Revenge and Justice
Thomas Kyd’s play The Spanish Tragedy is widely regarded as the very first revenge play of the Elizabethan era. The Spanish Tragedy paved the way for other revenge plays of the day—such as Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy—and like other revenge plays, Kyd’s tragedy explores revenge and the ethics of taking justice into one’s own hands. Revenge motivates several of the characters, but the play focuses mainly on the…
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Class, Gender, and Society
Social class and gender are major factors in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, especially when it comes to justice. As the Knight Marshall of Spain, Hieronimo plays an important role in society as a civil servant and official judge; however, he is still only middle class (meaning he is a commoner of limited financial means), and in the social hierarchy, he falls far below noblemen and other royals—like Lorenzo, the nephew of the…
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Love and Madness
While The Spanish Tragedy is first and foremost focused on revenge, the play also examines love—love in a romantic sense and love between family members and friends. As the play opens, Don Andrea, a Spanish soldier, has just been murdered in battle by Balthazar, the son of the Viceroy of Portugal. When Andrea passes before Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanth—the judges of the underworld—Minos claims that Andrea “both lived and died in love.”…
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Betrayal
While it is certainly a lesser theme within The Spanish Tragedy, betrayal is nevertheless an important part of Thomas Kyd’s tragic play. Betrayal between the characters is integral in setting the plot in motion, and it remains a crucial part of the play until the dramatic end, when five of the play’s limited cast of characters are killed, each of them a victim of betrayal in a different way. There is also a subplot…
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