The opening of The Revenger's
Tragedy sets forth a number of dramatic ironies, most noticeably the
juxtaposition of two English theatrical traditions: the morality play, with
personifications that emphasize mankind's relationship to God, and the
Jacobean revenge play, wherein humanity struggles against a squalid and
corrupt society of its own making. The differences in the two native
traditions underscore the world as either a stage where life is played in
God's domain or in man's. But even in the Renaissance drama, mankind still
relies upon some form of the supernatural in his quest for justice within a
degenerate world, as in Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and Shakespeare's
Hamlet. In his opening monologue, however, Vindice neither requests
God's help nor any supernatural power for his intended retribution against
an evil society in general, or the murderer of his beloved Gloriana in
particular. As a result, [I intend to argue that]
the opening scene of The Revenger's Tragedy posits a tension between
the self-sufficiency of man and his reliance upon divine authority
[because the stage action conveys a medieval setting
that contrasts with a deliberate, humanist self-sufficiency on the part of
the protagonist].
That tension finds resolution in
the second scene of the play, confirming that heaven has no place within the
dramatic narrative. Indeed, while characters frequently solicit the powers
of heaven or call upon the name of God, such invocations are ironic,
satiric, or exclamatory oaths signifying frustration or contempt for their
predicament. Justice and iniquity firmly lie within the province of
humanity, which has no recourse to or desire for divine intervention. Scene
two metaphorically signifies man's supreme authority, when the pervasive
sexual imagery established at the opening of the play--which emphasizes the
physical at the expense of the spiritual--becomes literalized in the
dramatic action between the Duke's bastard son and his stepmother, the
Duchess, who enter into an incestuous relationship. This scene, I suggest,
stands as a theatrical thesis for the play, representing an excessive,
spiritually illicit relationship within the family of man that denies and
actively intrigues against God the Father or any providential power in order
to invest itself with sole authority. Thus Vindice, who answers to no
supreme authority other than himself, fails to elicit sympathy from an
audience when "justice" has at last been served.
The relationship between Spurio and
the Duchess most clearly demonstrates this godless self-reliance, depicting
a narcissism of human desire that has no fixed object or world beyond its
own immediate, "relative" needs. The dramatic action of scene two
figuratively suggests that humanity has become a god unto itself, with the
power to create--"procreate"--destroy, and reorder its own existence. As the
play progresses, this authority degenerates into a chaos of identity and
allegiances. Gratiana's statement to her daughter Castiza, "The world's so
changed, one shape into another / It is a wise child now that knows her
mother" (2.1.163-64), may, given Tourneur's fondness for paradoxical terms,
echo the ultimate excess of lascivious behavior, recalling the incitement of
the Duchess for her stepson to "know" her as both mother and lover.
In her plot against the Duke's
patriarchal and spousal authority, the Duchess chooses as her instrument his
bastard son, one who cannot identify his mother or be certain of his father.
In her brief soliloquy prior to Spurio's entrance, she determines to "kill
[the Duke] in his forehead" (1.2.107), a reference to the cuckold's horns.
Moreover the statement appropriates the supernatural as well, both
mythological and biblical: in Greek mythology, Zeus feared the prophecy that
a child of his would one day destroy him; yet he was powerless to prevent
the birth of the one he feared, Athena, who sprang full grown from his head.
However, the prophecy
Questions for consideration:
Focus on Act 1, scene 2.
Any suggestions of language as to humanist self-sufficiency?
Mythology versus medieval faith?
Squalid environment?evil of society portrayed through characterization
Country vs. court?
Deus absconditus (the absent God)
Can Vindici be a flagellum dei?scourge of God?if God has no
place in the drama?