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Home > English > Extension 1 > Module A: Genre > Elective 1: Revenge Tragedy > Introduction to Elective 1: Revenge Tragedy

Elective1: Revenge Tragedy

This material was written by Colleen Walles,
MA, BA, Dip Ed,SydneyBoysHigh School

 

References - texts set for study
Introduction to Genre: Revenge Tragedy   
Revenge Tragedy, Medea & Euripedes in Greece 432 
Revenge Tragedy, The Cid – Corneille in France 1736
Revenge Tragedy, High Noon - the Western
Style examples

• Medea
• Revenger’s Tragedy
• The Cid
• High Noon

Bibliography/sources
Revenge Texts

References - texts set for study

Drama

• Euripides, ‘Medea’ in Medea and Other Plays, Penguin Classics. 1986.  ISBN 0140441298
• Tourneur, Cyril, ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’ in Three Jacobean Tragedies, Penguin Classics 1986. ISBN 0140430067.
• Corneille, Pierre, The Cid, Penguin Classics. ISBN 0140443126

Film

Zinnemann, Fred, High Noon. United Artists. 1952.

The requirements for Extension 1 Module A: Genre are follows:

• This module requires students to explore and evaluate notions of genre. It develops their understanding of the conventions and values associated with generic forms.
  
  
• Each elective in this module involves the study of at least two print texts of a particular genre, to be selected from a prescribed text list. In addition, students explore, analyse and critically evaluate a range of other examples of this genre from different contexts and media.
  
  
• Students consider the ways in which genres are adapted to different times and cultures and the attitudes and values reflected by these adaptations. They examine why genres arise at particular times and the social and cultural conditions that are conducive to their endurance or recurrence in popularity. Students consider the reasons for and the validity of generic distinctions.
  
  
• Students develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions, including some that explore the possibilities of the genre for a range of audiences. These compositions may be realised in various forms, modes and media. Students investigate topics and ideas, engage in independent learning activities and develop skills in extended composition. (The Stage 6 English Syllabus, p.89)

Introduction to Genre: Revenge Tragedy

Genre is described as:

 ‘a French term for a kind, a literary type or class. The major classical genres were: epic, tragedy, lyric, comedy and satire, to which can be added novel or short story. From the Renaissance and until well into the 18th c. the genres were carefully distinguished, and writers were expected to follow the rules prescribed for them. (Cuddon. p.285)

‘genus; kind; sort; style. …..of, or pertaining to genre’(Macquarie Dictionary) 

When we read these definitions, in conjunction with the requirements for Elective 1 Revenge Tragedy, it is important to remember that genres are fluid, they change, sometimes substantially depending on the context and you should evaluate the influence of the context on the conventions, including the extent to which generic distinctions are justified.

Another important aspect of this study is that you read and view a wide variety of texts that you consider may be classified as ‘Revenge Tragedy’. You analyse and evaluate the relationship between the values of the context, the form of the texts and the conventions. This will facilitate your ability to write informed, fluent and sophisticated critical responses and original, sustained imaginative texts under assessments and exam conditions.

In your study you will need to evaluate:

• The influence of the context on the form - textual features, and values reflected in the text.
  
  
• How each composer conforms to or subverts the concepts and conventions.
  
  
• How the composer’s purpose and the form and content of the text are influenced by considerations of the anticipated audience.

Revenge Tragedy – What is it?

The term genre was used to define a literary type or class and from the Renaissance until the end of the 18th century. The rules of each genre were clearly defined and used to assess the success or failure of the text. Tragic protagonists are generally partially responsible for the circumstances of their sufferings but the avenger’s predicament is forced on them. They have been injured personally or have been forced by honour or duty to avenge the wrongs of a loved one as in the case of Vindice in The Revenger’s Tragedy and Roderigo in The Cid.

The plot consists of an initial injury followed by a reaction with unity of action, time and place. Aristotle’s classical revenge plot consists of a beginning Peripeteia (surprising reversal) middle Anagnorsis (recognition) and end Pathos (pity and fear). This structure reflects the injury, anticipation and reaction of the revenge tragedy plot.  Kerrigan (1996) explains that tension is raised and relaxed repeatedly and ‘the symmetries of action extend into the plot.’(p.5). The avenger’s moral situation becomes increasingly ironic, as they progressively come to resemble the original aggressor who becomes the victim the avenger once was. This is true of Vindice in The Revenger’s Tragedy.

