Dear all,
First of all, thank you for the lovely review session tonight. Together the class built this handy list of themes, concerns, and motifs to go with each of the plays. The lists represent some of the things you've learned collectively about each of the plays, although the entry for each play is by no means exhaustive. This should should serve as a handy reference guide as you work through the plays prior to going into the exam on Wednesday.
There are two sample passages at the end for you to chew on. Neither of these passages are on the exam, but you can practice on them.
WORKS WE’VE STUDIED
Hamlet
Ghost (creates temporal confusion: when is the ghost?)
Tragedy
Revenge tragedy with hesitation and over-analysis
Lack of positive action, haphazard decisions (killing Polonius)
Melancholy (theory of the four humours)
Freudian reading (esp. with relationship with Gertrude)=popular
Insanity, esp. Ophelia (and Hamet)
Ophelia’s suicide
Hasty and “incestuous” marriage
Memento mori (Yorick’s skull, graveyard scene)
The Mousetrap
Dumbshow and then the main play with speech
Sort of a mimicry of the murder of Hamlet’s father
Main show: Hamlet suggests the nephew in the play is the murderer
Ophelia mimics Hamlet’s insanity
Gertrude ends up dead (poison intended for H.)
PLOT:
The Ghost appears
The Mousetrap (3.2)
Hamlet doesn’t kill Claudius b/c he is praying (3.3)
Polonius is killed
Ophelia’s suicide
Scheme to send Hamlet away & have him killed (R&G)
Everybody dies (except for Horatio and Fortinbras).
Coriolanus
“not a people person” = can’t or won’t win the popular vote
Normative vs. abject
Elite vs. commons
Force (Coriolanus) vs. manipulation (tribunes Sicinius and Brutus)
The homosocial, homoerotic, queer readings (normative and the abject)
Volumnia, mother troubles, forming Coriolanus as a warrior and (disastrously) as a politician; convinces him not to attack Rome, which leads to his downfall
“wing” symbolism and imagery; butterfly and dragon
Transformation
Menenius (friendship)
the body politic (the rebellion of the stomach against the body)
PLOT
Wins a major battle against Corioli, is named after the place
Encouraged to be a consul, won’t show his wounds, the people revolt
Coriolanus goes to Aufidius to ask for his help
Raises an army and marches against Rome
Volumnia convinces him not to attack; he’s assassinated
Macbeth
Ambition
“upward mobility”
Lady Macbeth’s ambition
Witches, prophecy encouraging ambition
“Serial killer”
Banquo’s murder
Ghost of Banquo
Supernatural/paranormal (dagger)
Paranoia
Regicide
Brutal murder scene, Lady Macduff and her children
Temporal and natural reversals (horses eat each other)
Guilt
Ethics of action
Interpretation of the witches
PLOT
Witches, first prophecies
Macbeth becomes Thane of Cawdor, fulfills first prophecy
Murder of Duncan
Banquo’s murder, Fleance escapes
Macbeth returns to the witches for more info
Macduff goes to England with a bunch of other Scots
Lady Macduff murdered
Lady Macbeth commits suicide
Birnham wood battle scene
Macduff defeats Macbeth
King Lear
Nothing
“O”
Madness
Filial honour and duty, filial dishonour, betrayal
Falling for flattery
Lear’s vanity
Aging
One error, massive consequences
Bastard! (and legitimacy)
Failure
Devastation
Blindness/ sight
Storm
PLOT
Lear demands loyalty in exchange for land, gives up his crown
Banishes Cordelia, rewards Goneril and Regan
They torment him and kick him out
He goes mad
Cordelia returns from France
Most people die, Edgar mourns
The Tempest
Romance
Magic
Second chances, redemption, fixing past mistake
Storm
Supernatural
One offstage witch (Sycorax)
Ariel/Caliban
Testing/trial, accusation/ confrontation
Conscience?
Clowns (Stephano and Trinculo), comic scenes
Revenge (lite)
Island as contact zone, colonial space and time = postcolonial reading
Material goods, colony as source of wealth, profit
Emblematic reading, the chess scene, Miranda and Ferdinand (wood carrying scene), 3.1
Prospero’s decision to give up his powers
Prospero’s control / Prospero as playwright
Richard III
History play
Usurpation!
