strongly believed in the contemporary ethics and in the concept that God was the only one who was supposed to take revenge.
Therefore, the audience of the revenge play demanded the death of the avenger as he has committed the most serious of crimes, even though they felt sympathy for him. The playwrights of the time knew about this moral dilemma of their audiences and were aware of the fact that the inclusion of the revenge theme in their plays promised success.
On the contrary, they wanted to show what could happen to a person getting into the ethical dilemma between his ethic beliefs and his family duty. The sight of blood in a revenge play as well as duels or the use of poison to kill the enemy were not unknown to the Elizabethans.
Since they were familiar with public executions and because duels were common among the noblemen of the time, they even demanded it to be a topic on stage. The topic of blood-revenge excited them, not at least because it was the worst of all crimes and sins. A large influence not only on Shakespeare, but on a lot of authors of English tragedies had Seneca.
His tragedies, especially those containing the theme of the results of crime and murder, were very famous and influential in Elizabethan times, as they had just been translated into the English language between and Also topics like blood and crime or supernatural influences as well as the rhetorical features, such as long soliloquies were transferred from Seneca into the Elizabethan tradition.
Furthermore, the elaborate descriptions of passions, emotions and even madness appearing in Seneca have not just been taken over by the Elizabethan playwrights, but have also been converted into the main strand of action. Conclusively, it can be said that, especially with regard to the motive of revenge and the characters, Seneca had a very important influence on the Elizabethan revenge tragedy.
However, the Elizabethans themselves developed their own, more elaborate concept of the genre, so that The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd can be regarded as the prototype of Elizabethan revenge literature. In this development also other influences played a role. Here, Italy played a special role since the villainous attitudes of Machiavelli were assigned to the whole Italian population. In the eyes of the English Italians were regarded as very revengeful characters and, in fact, private revenge was a legal practice in Italy.
Also Spanish and German people were thought to be avengers as well as Turks and Danes, since the legal system in those countries did not prosecute revenge.
Thus, the English playwrights included characters of these nationalities in their plays in order to emphasize that the English people were not as revengeful as others. In The Spanish Tragediy Kyd transforms revenge into a convention and justifies it. It is undertaken by the father for the murder of his son and the avenger feels that revenge is a solemn duty, yet he hesitates and has doubts till a ghost appears and enjoins on him the task of revenge as sacred duty Thus, Hieronymo, the father avenging the death of his son is no villain.
Rather he is presented as a hero accomplishing a duty. Thus Kyd created the avenging hero. He also introduced the hesitating type of the hero. The hero cannot sweep to his revenge all at once. He proceeds and retreats. The agony of indecision is tragic. After Kyd, the type can be traced in a number of plays, e.
Certain common features are noticed in these plays: The ghost, the cry for revenge, difficulty in executing revenge, the play within the play, the accumulation of horror, hesitating type of the hero, madness feigned and real.
Marston's revenge plays are crude but he made another contribution - he introduced the note of general disgust at life and the weakness of a mother. These elements are found in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Shakespeare essayed the Revenge tragedy in Hamlet. Hamlet is called upon to take revenge upon the foul and unnatural murder of his father. He hesitates a good deal.
He is a more complex character than Hieronymo.
0コメント