Begging for Revenge: Conceptions of Female Agency in Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy
In discussing The Spanish Tragedy, it is impossible to ignore the function of revenge and its dominance of the play. The main character Hieronimo is the most obvious subject in discussing the morality and motivation of revenge, and while there have been a few readings that attempt to explore the role of women in revenge tragedy (most notably Alison Findlay's), there has yet to be a systematized reading that takes into account all of the women lurking beneath the play's violent, seemingly masculine surface. While there are only two female characters who appear onstage during the course of the play, there are also over thirty references to mythological women that act as more than mere allusions. In my reading of the play, I expand the category of female characters to include the mythological women who play a very substantial role in the action of the play even though they are never actually visible. In arguing for the influence of these women, it is necessary to discuss the notion of agency, but this issue immediately becomes complicated by the present-yet-absent status of the mythological women in question as well as the danger of using agency as a catch-all term applied to any instance of female involvement in the drama. Through close literary analysis supplemented by secondary critical sources, this reading attempts to untangle the various conceptions of female agency that are initially constructed by men but ultimately claimed by the women themselves. In negotiating this progression, I contend that the play allows for the creation of a new female subject that is part real and part fictive, part constructing and part constructed, but wholly able.
School:
Northeastern Illinois University
Department:
English
Research Advisor:
Lori Newcomb
Department of Research Advisor:
English
Year of Publication:
2008