***Villain***
Deformity, outsider
Flexibility in performance
Telling and then doing
Supernatural: at the end, murder victims come back to haunt Richard
Battle (good vs. evil)
Morality play (older form of theatre)
Seduces Anne over her father-in-law’s corpse
Curses, women’s curses and prophecies
Old Queen Margaret
[vice figure]
Murders family
Henry V
History play
Personal epiphany – Henry stops being “Prince Hal”
Anti-war or pro-war?
Influence of the church in promoting the war; war for political reasons
Multiple motives for the war
Romance as conquest (Princess Katherine)
Translation scene (comic scene between Katherine and her lady-in-waiting)
St. Crispan’s Day speech; Henry solidifies his position as leader
Falstaff, Bardolph, Pistol and Nym, used to be Henry’s friends; represent his misspent youth which he must put aside
War
Violence
“once more into the breach”
Henry V as quotable Shakespeare
Divine help
Comedy of Errors
Comedy
Twins (2 sets) and shipwreck
Mistaken identity, hilarity ensues
Family reunion
Old separations, reunited
Marriage, and the social
Dramatic irony
Twelfth Night
Twins and shipwreck
Disguise
Love
Music
Gulls and gallants (suckers and hustlers)
Self-absorption (Malvolio, but also Orsino, Olivia)
Courting, secrets to good wooing
Measure for Measure
Comedy, problem play
Serious subject matter, structure of comedy without the joy
Ambiguity about whether the resolution is good or positive
Gloomy subject matter according to a lot of critics
Too many references to disease; heavy consequences to sex
Sex!
Regulation of sex by the state
Grey area between justice, mercy, punishment
Criticism of politics, government
Power corrupts
Manipulation (Duke of dark corners)
Surveillance
Isabella as idealistic, strict morality (Pamela: Isabella = ludicrous)
Dramatic irony (audience knows something that a character or characters don’t)
Hypocrisy
Low characters
SAMPLE PASSAGES
Instructions:
For each of the passages you have chosen
1) Identify the play from which the passage is taken
2) Briefly summarize the content of the passage.
3) State the significance of the passage to the play as a whole. You should make reference to the plot and at least one of the themes of the play. You might also consider one or more of the following: character development, rhetoric, symbolism, or performance issues.
SAMPLE ONE
Lear …what can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
Cordelia Nothing, my lord.
Lear Nothing?
Cordelia Nothing.
Lear Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
SAMPLE TWO
Ghost of Buckingham The first was I that helped thee to the crown;
The last was I that felt thy tyranny.
O, in the battle think on Buckingham,
And die in terror of thy guiltiness!
Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death:
Fainting, despair; despairing, yield thy breath!
This post is more for your entertainment than anything else, but if you've wondered why wikipedia should be used with extreme caution if at all, the story documented by Lou Cabron at 10 Zen Monkeys gives you the answer.
Plus there's an only slightly disturbing 18th-century engraving of a monkey fighting a dog.
You might draw one of two morals from this story:
1. Never rely on Wikipedia for information without doing extra fact-checking.
2. Wikipedia may well be the most glorious piece of collective fiction writing ever produced.
Enjoy the full article here:
http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/07/24/monkey-v-dog-v-wikipedia/
In Monday's class, I discussed the exam format. Here's a recap, plus the notes with more details.
The exam will be in-class on Wednesday, August 1. It is in two parts. Part one is made up of 10 passages. You choose 5 and follow a set of instructions which basically invites you to do some close reading. Each of the plays we read this summer will be represented by one passage.
Part two of the exam consists of essay questions. You will choose one to answer. Each question asks you to look at a minimum of two plays. There can be no repetition of plays you've chosen to work on between part one of the exam and part two. So, by the time you finish the exam, you'll have written about 7 plays.
The exam will be open textbook, so bring your copy of the plays along with you. You may bring individual texts if that's what you've been using, or a complete works. If need a complete works for the purpose of the exam but you don't own one, Mills Library has several good editions that you may borrow.