If vengeance is displaced the guilt felt by the loved one for not having protected the victim leads to blood feuds. Guilt, loyalty, justice and debts of honour become motivating factors as seen in The Cid and The Revenger’s Tragedy. The avenger inevitably wounds innocent people connected with themselves or their erstwhile enemies, as is the case in all three plays set for study.
Kerrigan refers toAristotle’s view ‘that character, (ethos) is realised in choice or decision (proairesis) and that choice gives shape to action. Without ethos then there would not be the misjudgements, the haramtia which turns muthos towards disaster.’(p.12-13) Therefore the doubleness and dramatic reflexivity of the avenger’s action may spring partially from the role they have been forced to assume.

Revengers, especially in Renaissance drama, ignore the boundaries of tragic decorum. Medea and Vindice enjoy their roles as avenger and lies, disguise, concealment and performance dominate the text. The avenger becomes a performer in their world of retribution, conspiring with the audience. Jacobean avengers like Vindice even stand outside their role, examining their actions. This perverted creativity results in the aestheticism of the revenger – the poisoned helmets, pictures, man-traps etc. (Kerrigan)

How does this apply to Greek tragedy?  Kerrigan states:

’In Greek aesthetic theory, the maker finds in matter the form of what he imitates. … similarly, the tragic hero with memetic power- i.e. , the revenger – works  within  a flow of action  to realise the retributive form of his muthos ….How he does this amounts to ethos …… The agent’s choice brings out consequences which were not part of his intentions. He joins the audience in acquiring knowledge which is something like recognition.’ (p.20).   

Finally, retributive violence entails ethical questions, the perpetrator must be punished but where does the chain of revenges/punishments end? Kerrigan sees the retributive structure as maintained even if it exists in a scaled down form undertaken by legal institutions but this results in the ‘glamourisation of those who exact full retribution independently.’(p. 25) Is this ethical ambiguity the appeal of the revenge narrative and the reason it has endured and reappeared in many reinterpretations of the genre since 5th century BC?

Whatever the differences may be between the set texts in terms of how context determines the form and conventions, all the texts convey one common message. No matter how corrupt the ruling powers are, if an individual takes retributive action for a real or perceived injury, the fabric of society is threatened and intense suffering is the result.

Your study will have shown you that each text has adapted or ignored common rules and conventions depending on the context. It is the depth of your knowledge of Genre and Revenge Tragedy that will enable you to develop your own extended responses in the HSC Extension 1 Paper.

The creative writing component of Extension 1 is an important one and you should be able to respond not only to the set texts but use the concepts and conventions that inform them with sophistication and flair in your own sustained original compositions. Remember to read, view, analyse and evaluate a wide variety of other texts, contemporary and pre twentieth century. Once you become familiar with a range of techniques you will be able to incorporate them effectively in your own imaginative texts.

Conventions

• The Revenger is driven to seek revenge against a corrupt and/or indifferent authority by an injury to themself or to a loved one.
  
  
• Violence including torture, rape, blood shed and murder often acts as means of patterning the text; the revenger inflicts similar retributive justice on their victims and ironically becomes increasingly corrupt themselves (especially in Renaissance & Jacobean tragedy)
  
  
• Obsessive passion, even to the point of madness may motivate the revenger.
  
  
• The audience experiences a catharsis and recognises the evils committed by the revenger as well as the oppressor, ideally the revenger shares this experience.
  
  
• Rhetoric dominates language in pre twentieth century texts. Debate, satirical wit and intense emotive language are used to engage the audience in the suffering, intrigues and triumphs of the revenger and their victims. Symbolism is especially effective re enforcing the themes.
  
  
• Enduring ethical issues such as retribution and justice, the role of women, freedom of expression and social commentary on context specific issues inform the narrative.
  
  
• The use of the supernatural; ghost, shooting stars, Deus ex machina often add to the theatricality of significant situations.

