Today our class shared our memes. There were five groups, each assigned a topic. Our group was the politics group. Other groups’ topics were drama, religion, the role of women, and Thomas Kid. For tonights blog post, I chose to write about the connection between the role of women in the real society (back then) and the women in the The Spanish Tragedy.
While viewing the website the group created, I was particularly drawn to the tab about “Political Powerful Roles of Women.” The two powerful women during the time of The Spanish Tragedy were Queen Isabel I of Spain and Queen Elizabeth I of England. After reading a short bio on each woman, I began to make some connection between them and our heroine, Bel-Imperia. Similar to Queen Elizabeth, Bel-Imperia did not marry. Like, Queen Isabel, Bel-Imperia was pressured to marry man she didn’t love. In addition, she wasn’t born to take the throne, but she ended up holding considerable power in her decision over whether or not to marry Balthazar. Bel-Imperil also harbors an uncanny amount of autonomy for a woman during her time period. She makes the decision to play both Lorenzo and Balthazar by toying around with Horatio. She is Hieronimo’s first lead on murder of his son. She constantly rebuffs Balthazar’s attempts at courtship with ease and confidence. Lastly, in perhaps her biggest act of autonomy, she kills herself, freely choosing her own fate. Throughout The Spanish Tragedy, the character of Bel-Imperia constantly defies all stereotypes of women during that time period. She holds much power, displayed in her ability to plan her own revenge, rebuff a man’s pursuits, help with a murder case, and choose her own fate.
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Over the past week, we broke up into to groups to do some further contextualizing of The Spanish Tragedy. My group got the topic of politics. Under this category, we were asked to research the relationship between Spain, England, and Portugal. While doing my research, I immediately drew many connections between the text and my topic. *An important note: many people believe The Spanish Tragedy was written in 1587. For example, Spain and Portugal were enemies at the time. In 1580, the current King of Portugal died, leaving behind no successors. This led to a succession crisis, which ended with Philip II of Spain claiming the thrown (through family relations). Philip created the Iberian Union, which was supposed to be a personal union between Spain and Portugal. In theory Spain and Portugal’s boundaries, laws, and interests were supposed to remain the same as before, but that didn’t happen. Portugal was not allowed to have their own foreign policy, enemies of Spain became enemies of Portugal, and there was deterioration of relations with England. In 1640 the Portuguese Restoration War began, ending with Portuguese independence in 1688. During this whole time period, England supported Portugal, and fought with Spain.
A lot of these political battles are reflected within The Spanish Tragedy. For example, Spain and Portugal are at war. In an almost patriotic fashion, Kyd writes Spain as the victor of the battle. However, there could be a deeper meaning because the marriage between Bel-Imperia and Balthazar (a union which was supposed to unite Spain and Portugal) failed. This could symbolize the idea that Spain and Portugal together will never work, further hinting that Portugal is better off independent. Another interesting point, is that all the killers are Spanish. Perhaps this could represent England’s view of the Spanish.
In The Courtier, specifically, the Count spends a lot of time explaining the ways a Courtier must speak and what sort of language he should use depending on the audience. Another one of Greenblatt’s conditions is in all instances of self-fashioning there is a higher figure, whether that be God, a regions, the state, or another person. This also concurred with both texts; the Courtier is submissive to the prince, and even the Prince must submit to God (I believe). One of the things that caught my attention was Greenblatt’s assertion that every man has an authority and an alien. What does this mean? Who/What is the authority/alien for the courtier/prince? Towards the end of the epilogue Greenblatt turns his focus towards the idea of autonomy, writing “But as my work progressed, I perceived that fashioning oneself and being fashioned by cultures institutions […] were inseparably intertwined.” After reading this I inscribed a sophisticated “well duh” in the margins. To me, this was a very obvious statement tying back to the idea of nature vs. nurture and how that affects who you are. You can only fashion yourself in the certain boundaries which society and culture allow you to or else you won’f fit in and you’ll have no purpose. People want to be accepted. The standard of accepting is set by society and therefore in order to achieve the goal, one must conform to societal boundaries. I like to think of it as one those questionnaires with Yes or No, if Yes follow this squiggly line, if no follow the other squiggly line. There are many options and certain threads of life, but when you look at the big picture, everything is confined to one page.
The Spanish Tragedy, written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592, includes many themes from Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Castiglione’s The Courtier. For example, Lorenzo displays many of a prince’s characteristics. He utilizes deceit and manipulation to achieve what he wants, often convincing his victims with his verbal skills. When his words don’t work, he is quick to threaten, obviously less interested in love from the people around him than fear. In addition, he is very calculated. He works swiftly to tie up any loose ends, as seen when he orchestrates Pedringano’s and Serbine’s deaths.
