“The less I speak, the more I meditate.”
About The Author
Thomas Kyd (6 November 1558 – 15 August 1594) was an English dramatist and a famous English playwright. He was one of the most important figures in the development of drama, plays and middle and final climaxes. He revealed a sense of the tragic situation in his novel “The Spanish Tragedy”. In 1593 he got arrested and tortured because he was the suspect of treasonable activity. He contributed a lot to Elizabethan drama.
About The Novel
At the beginning of the story, the ghost of Spanish courtier Dan Andrea tells his story. After Andrea died in the battle against Portugal, he became a ghost and tried to find a way to send back on Earth. A character named Revenge, his guide, tells him that he has been sent back to witness an incident related to his lover. The story contains very serious and tragic incidents.
Genre: Tragedy
Tone: Ironic, Serious, and Tragic
Type: Play
Year of Publication: 1592
Main Characters
Hieronimo: The protagonist of the story
Bel-Imperia: The main female character
Lorenzo: One of Horatio’s murderers
Balthazar: The prince of Portugal
Horatio: Son of Hieronimo
Ghost of Andrea: First character in the play
Revenge: Andrea’s companion
Isabella: Suffering wife of Hieronimo
Themes
- Death wish- There are nine deaths in the novel, three of them are suicide
- Revenge- Most of the characters act out because of the feeling of revenge
- Betrayal- Betrayal is the most important emotion in play. Some of them betray with a strong reason, but some characters don’t have a particular reason
- Justice/Injustice-The whole play revolves around the questions of justice and injustice
Some Interesting Facts about the Novel
- The book is written to show Spain as an evil empire that was the archrival of England
- Shakespeare’s Hamlet has many themes like The Spanish Tragedy, which makes scholars believe that the story inspires Shakespeare
- Because of some copyright dispute, only one copy of the first edition has survived
- The exact year of the writing of The Spanish Tragedy is still unknown.
- T.S. Eliot mentioned Spanish Tragedy in his most famous poem