You will also be allowed to bring in one 8 1/2 X 11 crib sheet, with notes on one side of it. You can write anything you like on this sheet of paper, in your handwriting or produced on your computer. I suggest that you use some of that space to record notes for your essay answer.
I am giving you your essay questions now (see below), so you may choose which question you would like to answer, and prepare some notes or an outline before you go into the exam. The expectation is that you will probably compose the essay during the exam, based on the notes you've prepared, and that you will include some quotes and/or specific evidence from the text in your essay.
Below you'll find a rough schematic of the exam, sans the specific passages you'll be asked to discuss, avec essay questions.
22 July 2007
Outline
a Exam format and details
a Hamlet revisited
v Ways of reading
v Understanding through performance
Exam format and details
The exam will look like this:
ENGLISH 3K06E/
SHAKESPEARE
INSTRUCTOR: MELISSA SMITH August 2007
EVENING CLASS
DURATION OF EXAM: 3 Hours
MCMASTER UNIVERSITY FINAL EXAMINATION
THIS EXAMINATION PAPER INCLUDES FOUR PAGES AND TWO SECTIONS. SECTION ONE CONTAINS TEN PASSAGES. SECTION TWO CONTAINS FIVE QUESTIONS. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THAT YOUR COPY OF THE PAPER IS COMPLETE. BRING ANY DISCREPANCY TO THE ATTENTION OF YOUR INSTRUCTOR.
MATERIALS ALLOWED: Notes on one side of an 8 x 11.5 inch piece of paper
Course textbook
SECTION ONE: PASSAGES
VALUE: 50% of exam grade
(Answer 5 out of 10 questions, 10% per answer)
Choose five of the following ten passages. For each of the passages you have chosen
1) Identify the play from which the passage is taken
2) Briefly summarize the content of the passage.
3) State the significance of the passage to the play as a whole. You should make reference to the plot and at least one of the themes of the play. You might also consider one or more of the following: character development, rhetoric, symbolism, or performance issues.
YOU MAY NOT USE THE PLAYS YOU DISCUSS IN THIS SECTION ELSEWHERE ON THIS EXAM.
PASSAGES 1-10
SECTION TWO: ESSAY QUESTION
VALUE: 50% of exam grade (1 answer)
Choose one of the following five questions. Using the structure of an academic essay, answer it thoroughly. YOU MAY NOT USE THE PLAYS YOU DISCUSS IN THIS SECTION ELSEWHERE ON THIS EXAM.
1) Many of Shakespeare’s comedies contain tragic elements, while his tragedies contain comic elements. With reference to two plays we studied this summer, discuss some of the ways in which Shakespeare’s plays defy the conventions of genre.
2) With reference to two plays we studied this summer, discuss some of the ways in which Shakespeare stages gender.
3) Choose a key scene from one of the plays we studied this summer. Using your experience in acting and reading Shakespeare, construct two radically different ways of playing this scene. What are some of the thematic consequences of your different interpretation of each scene? Now, apply these two radically different playing styles to a key scene from a different play by Shakespeare. What impact do your playing choices have on this other text? What conclusions can you draw from this experiment?
4) Recall Thomas Rymer’s thoughts on Shakespeare’s style, from his A Short View of Tragedy (1693).
Many, peradventure, of the Tragical Scenes in Shakespeare cry’d up for the Action, might do yet better without words. Words are a sort of heavy baggage, that were better out of the way at the push of Action; especially in his bombast Circumstance, where the Words and Action are seldom akin, generally are inconsistent, at cross purposes, embarrass or destroy each other. Yet to those who take not the words distinctly there may be something in the buz [sic.] and sound that, like a drone to a Bagpipe, may serve to set off the Action.
With reference to two of the plays we studied this summer (don’t feel obligated to limit yourself to tragedies), discuss the relationship between words and action in Shakespeare’s plays.
5) In The Dialogic Imagination, Mikhail Bakhtin writes,
In the literary artistic chronotope, spatial and temporal indicators are fused into one carefully thought-out, concrete whole. Time, as it were, thickens, takes on flesh, becomes artistically visible; likewise, space becomes charged and responsive to the movements of time, plot and history. This intersection of axes and fusion of indicators characterizes the artistic chronotope. The chronotope in literature has an intrinsic generic significance.
