When Hieronimo finds Horatio hanged in the garden and swears revenge, his wife, Isabella, suggests he wait. It is implied throughout the play that revenge is ultimately God’s responsibility and is not to be taken into the hands of man. Is it God’s responsibility, or the law’s? Or is it his own responsibility as a father? Eventualy, Hieronimo reluctantly takes it upon himself to avenge Horatio’s death, but through The Spanish Tragedy, Kyd suggests that even when revenge seems like the only way to get justice, it’s still not worth it. Hieronimo demands revenge however, he questions whose responsibility it is to seek it. After Hieronimo’s son, Horatio, a war hero and honorable man, is murdered by Lorenzo, the son of the Duke of Castile and the nephew of the King of Spain, Hieronimo swears justice for his son. Revenge motivates several of the characters, but the play focuses mainly on the story of Hieronimo, the Knight Marshal of Spain. The Spanish Tragedy paved the way for other revenge plays of the day-such as Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy-and like other revenge plays, Kyd’s tragedy explores revenge and the ethics of taking justice into one’s own hands. Thomas Kyd’s play The Spanish Tragedy is widely regarded as the very first revenge play of the Elizabethan era.
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