Ext English Seminar

Our topic is seminar number three: Examine the pervasiveness of revenge within The Revenger’s Tragedy. Analyse the characters, discussing how their personalities, actions etc. contribute to the final outcome. Well as an introduction I believe we should first define pervasiveness. Pervasiveness means spread right throughout. In other words the question in asking us to examine how revenge is spread right throughout the society in The Revenger’s Tragedy. Now to do this we must analyse each of the main characters to see how their actions and personalities reflect the pervasiveness of revenge and how they contribute to the final outcome. Now if we were to look at each character individually, we would find there a numerous overlaps. So instead I am going to look at two of the main ones, Duke and Lussurioso, and through our discussion on these two we will find that many of the other characters fall into place. We can also see how these two main characters, through their actions and personality, influence other characters. I will begin by talking about the Duke. Now the Duke is the head of this society. The convention of the genre, in which the society in question is particularly discordant, is brought about by the Duke’s blatant disregard for the Law and other humans. He is supposed to represent the justice of the society but rather he is a major cause of the instability in the society. As you will find, the Duke is the cause of many quests for vengeance. The principal one involves Vindice. Vindice’s fiancé, Gloriana, was killed by the Duke as she would not surrender her honour to him. This causes Vindice to become obsessed revenge and as we see in the play, he goes through anything to gain that revenge. The Duke is the highest order in this society and if he disregard the Law and justice then there is not much hope for the society. Vindice is forced into vengeance as the justice system cannot work under such a situation where the highest power is at fault. Ironically, the Duke actually makes an attempt at maintaining justice in the case of Junior, the Duchess’ son. Junior, as part of the Royal Family, also has a callous attitude to well-being of others and raped Lord Antonio’s wife. He shows contempt for the Law in his trial, secure in the knowledge that he will be freed eventually. Once more we see that the highest members of the society are undermining the judicial system and thus rendering it useless. Now at this trial, the Duke claims that Junior must pay for the crime, but defers the sentence. This shows hypocrisy on the Dukes part, and perhaps he is just making protestations of justice to maintain his image. Therefore the Dukes actions are ironic, as the audience knows that he has committed more grievous crimes than this. Stop to let partner speak. Now going back to the Dukes actions at the trial. The Duke soon gives another character reason to want to seek revenge against him. Junior is the Duchess’ son, and as such she is anxious to see that he is pardoned for the crime. The Duke refuses her petition and so she approaches Spurio, the Dukes bastard son, and begins an affair with him, to revenge herself on the Duke. The pervasiveness of revenge is evident as it seems that everyone is out to get it. The Duchess had previously sent Spurio love letters trying to capture him attention. At this point in the play, we have not seen any member of the Royal Family that is not corrupt. The Duchess, casts aside all obligations of marriage and sleeps with Spurio. She too tries to undermine the judicial system by her pleadings the have Junior pardoned. The system will never be effective if members of the society are exempt. Thus the Duchess’ begins an affair with Spurio and this has many repercussions that I will discuss later on in the speech. Now the Duchess’ maintains the image of a very lustful Royal Family. The Duke, we see a number of times in the play, is ruled by his desires and will go to any extent to satisfy himself. The Duchess, has no qualms with having an affair with her stepson. And we will see Lussurioso is no different when I begin discussing him. Now I do not want to encroach on Jason’s ground, but Spurio also seeks vengeance on the Duke for the fact that he is a bastard. It seems no one is exempt from desiring revenge in this society. This is the reason that he agrees to the affair with the Duchess, so he can exact revenge on the Duke. So far, there are two characters who seek revenge on the Duke because of his lustful adventures. And we soon see that Vindice is able to revenge himself on the Duke, due to the Duke’s lustful appetite. The Duke heard about “Piato’s” ability to seduce young women, and so the Duke enlisted his help. As a result Vindice is able to get close to him and deceive him into kissing the poisoned skull. The Duke has caused much disharmony to the society through his endeavors and his sexual desires. It seems that almost every character seems to desire vengeance against the Duke for some reason. And we will see the full repercussions of his actions, and how they contribute to the final outcome when I continue my discussion on Lussurioso. Stop to allow Jason to speak

Ok. Now I will begin talking about Lussurioso and how his actions affect and influence other characters. Now the first we hear of Lussurioso is about how he is seeking someone who will help him seduce a young virgin. He asks Hippolito, Vindice’s brother, to find someone. Hippolitio, knowing of Vindice’s quest for revenge, tells him about it. Vindice jumps at the opportunity and dresses up as Piato. Now we soon find that Lussurioso is particularly cruel. We see that he wants to seduce Castiza, Vindice’s sister, and he uses Hippolito to achieve this purpose. He even jokes with Vindice about how he used Hippolito to seduce his own sister. Lussurioso is corrupt and uses money and power to achieve his purpose. He sends out Piato to try to bribe Castiza and her mother, Gratiana, to submit to him. Piato attempts to convince Castiza but is met with a firm rejection. Surprisingly, Gratiana caves in to the pressure and assures Piato that he will have Castiza. Now I would just like to talk about Gratiana for a minute here. Her name means Grace. She is a good person, but succumbs in a moment of weakness. She was tempted by Lussurioso’s offer and thus we see that his actions have corrupted a normally virtuous women, at least temporarily. However, Gratiana soon sees the error of her ways, and repents completely and assures her repentance when tested by Castiza. She is the only character in the play who feels remorse of their actions. Lussurioso, through his lust, enables Vindice a chance to seek the revenge he desires. Piato learns of the affair between the Duchess and Spurio and informs Lussurioso, to alleviate pressure on his sister, Castiza. When Lussurioso learns of the affair, he storms the Duchess’ chamber but only finds the Duke. In the bedlam that ensures, Lussurioso is arrested as the Duke believed he was trying to kill him. Lussurioso leave his fate in the hands of his two half-brothers, Ambitioso and Supervacuo, but doesn’t know that they want the kingdom for themselves and thus conspire to have him killed. However, there is a misunderstanding and instead their brother Junior is killed. When Lussurioso is released he shows his sly cunning. He manages to turn the two brothers, Hippolito and Vindice, against Piato in a classic case of dramatic irony as he now seeks revenge on Piato. This once again conveys the extent of revenge in this society and its pervasiveness. STOP Now so far we have seen that Lussurioso is a man also ruled by his sexual desires and greed. His actions have a profound influence on all those around him. He causes Gratiana to fall from grace, and he also enables much of the revenge to take place. Now I would just like to discuss how these two main characters and the other characters mentioned have contributed to the final outcome. My trusty flowchart should have enabled you to witness the chain of events and how each event leads to another. The Duke sets in motion much of the revenge. He killed Vindice’s fiancé and thus caused the society to be in disharmony. His gives Spurio his son reason to want to exact vengeance on him and he also gives the Duchess reason, and they both come together in their quest. This allows Piato to take advantage of Lussurioso and he is sent to jail. This leads to the confusion as results in Junior being killed in Lussurioso’s place. The Duke and Lussurioso, through their sexual appetite, allow Vindice a chance to kill them both. In conclusion, all the characters have a role in the final outcome of the play, whether direct or indirect. The two main characters that I studied were the Duke and Lussurioso, both being the main antagonists. Both of them give others reason to want to exact revenge on them and they both influence the other characters negatively, as can be seen in the case of Gratiana. Through their actions, the bloody outcome is allowed to eventuate and comes to a crescendo of mindless bloodshed.