Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Spanish Tragedy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Revenge and Justice
Class, Gender, and Society
Love and Madness
Betrayal
Summary
Analysis
Hieronimo enters with a deputy. “Thus must we toil in other men’s extremes,” Hieronimo says, “That know not how to remedy our own; / And do them justice, when unjustly we, / For all our wrongs, can compass no redress.” Pedringano enters, bound and led by officers, and the deputy orders him to step forward. Pedringano openly confesses the murder of Serberine and claims he does not fear death. Hieronimo tells him to be silent. “For blood with blood shall, while I sit as judge, / Be satisfied, and the law discharged,” Hieronimo says.
Hieronimo’s words reflect his frustration at being the kingdom’s official judge and not being able to get justice for his own son. Hieronimo is expected to deliver justice on demand for others, but his own needs are ignored. Hieronimo has a clear policy in dispensing justice, and his “blood with blood” rule has clear connotations of revenge. One who kills, Hieronimo suggests, must himself be killed.
Themes
A hangman enters and asks Pedringano if he is ready, and Pedringano asks for what. The hangman reminds Pedringano that it is time for him to die, and Pedringano wonders what the rush is. He points in the direction of Lorenzo’s page sitting with the box and says the box contains his salvation. Hieronimo, claiming he has never seen a man so foolish, tells the hangman to hurry on with the execution and exits. Pedringano tells the hangman that he has been pardoned by the King of Spain, but the hangman ignores him and leads him outside, where he hangs Pedringano, killing him.
Pedringano believes until the very last minute that Lorenzo will save him. This belief, engineered specifically by Lorenzo, again illustrates how evil Lorenzo is and how far he will go in his betrayals to keep Horatio’s murder a secret. Lorenzo’s page has presumably already told Pedringano that the box contains his pardon, and Pedringano is sarcastic and insolent in his interactions with Hieronimo and the hangman because he is sure he is about to be pardoned.
Themes
Literary Devices
