Revenge Tragedy Flashcards
(69 cards)
What does Braden say about the evil of results in Senecan tragedy?
“welcomed and flaunted as the mark of success.”
Sawday (The Body Emblazoned)
“The language of the body.”
What was the purpose of the 1752 ‘Murder Act’ as discussed by Foucault?
To reconstitute ‘a momentarily injured sovereignty’ through public execution which meets justice and science needs – the criminal performs a public service.
How does Nancy Vickers describe Laura in Petrarch’s works?
“her image is that of a collection of exquisitely beautiful disassociated objects.”
What does Jonathan Sawday say about the use of female anatomy in literature?
“Ever expanding exercise of male wit, flourishing the female anatomy before the eyes of other, admiring, male readers.”
What resolution occurs in Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy?
Athena resolves the tie, institutionalising justice rather than leaving it wild.
What does the divine observer in the Prayer Book of Queen Elizabeth symbolize?
“Unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid” – contrasting with human limited view.
What does Hillman and Aristotle say about the Vindice?
inborn morality
you are what you repeatedly do
How is Vindice presented in 2008 Melly Still production
a ‘hero’ with a ‘conflicted essence’.
What is the significance of entering from stage left
Morality plays - villain would enter from there - Vindice enters ‘holding skull’
same side as Duke, duchess, Lussuriouso and Spurio
How does Bacon describe revenge in his essay Of Revenge?
A “wild kind of justice.”
What influenced early modern macabre art and death imagery?
The plague shaped early modern conceptions of death.
What contrast does Hobbes make in Leviathan regarding state and nature?
Life in the state of nature is “solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short”; peace is through sovereign power – in revenge tragedy this is absent.
What philosophical idea does Neill connect to the physician opening the body?
It fulfils the ancient prescription nosce teipsum—“know thyself,” though it only uncovers death.
What quote from Romeo and Juliet describes a space death is contained within
‘womb of death’ (Romeo about to open Juliet’s tomb)
What bodily theory precedes anatomical blazoning?
Humoural theory (whole body) before anatomy (parts).
What is Vesalius known for in anatomy?
De Fabrica Corporis Humani.
How does Stephen Gosson criticize theatre?
Likens plays to “Basiliskes of the world, that poyson, as well with the beame of their sighte, as with the breath of their mouth.”
What does Andreas say about fulfilling desire?
A: “When blood and sorrow finish my desire… Ay, there were spectacles to please my soul.”
What does Marissa Greenberg say about revenge tragedy?
A: Its cyclical nature allows audiences to gratify violent urges from a not-so-distant place.
Spain and Portugal’s attitude (esp. post-1580s)
Negative, particularly around the Armada era.
What Roman custom of Nero do Revenge tragedies reminisce?
Criminals were killed as “tragedies naturally performed.”
How did early modern plays simulate death?
With severed heads, animal blood, and organs.
What does Greenblatt say about identity in the 16th century?
Increased self-consciousness about the fashioning of human identity as a manipulable, artful process.
