Revenge and Revenge Tragedy in Renaissance England

Broude, Ronald

doi:10.2307/2860421

Cited by 52 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Alongside femicide, murder as revenge could be seen as the other major theme to emerge from the murder ballad tradition (Broude, 1975). Such ballads involve an individual who considers themselves to have been wronged and who goes on to exact retribution by punishing those who were deemed to have wronged them.…”

Section: Murder As Revengementioning

confidence: 99%

Murder Ballads: Nick Cave and His Approach to Killing in Song

Newman

2017

Musicology Australia

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Violence and murder have a strong cultural currency the implications of which should be pursued by those with an interest in law and society, crime, and justice. Murder ballads are songs about death and killing with a history stretching back to the nineteenth century. Drawing out the major themes of this genre can help scholars gain a handle on how murder has been treated in popular culture, thereon providing an enhanced understanding of the human condition. As an example of such examination, 2016 marked the t e tieth a i e sa of Ni k Ca e a d the Bad "eeds Murder Ballads, their most famous and, perhaps, defining album. More than any other Bad Seeds album, Murder Ballads captures the essence of a band at its most comfortable in exploring the dark and taboo; violence, killing, death. In producing a whole album on murder, the band left a calling card by which the wider public could define them. This paper will explore the album by considering its key themes and, in so doing, reflect on the need to understand the use of murder in such popular music. The use of murder and death in popular music has not been properly studied yet offers potential social insight for several fields of study such as law, criminology and psychology. In particular, little considered issues around the treatment of murder in popular culture such as humour are identified, while others that require greater attention such as attitudes to women are also given due consideration.

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Section: Murder As Revengementioning

confidence: 99%

Murder Ballads: Nick Cave and His Approach to Killing in Song

Newman

2017

Musicology Australia

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“…The power of revenge transcended death -particularly in the broader Jacobean sense of ' revenge ', which came closer to retribution, to the due punishment of wrongs. 53 Ghosts of every degree, from Hamlet's royal father to ragged, unnamed corpses ' lapt in some fowle sheete ', all cried out for satisfaction : ' Vindicta, Revenge, Revenge '. 54 In so much contemporary writing, the obligation to act lay squarely on the individual : on the wronged son, the persecuted servant, or the citizen enduring tyranny.…”

Section: I Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategy and Motivation in the Gunpowder Plot

Nicholls

2007

Hist. J.

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This article seeks to develop our understanding of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot by asking a number of elementary questions. Were the plotters terrorists in any meaningful sense? Were they religious fanatics, as the Jacobean state understandably chose to portray them after the event? Was their plan built on a misguided fantasy of widespread support for a Catholic insurrection, or does the Plot perhaps have a practical coherence that lies obscured by the drama of the projected strike against Westminster? How does evidence for coherent planning square with the strong desire for revenge, running through so much of the surviving testimony? Through answers to these questions, we begin to see the Gunpowder plotters as men engaged in a calculated and demonstrably pragmatic attempt to engineer a change in regime. Their planning was robust, and to the point, while the emotional power of revenge was channelled creatively by the ringleaders. The article concludes that the odds against success were long, but not impossible.

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“…Regarding the dramatic genre of revenge tragedy, I refer to the analysis of Fredson Bowers (1966) who lays out the framework of Kyd's ([1592] 1898) employment of the revenge tragedy in The Spanish Tragedy. This framework is strengthened by the works of Ronald Broude (1975), Bradley Irish (2009) and Tanya who all provide additional contextual information regarding the genre's rise during the Elizabethan era.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“My life is nothing but a comedy”: madness and revenge tragedy in Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019)

Akoo

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This dissertation analyses the employment of madness and the revenge tragedy in the contemporary Hollywood film, Joker (dir. Phillips, 2019). By focussing on the causation that leads to the protagonist’s tragic fate, I argue that the protagonist’s use of blood revenge is due to the city’s indifferent nature towards its marginalised and mentally ill citizens. Though the protagonist’s crimes cannot warrant any justification, an empathetic understanding can be bridged to the audience due to the intimate portrayal of his suffering. Madness is most certainly loaded with diverse histories and persists as an anomaly to humans. The current interpretation of madness, within the context of mental illness, greatly differs from its early understanding incorporating societal rejection of those who failed to uphold the standards of societal convention. In Joker, it is further attributed to individuality and liberation from the constraints of societal convention. My research maintains that the film deploys madness as a defensive and coping mechanism against the tyranny of societal structures, through which the protagonist emancipates his dangerous and powerful Joker persona. In addition, I analyse the portrayal of mental illness in Joker. I impartially explore the film’s rally for mental illness awareness and compare it to its damaging depiction of a violent and murderous mentally ill protagonist. The film essentially embodies both redeeming and harmful portrayals of mental illness. I henceforth assess the presence of the revenge tragedy in Joker by examining the formula of the genre’s leading precedent, The Spanish Tragedy (Kyd, [1592] 1898). The Kydian formula establishes the structure of a revenge tragedy narrative employing blood revenge as its primary method of retribution, and it is through this formula that I am able to locate and justify the presence of the revenge tragedy in Joker (dir. Phillips, 2019). Due to the cold-blooded vengeance the protagonist undertakes, I evaluate the cautionary tale around the mistreatment of the mentally ill which gave rise to the events in the film. As a result of this, my research asserts that the protagonist ultimately occupies the seat of the anti-hero despite the brutal nature of his crimes. The societal system reigns as the true villain of the film, because if it were not for the systematic marginalisation of Gotham’s disadvantaged and mentally ill citizens, as well as the callous nature of society, then the protagonist may have not walked down the dark path that he did.

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Revenge and Revenge Tragedy in Renaissance England

Cited by 52 publications

References 3 publications

Murder Ballads: Nick Cave and His Approach to Killing in Song

Murder Ballads: Nick Cave and His Approach to Killing in Song

Strategy and Motivation in the Gunpowder Plot

“My life is nothing but a comedy”: madness and revenge tragedy in Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019)

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