With reference to two of the plays we studied this summer, discuss one or more of the ways Shakespeare structures the relationship between space and time in his plays. If you wish, discuss how that relationship determines or influences genre in these plays.
THE END
Hamlet revisited
Reading through performance
Chronotope: Mikhail Bakhtin’s term for a distinctive organization of space and time. Note that different ways of reading a text produce different chronotopes. (A postcolonial reading of The Tempest might produce a reading of that text that locates it at the moment of the colonial encounter between settler and native, circa 1562; a biographical reading of that play might produce a reading of the play that locates its chronotope as London, 1612, near the end of Shakespeare’s career.)
Thinking in terms of chronotope can help you to access some of the various layers of a play
Ghost 1.5
This portentious figure: 1.1.110-142
My hour is almost come: 1.5.2; 1.5.10-91 (describes his murder)
Symptomatic reading
Cast thy nighted colour off: 1.2.68-117
Melancholy to madness: Ophelia’s encounter with Hamlet, 2.1.78-85
The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy: 2.2.56-7 (His father’s death)
2.2.92-123 (note “this machine is to him”)
Queer readings/historical readings
1.2.129-59 “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt”
Cultural considerations
Spectres of Hamlet?
Footlights – Shakespeare Master Class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTwxAZNplB4
Derek Jacobi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMw8bjzDP2k
Harvey Birdman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyw1YKJQKwQ
I wanted to give you two examples of scene performance essays from last year's summer drama course, English 2B06/ The Development of English Drama, to give you some idea of how you might approach the task of writing up your results.
Both of these papers are about The Revenger's Tragedy. True to its name, this play is a revenge tragedy. In it, Vindice, the main revenger, decides to seek revenge against the corrupt Duke who murdered his girlfriend when she refused the Duke's advances. Amid a cast of nasty characters, including the Duke's bastard son, Spurio, who is having an affair with the Duke's wife, Vindice plots and schemes along with his brother Hippolito, to eventually kill the Duke. "Lucy", "Drew", and "Cameron", the students in this group, performed the murder scene as comedy. They used gag props (an aerosol can full of poison; tic tacs that the Duke spat out to represent melting teeth eaten away by the poison; a viking hat to represent the Duke's cuckold horns, as he discovers that his bastard is sleeping with his wife). The violence was made into slapstick.
I'm giving you the full text of Cameron's and Lucy's papers, below. Cameron approached the task of writing the essay by creating a formal academic argument about the play and its use of humour, and using that argument to justify the way the group did their scene performance. This paper is really excellent. Lucy's paper uses the scene performance's success to launch an argument about the relationship between staging and a play's genre, which she argues is very tenuous. The fact that this scene from a tragedy works as a comedy, she argues, means that drama as a form is much more flexible than we might think, and she implies that this is more proof that The Revenger's Tragedy is a satire of the revenge genre. The thesis of this paper and the way that it focusses discussion exclusively around the consequences of the scene performance choices made by Lucy's group are quite good.
Both of these approaches to the performance essay are worth considering.
At minimum, you should include a paragraph on your scene performance in your essay, as Cameron has done. Or you can emulate Lucy's approach to the assignment and make the paper almost entirely focussed around your group's performance.
Thanks to Cameron and Lucy for permission to use their papers. Names have been changed to protect the revengers.
Cameron's paper on The Revenger's Tragedy
On July 13th, 2006, Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore and I performed, for one night only, a humorous, darkly comic interpretation of a macabre scene of grisly murder from Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy. While this gruesome Renaissance drama features skulls, corpses, betrayal, rape, murder, and thoroughly dejected characters, we, as a group, managed to take a humorous tone to the material because inherent in the original text of the play is a subtle and slightly morbid layer of humour. This comedic element is something which is established in the play through the use of satire in the character development, irony in the plotting, and black visual comedy in the staging. In this essay, I will argue that Thomas Middleton uses comedy in The Revenger’s Tragedy in order to help generate meaning around the primary themes of the play. Then, I will explain how this use of humour allowed our group to create an entirely comedic production of a scene from the play that did not degrade the messages of the original text.
