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Summary
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
The Ghost of Andrea and Revenge enter. In life, Don Andrea was a Spanish courtier, and he served the court with duty and honor. He was secretly in love with Bel-Imperia, and she loved him as well, but their relationship was cut short by Andrea’s death during the latest conflict with Portingale. Directly after Andrea’s death, Charon denied Andrea’s passage over the river Acheron because proper funeral rites had not been performed. Then, three days later, Andrea’s dear friend, Horatio, performed the funeral ritual, and Andrea was allowed to pass into the afterlife to sit before Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanth.
As piece of Renaissance literature, The Spanish Tragedy is heavily influenced by classical Greek and Roman literature, and this influence is seen in Kyd’s multiple references to Greek and Roman mythology. Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanth are the judges of the underworld, and they decide where Andrea goes in death, and Charon is the ferryman who brings the newly dead across the river Acheron and into the underworld. Without Horatio’s love for Andrea and his desire to complete his funeral rites, Andrea would not have been allowed to pass into the afterlife.
Themes
Literary Devices
According to Minos, Andrea “both lived and died in love,” and Aeacus suggested they send him to the fields of love, but Rhadamanth disagreed. Andrea died in war, Rhadamanth reminded them, and he must therefore be sent to the martial fields with Achilles’ Myrmidons and Hector. As Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanth could not agree on where to send Andrea, they sent him to the court of Pluto, where Pluto allowed Proserpine to decide Andrea’s fate. Proserpine ordered Revenge to take Andrea through the gates of horn, which has brought them to the present moment. Now, Revenge says, Andrea shall see his murderer, Balthazar, killed by Bel-Imperia. Revenge and Andrea will watch the events unfold, and serve as the Chorus of the tragedy.
Andrea “lived and died in love” because he fiercely loves Bel-Imperia, and Balthazar presumably kills Andrea so that he himself can get closer to Bel-Imperia. Proserpine is the queen of the underworld, and in ordering Revenge to take Andrea through the gates of horn, she implies that she wants Andrea to see the truth regarding his desire for revenge. Only true dreams come through of the gates of horn (false dreams come through the gates of ivory), and this suggests that Andrea’s desire for revenge is ill-advised. Again, Kyd’s play is full of illusions to ancient Greece and Rome, as Achilles and his Myrmidons fought against Hector during the Trojan War.
Themes
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