Although not obvious at first, Hieronimo also personifies from Machiavellian characteristics. At first, Hieronimo is the Knight Marshal, overseeing courts and such. However, when he discovers his son, Horatio, dead, he immediately resolves to take revenge on the murderers. After receiving a tip from Bel-Imperia as well as the deceased Pedringano, Hieronimo realizes that the killers are Lorenzo and Balthazar. Concluding that he cannot go directly at two higher ranking persons, Hieronimo resolves to bide his time and plot revenge slowly. He manipulates both Lorenzo and Balthazar into perceiving him as a friend. He convinces both of the murders to act in a play, where the final death scenes are in fact real. Through careful calculations and a well played facade, Hieronomo was able to take revenge on both Balthazar and Lorenzo without any of them suspecting him. I found it a little harder to draw connections between The Courtier and The Spanish Tragedy, but I will share what I came up with. Within The Spanish Tragedy there are not many character who embody Castiglione’s “perfect courtier.” No one shows proficient talent in arms, hunting, painting, speaking, writing, tennis, and weapons (to name a few skills). It almost seems as if the perfect Courtier does not exist. But that’s a question for later. One thing I did notice was that Pedringano is not a perfect Courtier. He only agrees to kill Serbine for the cash reward. He is almost an anti-courtier because once he completes the deed, he is 100% reliant on Lorenzo’s (his lord’s) pardon. According to Castiglione, a lord should always be reliant on his courtier, and a courtier should never ask or expect any great things from his lord, but if his lord offer him something, that he take accept it with modesty. Even if Lorenzo did write a pardon for Pedringano, Pedringano would not have accepted it with modesty. He joked around the hangman before his execution, constantly referencing his lord’s power and how he was untouchable. Perhaps after some thought, I could somewhat make the argument that the page comes the closest to exemplifying some of Castiglione’s chosen traits. In the narrative Lorenzo asks the page to bring a box to the hangman. Lorenzo notes that his letter of pardon is inside, but instructs the page not to open it. Of course after being told not to do something, the page does just that. Upon opening the box, the page realizes there is no letter of pardon side. This is where our page has the chance to prove himself. Although he originally disobeyed orders, he carries out the rest of Lorenzo’s instructions, bringing the box to the hangman. His biggest act of proper courtiershp is displayed when he chooses not to tell the hangman or Pedringano that the letter does not exist. In this way, the page mostly carries out his lord’s wishes, even if someone is going to die. While the relationship between The Courtier and The Spanish Tragedy was rather tricky to discern, there are infinite connections between The Courtier and The Prince. Exactly in line with The Prince, the Count stresses the Courtier must not not indulge in praise or affection. This seems to be as the most important part of being a Courtier, as it is highlighted multiple times. This does not mean that the Courtier should deny praise. He should humbly accept it, but never seek it out. The Courtier also references the themes of perception and manipulation found in The Prince. In section 34, the Count states that the courtier must be able to speak with such skill as to “cause the one who listens to believe that with little effort he too could attain to such excellence – but who, when he tries, discover that is very far from it.” This sounds like the exact harsh and calculated thing Machiavelli would advise his prince to do. Get the people to love to you and admire your words, but then when they try to ascend from their lowly position themselves, they find it impossible. Continuing with the theme of perception, the Count explains that “masquerading carries a with it a certain freedom and license, which among other things enables one to choose the role in which he feels most able […] and to show a certain nonchalance in what does not matter: all of which adds much charm” (Book 2, section 11). This quote goes right along with Machiavelli’s argument that one should appear to have certain traits, while not actually possessing them. Additionally, the Count underline the need for the Courtier to know his audience and “change his style and method from day to day, according to the nature of the person with whom he undertakes to converse.” By changing the way he speaks as well as putting up a facade to his audience, the Courtier will remain on good terms with everyone and gain more power, ultimately what a prince wants. While the Courtier is required to attain many of the skills needed by the Prince, there is a line that differentiates the two. In section 18 of Book Two, Castiglione writes that the Courtier must “devote all his thought and strength of spirit to loving and almost adoring the prince he serves able all else, devoting his every desire and habit and manner to pleasing him.” The difference here is that the Courtier exists to serve the prince (keeps in the prince in power), while the prince serves himself (keeps himself in power). Overall, there are many connections that can be drawn between The Spanish Tragedy, The Courtier, and The Prince, some are harder to find than others. However, all three texts are examples of revenge or acts as supplements to better understand a revenge character. |
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May 2017
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