As the title would suggest the primary theme of this tragedy is revenge. Throughout the course of the play Middleton uses humour to accentuate the idea that striving for vengeance by way of violence is ultimately a futile, destructive concept that drains people of their humanity and morality. One of the ways he develops this point through the use of humour is by exaggerating the actions and motives of the characters, and the gruesomeness of situations to the point of excess so as to render them as borderline ridiculous. For example, the protagonist Vindice, who seems to teeter on the brink of madness for much of the play, has a thirst for violent revenge that is so intense and passionate that his behaviour becomes increasingly theatrical when caught up in the joyous moment of vengeance-taking. Two scenes in particular where this is shown to happen are Act 2 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 5. The first scene demonstrates how Vindice’s feelings of happiness in scenes of revenge are so strong that even when the vengeance is not his own he still insists that the moment reaches the peak of its theatrical possibilities. In the scene, Vindice is accompanying Lussurioso to the Duke’s bed chamber with the hope of confronting and murdering the bastard, Spurio, for sleeping with the Duchess. On the way there Vindice excitedly exclaims “Oh, ‘twill be glorious / To kill’em doubled, when they’re heaped” (2.3.3-4). This statement shows how passionate Vindice is about revenge as it would simply not be enough to just find and kill the adulterous lovers, but that it must also be dramatically grand and aesthetically pleasing as he hopes they will be caught and killed while in the moment of making love. Again in Act 3 Scene 5, Vindice insists that the moment of his own revenge also be exceptionally theatrical. In this scene (which our group performed), Vindice and his brother, Hippolito, are executing a previously concocted plan to tempt the Duke to a secluded place in order to murder him. However, Vindice is not satisfied with merely killing the Duke, as he instead opts for a grandiose scene of extensive suffering and humiliation that will have the Duke kiss a poisoned skull, causing his mouth to be gnawed away so that he is forced to watch in silence as his wife and bastard son intimately embrace before dying. In both scenes, Vindice’s exuberant insistence on theatrically magnified deaths borderlines on absurdity, causing these moments to be darkly comical in the way they depict how far gone this man has become in his obsession with obtaining violent comeuppance. Middleton’s use of humour in this way plays into the theme of revenge as it puts forth the message that the use of violent retribution is ultimately futile. This becomes apparent when considering that the character Vindice is meant to represent revenge in the play, as signified by the name “Vindice” which means “the revenger of wrongs”. By painting a character that represents vengeance in this satirical manner of being half-mad and somewhat ridiculous, Middleton is stating that, by extension, violent retribution itself is ridiculous.
One of the other points Middleton appears to make around the theme of revenge is that while on the road to retribution the humanity and morality of the avenger will gradually diminish. In terms of the use of humour, this element is presented in the play through black comedy in the way Vindice and Hippolito become detached from the real violence they are inflicting. This is shown most clearly in the series of humorous comments and asides the two men make while engrossed in moments of revenge. This is especially the case in the abovementioned scene of the Duke’s murder, as when Vindice jokingly comments to Hippolito with the pun “Then those that did eat are eaten” (3.5.163) in observation of the Duke’s teeth being melted away by poison, and when Hippolito sarcastically calls “Treason, treason, treason!” (3.5.156) while stamping on the Duke in response to his cry for help. Black comedy can be understood as that which “invites laughter at the grotesque and mortifying” (Smith) and that is exactly what Hippolito and Vindice (as well as the audience) have elected to do in this scene at the expense of the Duke. However, in doing so, the two brothers reveal that they are failing to recognize that what they are doing is completely unpleasant and horrifying. If they are able to torture and murder a fellow human being while making jokes, any sense of morality the brothers may have had is forever gone at this point in the play. By having his characters use black comedy in this scene, Middleton shows how these two characters have become so consumed in matters of vengeance that they are no longer able to feel any semblance of humanity or remorse.
