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Act 3, Scene 4
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
Lorenzo’s page enters with the box and curses Lorenzo for telling him not to look inside. Had Lorenzo said nothing and just told him to show it to Pedringano, chances are he would have never thought of opening it. But now that Lorenzo has told him not to, the page is compelled to look inside. He opens the box and discovers it is empty. He feels sorry for Pedringano, but the page knows that if he doesn’t do as Lorenzo orders, he will be hanged as well. The page exits.
The page obviously feels some sort of kinship with Pedringano as they are both servants of Lorenzo’s estate. The page wants to warn Pedringano and tell him the box is empty, but Lorenzo’s evil appears well known. In refusing to tell Pedringano that the box is empty, the page betrays Pedringano as well, and the page’s guilt is evidence of this.
Themes
