REVENGE TRAGEDY Tuesday, 11 September 2018

Tragedy You should all be familiar with the basic features of tragedy: A protagonist with a tragic flaw An inevitability about the tragedy Catharsis enabling the audience to “learn through suffering”

So much for the Greeks… Seneca adds: Ghosts Obsession with guilt Bloodshed Torture We all this in the tragedies of Shakespeare and Marlowe, but we see something more…

Jacobean Revenge Tragedy OK, so Edward is NOT Jacobean, but nevertheless, if it is to belong to this genre we need to see if it has any of the predominant features that will mark plays like Hamlet or The Duchess of Malfi.

Features Revenge: A character plans revenge for a wrong committed.  Sometimes many characters seek revenge, and the play charts how the various quests for vengeance result in violent deaths.  Different attitudes to revenge are explored, for example as a sacred duty of honour, or as an offence against both God and civil society.  Disguise, plots and counter plots are common as characters seek to achieve vengeance. Brutal and wicked behaviour: The plays portray vicious and unpleasant aspects of humanity.  Murder, treachery and cruelty frequently occur.  Sexual lust and the desire for power and possessions are major motives for action, but such appetites lead to destruction and self-destruction.  An atmosphere of moral and spiritual decay pervades the plays. The corrupt society of Renaissance Italy and Spain: The plays are usually set in a decadent and vice-ridden court, full of self-seekers and machiavellian political intrigue.  This world fascinated both Jacobean and Elizabethan England.  It fed the popular prejudice that such foreign places were full of villainy, perversion and secret love affairs in which sexual passion broke all social rules.  .

more Religious and moral hypocrisy: The plays often present both priests and 'religious' people as insincere and deceitful.  Often virulently anti-Catholic, the plays strip away the outward appearance of religious honesty, revealing a diseased and dissolute reality beneath.  Characters often speak of 'God' or 'sin' and show they are aware of the religious consequences of their evil actions - but they hypocritically carry on doing wrong! The malcontent: This typical character of Jacobean tragedy is a troubled individual who comments caustically and critically on society and other characters.  He is often the revengeful plotter, the agent of retribution.  Women: Jacobean tragedy contains many notable portrayals of women.  Although the women inhabit patriarchal societies, many are confident and sensual. seeking to control their own lives.  But most of them end as victims, blamed and distrusted by the male characters who hold them responsible for the corruption and ruin of powerful men. Language: A sardonic, sombre tone characterises the intense, violent and melodramatic langauge of these plays.  Vivid imagery expresses the plays' relish for corruption, sexual passion, disease decay

EDWARD? Consider the evidence piece by piece… Who is seeking revenge on whom? Any use of supernatural? This might decide your answer quite swiftly, but: Corrupt society? Italian influence? Brutality and focus on torture? Role of women? Religion?