This emotional detachment from the violence they are responsible for is also shown in the pleasure that Vindice and Hippolito experience in appreciation of each others’ wit and cleverness in matters of revenge plotting. An example of this is when Hippolito states “’Twill, i’faith! Most dreadfully digested” (3.5.25) in compliment of Vindice’s plan to have Spurio and the Duchess meet in the same secluded spot they plan on murdering the Duke. However, as the play progresses the gratification these two men receive from one another’s diabolical designs intensifies from a mild compliment such as this to the point where the two revengers appear to be obtaining near sexual pleasure – in particular, at the end Act 4 Scene 2 when Vindice gradually tells Hippolito the details about his latest plot. As Vindice begins telling Hippolito the early details he responds in absolute agreement, “True”, “Most True”. Then, as Hippolito begins to inquire about specific details and the plan begins to come into clear focus, the two men become more and more excited with comments like “you’re quick, you’ve reached it” (4.2.216) and “I like it wondrously” (4.2.217). This continues until the entire plot is fully in view, at which point Hippolito climactically exclaims “Firmer and firmer!” (4.2.228). The joy and pleasure these two men receive from cleverly plotting violence shows how completely removed they have become from the realness of the situation, as they fail to recognize that they are making plans and commitments to carry out deplorable acts of human tragedy. This is a point which Middleton makes in a perversely funny way through this satiric depiction of two men whose morality and humanity have been so completely overtaken by bloodlust that the pleasure they take in violence has begun to merge with that of sex.
Another primary theme of The Revenger’s Tragedy is justice. This theme is explored, by way of humour, primarily through the use of irony. When the story begins there seems to be an overriding sense of injustice dominating the world of the play. This is made evident in Act 1 Scene 2 when Junior Brother’s sentence is delayed by the Duke’s corrupt court despite the fact that he is guilty of rape. However, as the play progresses, the idea that there is order and justice in the universe becomes apparent as an increasing number of corrupt characters become justly punished for their actions in humorously ironic ways. The storyline that develops this idea most fully is the subplot of the Duchess’ three sons Ambitioso, Supervacuo, and the just mentioned, Junior Brother. In this plot thread, Ambitioso and Supervacuo scheme to have Junior Brother released from prison while having the Duke’s other son, Lussurioso, executed. What results from the two brothers’ planning is an ironically funny scene of divine justice in Act 3 Scene 4. In the scene Junior Brother receives a letter from his brothers informing him of a trick they have planned that will see him released from prison. However, right after reading the letter, officers inform him that he is to be executed immediately. At this point it becomes clear to the audience that Ambitioso and Supervacuo, in an attempt to have Lussurioso executed, have accidentally given the order to have the wrong brother killed. If Middleton were to end the scene immediately after the order of execution was given, the message of the scene would still be apparent, as an unrepentant rapist who hoped to be saved is ironically damned because of the incompetence of his ignorant brothers. However, Middleton continues to drag this scene out in a darkly humorous manner as Junior Brother stumbles through the realization that he is going to die. The intended dark humour of this moment is made clear when Junior Brother, in an attempt to find a scrap of the letter that may free him, finds a piece that states: “We’ll get thee out by a trick” (3.4.70-71). This line is humorously misinterpreted by the second officer who reads it as an obscure metaphor that was meant to refer to the arrival of the four officers as four cards in a card trick, with the trick being Junior Brother’s execution. This misunderstanding by the second officer is a fitting punch line to the series of humorous mistakes that led to Junior Brother’s ironic death. By having this scene drag on after the order of execution was passed, Middleton gives the scene greater resonance as the audience is given time to reflect on the bitter irony of the moment and consider the possibility that some form of divine justice was responsible.
When our group chose to produce the Duke’s murder from Act 3 Scene 5 for our scene performance, we elected to bring the humorous elements of Middleton’s play to the forefront and create what we perceived to be an entirely comedic production of the play. In doing so, one of the fears we had was making a mockery of a classic piece of English literature. However, because Middleton elected to use humour in a way that developed his themes we were able to create a comedic interpretation that maintained those themes without severely degrading or trivializing the central messages behind them. In order to heighten the humour of the scene, we decided to stress the visual comedy by creating certain visuals that may not have been in Middleton’s text.
