The Causes of Revenge in The Spanish Tragedy

Abstract

In the Renaissance Age, ‘revenge tragedy’ was the most frequently performed dramatic form on the stage, and The Spanish Tragedy is one of the representative revenge tragedies. This paper aims at comprehensive understanding of The Spanish Tragedy by explaining its historical background and by analyzing the methods and causes of revenge in the work. The great advantages of The Spanish Tragedy as a revenge play are that strong revenge motives are given and amplified in two murders of Andrea and Horatio happened before the play starts, and almost all the horrible actions take place on the stage. The conflicts between two opposing forces of Hieronimo and Lorenzo started from the middle of the play continues to the end, and their secret and cruel struggles increase dramatic interests. The consistence of characters and plot remains to its end, and the play within play embellished the denouement. The revenge cause of this play is justice sublimed into the religious level. In this play, various justices are suggested such as divine justice, earthly justice and hellish justice. In the course of revenge, as the Christian ideas of revenge begin to appear, the protagonist Hieronimo suffers more serious mental or psychological conflict than any other characters. In his revenging duties, Hieronimo suggests the spectators that there is no justice in human level and Spain is not the desirable nation in his experience.