Karla Diaz

Topics in Brit. Lit.

Bender
Revenge in The Spanish Tragedy
In The Spanish Tragedy, the king, Don Andrea is killed in combat by Prince Balthazar.
The motif of the battle was Bel-Imperia, a beautiful woman and Don Andreas wife. After Don
Andrea is killed and sent to the underworld, he is to be judged an assigned to a specific place,
heaven or hell, but the judges dont know where to send him. So, they leave it up to Pluto and
Proserpine, their king and queen, and they decide to send him back with Revenge to the world of
the living. It is hard not to notice how this king is killed justly, per se. His opponent, Balthazar
killed him in a face-to-face battle, he did get a little help but nonetheless, Balthazar did not use
trickery to kill Don Andrea. It makes Balthazar seem less villainous and more righteous.
As the story unravels, trickery and deceit appear time after time. For example, Viceroy,
Balthazars father, thinks his son is dead and arrest an innocent noble accused by one of his
servants, Villuppo. Lorenzo is a character that relies on this trickery to realize his objectives. He
lies about who killed Horatio, which was him, and then gets rid of all of the evidence of the
crime. He pays one of his accomplices to kill the other but arranges it so that as soon as the
killing is done the other accomplice gets arrested. Lorenzo is cunning and plays his cards like a
professional, making no mistakes in his Machiavellian plan.
Regardless of Lorenzos cover up, Hieronimo, Horatios father, begins to unravel the
mystery behind his sons murder. It is not until Horatios death that Hieronimo, the protagonist,
rises into the action of the play. Before this point, Hieronimo was simply a servant of the kings.
Notice how the protagonist is not of the upper class/royal lineage. This is a story involving an
underdog.
Hieronimo seeks revenge for his sons death. At first, Hieronimo decided to let the Gods
make justice for the murder of his son. However, after waiting for some time and not acquiring

Karla Diaz
Topics in Brit. Lit.
Bender
the desired actions from the Gods, Hieronimo decides to take matters into his hands. Revenge
and justice are closely associated. During Elizabethan times, revenge was grotesque. It often
involved perverse rituals, like dismemberment of body parts or horrific spilling of blood.
Hieronimos position as justice seeker or revenger makes him test the boundaries between
the just and acts of mutual violence. It makes the reader doubt whether his actions were
necessary and actually just, and not extreme and punishable by the Gods.
Hieronimo finds clues about his sons death. One of the most important clues is the one
Bel-Imperia gives him, the bloody letter. The letter identifies the murders of Horatio. When
Hieronimo asks to see the king, Lorenzo uses his power to deny Hieronimo access to king. This
is the turning point for Hieronimo, because he realizes the discrimination towards his son is
based on their social class. That is when he takes matters into his hands.
Hieronimo is in charge of the entertainment provided at Balthazar and Bel-Imperias
wedding. He uses his imagination to create justice in an unjust world. He convinces Lorenzo and
Balthazar to act in the play that will take place during the celebration. The play is an exact
replica of the murder of Horatio. When the characters in the play stab themselves the knives will
be real, but they do not know that. After all of the criminals die, the story is supposed to be
resolved. But avenging his son this way brings no salvation to Hieronimo. In fact, his only
salvation is death.
In the end, it is Don Andrea who decides the faith of the dead characters. He gives the
good characters a happy eternity and the bad guys are sent to hell to be punished. But the
question of what deaths should be avenged and who should do the avenging, is loud and clear,
even at the very end. What exactly makes a character good? And how do his actions get
justified? During the time the play came out, Elizabethans were trying to control private revenge.

Karla Diaz
Topics in Brit. Lit.
Bender
They feared that taking matters of revenge in ones own hands condemned them as sinners,
because only God had the right to judge what action/punishment should be taken. Hieronimos
actions then make him seem like he feels equal to God, or acting on his behalf, because he was
the condemning judge of Horatios murders.

Karla Diaz
Topics in Brit. Lit.
Bender
Works Cited
Steegle, Matthew, Roslyn L. Knutson, and David McInnis. "Hamlet." - Lost Plays
Database. University of Melbourne, 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Sept. 2015.
http://www.lostplays.org/index.php/Hamlet#Possible_Narrative_and_Dramatic_Sources_or_Ana
logues
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Horace Howard Furness. Philadelphia: Lippincott,
1905. Shakespeare Online. 27 Aug. 2013. http://www.shakespeareonline.com/plays/hamlet/historiehamblet.html
Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare's Sources for Hamlet. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug.
2000. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sources/hamletsources.html
Sheerin, Brian. "Patronage And Perverse Bestowal In "The Spanish Tragedy" And
"Antonio's Revenge... English Literary Renaissance 41.2 (2011): 247-279. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
New York Shakespeare Reading Group. Digital image. Meetup.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15
Sept. 2015. http://www.meetup.com/shakespeare-41/events/113307902/