An example of this was Lucy’s idea of using three pig masks for Vindice, Hippolito, and the skull of Glorianna, and a wolf mask for the Duke, as part of their attire for the masquerade ball. This choice can be seen as lending itself to the theme of identity in the play, which Middleton explores primarily through the countless scenes featuring characters in disguise. By creating a visual reference to the fairy tale of the “Three Little Pigs”, we were able to explore this theme by making a connection between how Vindice and Hippolito saw themselves in relation to the Duke. Throughout the play the two brothers identified themselves as innocent victims like the pigs in the story. They believed they were lower members of society who were manipulated, abused and suppressed by the oppressive power of the Duke (or the “big bad wolf”). However, this image of righteous innocence they project for themselves is contrasted greatly with the actions and behaviours of the two men in Act 3 Scene 5. Despite their association with suffering innocence, both Hippolito and Vindice prove to be in the position of strength in this scene as they are responsible for torturing and murdering the elderly Duke while in an elated state of sadistic glee. The reason they fail to see the hypocrisy of the situation is because the side effect of their being convinced they embody suffering innocence is that they are blinded to the terrible truth of their actions. By using the masks to contrast their deeds we attempted to explain how Vindice and Hippolito managed to justify their wicked behaviour throughout the play. This example shows how a seemingly cute and funny visual reference to a children’s fable can add a light comic touch while not degrading a message or theme from the original text.
In supplanting a work of drama or tragedy into the world of comedy, the fear is that the central themes and messages behind the play will be lost, butchering the meaning of the original work. In the case of Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy this fear became minimized when we realized that Middleton’s original text uses elements of dark comedy, irony, asides, double meanings and puns effectively in a way that is capable of making legitimate points about serious moral issues.
Lucy's paper on The Revenger's Tragedy
Any play which is categorized as a tragedy can be produced as a comedy, with proper alterations. I believe the genre of a play is originally based solely on the narrative, yet if a production changes the staging, characterization, and adds some comedic elements, a tragedy can become a comedy, without dramatically changing the narrative or eliminating any of the underlying themes expressed by the author. This theory was supported by our scene production of The Revenger’s Tragedy, which will be compared to a more traditional, dark perspective or to the dark comedic representation of the plot in the movie, Revenger’s Tragedy by Alex Cox.
The staging of a play, and by that I mean the setting and the costumes, can make a large impact on the overall production and on the perception of the audience as they determine whether the play is humorous or tragic. In The Revenger’s Tragedy text there are no indications as to where the action takes place in the scene which our group prepared, Act 3 scene 5. The direction at the beginning of the scene says, “Enter Vindice (disguised) with Hippolito his brother” (3.5), no mention of a location. Within the narrative there are no indications as to where they are except that there is music, and a banquet. Both Vindice and the Duchess mention this. Vindice says to Hippolito, “Hark the music, Their banquet is prepared,” (3.5.185) and the Duchess mentions it in lines 214-215, “Why, now thou’rt sociable: let’s in and feast. Loudest music sound: pleasure is banquet’s guest” (3.5). So, without any clear stage direction from the narrative we decided to choose the cloakroom of the banquet as our location. This allowed us to hide the woman/skull and create a dark area which would make it more plausible for the Duke to not recognize the fact that he is kissing a skull, and yet provide a light staging which would reflect our comedic take on the scene. We also added the element of the masquerade, a common element in tragedies. This enabled us to hide the skull further and depict one of the themes of the play, social hierarchy and revenge, while adding a visually humorous element, based on social injustice and hierarchy. The Duke is the wolf and the three revengers are the pigs. This plays on the audience’s awareness of the plot of The Three Little Pigs, who are hunted and pushed around by the Big Bad Wolf. In our take on this story the three little pigs take revenge on the wolf, thus empowering the underdog and destroying the bully. It highlights for the audience the class distinction between Vindice, Hippolito, Gloriana and the Duke, reiterating the theme of class subversion and taking control by enacting revenge. I believe our interpretation was effective as expressed by Dr. Smith in our evaluation:
I especially thought the idea of the three little pigs avenging themselves on the big bad wolf was inspired, since it’s nice way to reinforce the idea of the class and power differential between the Duke and Vindice and Hippolito (and Ms. Skull). The whole impact of the scene was hilarious, perverse, and a little bit grotesque.
