Questions on The Spanish Tragedy
1. What is the dramatic function of the scenes in Portugal?
2. In what way is Hunter's definition of tragedy applicable to the play: ‘Tragedy … plots the
urge of the individual to assert his freedom against the restrictions imposed by the
community, against power as it is embodied in the existing social system. The hero’s bid
is to overwhelm the restrictions, and it is his tragic destiny to fail, but also to show, in the
process of failing, the power of the individual to represent a daring, an untamability, an
inventiveness, occasionally a capacity for love and self-sacrifice that idealizes our own
effort to achieve such separate identity’.
3. According to G. K. Hunter (424), The Spanish Tragedy presents two competing
eschatologies: on one side the classical Hades which sends Andrea back to earth to
enjoy individual fulfilment, on the other hand, a biblical command 'vindicta mihi' that
forbids individual revenge. Which of these systems controls the social reality of the
play?
4. What thematic consequences would the play have if we removed the scenes with
Andrea and Revenge?
5. How does the revenger cope with the inherent conflict or dilemma in revenge?
6. What would be the thematic consequences of a Spanish Tragedy in which Hieronimo
does not die in the end?
7. Explain Daiches's statement that The Spanish Tragedy is an adaptation of elements of
Senecan tragedy to roaring melodrama.
8. How would you transform The Spanish Tragedy into a more melodramatic story of
revenge?
11. Is there any difference between the overall style of the play and the style of the play-
within-the play?
12. Is there any difference between the language of Balthazar and that of Horatio? How
would you describe them?