To further illustrate this theme we used the Star Wars theme song, which is a story where the people battle to overthrow the bullying government. We discussed another element that could have added humour while continuing to exemplify the theme. When Vindice says, “’Tis I, ‘tis Vindice, ‘tis I!” (3.5.166) he could have revealed a large capital “V” under his shirt, playing on the Superman theme. Superman would reflect the concept of the underdog battling the powerful injustice of capitalism represented by the wealthy and powerful Lex Luthor, although we discarded this idea in the final performance.
In the end of our scene, we focused on a separate theme in the play, Vindice’s thirst for death and how he is no longer out to revenge Gloriana, but instead attempts to take control of the government by killing anyone he does not feel appropriate for the role of Duke. By having Vindice forget Gloriana’s skull, his true love, we hoped to highlight how he begins to forget his motive for the Duke’s death: it is no longer about Gloriana. Overall, the staging evoked much of the humour and prepared the audience for the fact that this was not a serious representation of the narrative. In Alex Cox’s Revenger’s Tragedy, he sets this scene in a large ampitheatre. It’s dark, there is a bed prepared for the Duke, and this adds humour because we don’t expect a bed in this location, yet the whole scene feels ominous, perfect for a darker comedic interpretation of the scene. To have presented this scene in a more tragic way, I think the stage could have been in an alley in the seedier part of town, where there is a bar close by for the music. Overall, I believe our staging helped to create the lighter interpretation of the scene while allowing us to follow the script direction contained in the text.
The costuming also played a large role in the comedic interpretation of the production. This was most relevant when dressing the Duke. He needed to be richly dressed because The Revenger’s Tragedy has a strong theme of indulgence and living the high life.
The Revenger’s Tragedy is a play much concerned with contemporary fashions-the silk and silver worn at court, the smart attitudes and witty indecencies of fashionable conversation.
(Gibbons xxix)
In order to stay true to this theme we dressed the Duke in a satin coat with tails, large cuffs and collar, yet to make it comedic it had loud colours and multiple stripes, which we felt made it look like a clown’s coat: very funny. Since costuming is not a direct part of the narrative we felt we had interpreted this well. Had we treated this play like a darker tragedy we may have ensured the revengers were in darker more ominous clothing and that the Duke was dressed, still wealthy, yet more empowered, a power suit perhaps. This is how the movie by Alex Cox treated the costuming, with dark colours and power suits for the Duke. When the Duke was preparing himself for the engagement we were exposed to some comedic elements, his dress is almost over the top, yet still dark and powerful. I didn’t laugh at his appearance as much as I did at his perception of himself; the overall portrayal of his character continues to be dark and threatening. This interpretation of the Duke’s costuming is very effective for a darker more tragic version, not for our comedic/farcical take on the narrative. I believe by dressing the Duke in rich, light, colourful clothes he feels like a less intimidating character and can be perceived as more open to mocking and clowning.
In our version we focused on the characterization of Vindice, Hippolito and the Duke. The narrative has humorous elements built into the script, which helps to create a comical take on the scene. However, the majority of the lines are about stabbing and revenge: therefore, more emphasis was placed on our actions and intonation or expression. We played with the idea of the sharks and the gulls, according to Dr. Smith, a typical tool used in comedy during the 16th century. In our representation Vindice and Hippolito were the sharks transformed from gulls and the Duke, who was once a shark, now becomes the gull. He is hoodwinked, mocked and is made a cuckold, allowing the audience to see the powerful fall, and providing an opportunity for laughter. To make Vindice more comedic Cameron put a giddy or excited tone to his voice for example when he said, “now I’ll begin To stick thy soul with ulcers” (3.5.171-172). This line could direct the play in two ways. This line was not present in Alex Cox’s production but, one tragic/dramatic way to present this line would be to literally jab the Duke with a sword, causing blood to ooze out. A more comedic version, like ours, was to have him almost tickle the Duke with the sword and say the line with a light and airy sense, no malicious tone. When the Duke giggles and backs away, the audience doesn’t feel the thre