Revenge Tragedy, Medea & Euripedes in Greece 432

Context

Euripides wrote Medea in 431 when the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta began and it is as if he anticipated the decline of Athenian society that was to follow. Classical Greek Tragedy was governed by strict rules based on the theories of Aristotle and included the need for the unities of time, place and action.  Medea was criticised by Aristotle for several reasons: the murder of the children breached the bounds of decorum and was revolting; the arrival of Aegeus was irrational and the ending was not the logical result of the characterisation and plot. (Kitto. 1966)

Medea

Why does Euripides not conform to Aristotle’s rules and write a great poetic drama? Did he choose to ignore rules that interfered with his message to the Athenian people?  Medea very effectively dramatises the devastating result of the primitive forces and unrestrained passions to which humanity are subject. Medea’s murderous hate causes her suffering but it destroys King Creon, the Princess and Medea’s own sons, not herself. She is not the typical tragic heroine of Greek Drama, a noble character who is destroyed due to a character flaw, gains self-knowledge in her catastrophe and the catharsis at the end of the play. The Athenian audience would have been familiar with the myth and known Medea was responsible for the murder of her brother and betrayal of her father and her state of Colchis. Euripides establishes her character from the opening of the play when the Nurse describes her as dangerous and refers to her persuading the daughters of Pelias to kill their father. Society is the victim.

 

Characterisation of Medea

Euripides does not portray Medea as a heartless villain instead he creates a psychological study of an isolated woman driven by the extremes of passion. She is accepted and sympathised with by the Chorus, the women of Corinth and the Nurse, until she kills the children. She laments the death of her children even as her pride drives her to kill them in revenge for Jason’s infidelity. Euripides portrays her as a clever, ruthless and manipulative woman driven to extremes by the arrogance and unbridled ambition of her unfaithful husband. Jason’s oaths to the Gods have been broken and Creon has blessed Jason’s union with Glauce. Medea is the vulnerable foreigner, exiled from Corinth, an individual in conflict with an indifferent if not corrupt authority and here we have one of the conventions of Revenge Tragedy.

Characterisation of supporting characters – Why are they two-dimensional?

Euripides does not allow any of the other characters to detract from his characterisation of Medea as an unassailable avenging force. Jason is foolish, deceitful and ambitious, a two dimensional character who neither grows nor changes. The Nurse, the Tutor, Creon and Aegeus are similarly two dimensional, little more than plot devices or a means of providing opportunities for the further development of Medea’s character as the avenger. The play is also full of horrors, the results of Medea’s passions and it lacks the mitigating factor of tragic pity and the resultant catharsis. She gloats over the graphic details of Creon’s and Glauce’s deaths as described by the Messenger and the Chorus and the Nurse stand by as Medea is heard murdering her screaming children. Extremes of horror and cruelty too became conventions in later Revenge Tragedies. Plot and action – logical result of characterisation or driven by central concerns?

Plot – logical outcome of characterisation or the vehicle of the dramatic thesis?

The situations that comprise the plot are largely irrelevant just as Jason’s character does not have to be plausible nor does Aegeus’ arrival have to be logical for Euripides to make his point to the audience.
The plot has consisted of a bitter domestic feud but Medea cannot fulfil her revenge until she is sure that Aegeus will provide her with a refuge. This is a very normal action but his arrival is certainly a happy accident, nothing in the plot so far foreshadows his entrance. Aegeus enters the narrative because Euripides needs Medea to evolve the horrific murder of her children to re enforce his warning about the devastation that can result from uncontrolled passion.

Even if we accept the intervention of Aegeus, what of the unlikely ending of the play, how do we justify the arrival of the chariot drawn by dragons? The Deus ex machina intrudes into a plot depicting a private world of domestic infidelity, albeit in an extreme form.  Do her powers as a sorceress and a descendant of the sun god anticipate this escape or is Euripides further developing his thesis that not all things are logical, not even the gods? He conveys to the audience that there are disastrous, primitive forces to which we are all subject. Medea is simply the embodiment of them.  

This tendency to subject character and occasionally action to the dramatic thesis is another conventions that we can see in the other revenge tragedies set for study.

Role of the Chorus –why is it so limited?

The Chorus in most Greek Tragedies participate in the action and provide a moral commentary. Why in Medea do they discuss appropriate action while she kills the children? As a tragic heroine Medea is a creation unique to Euripides, the psychological study of a woman entirely consumed by love and hate. He reminds us that her love for Jason resulted in the betrayal of her father, the murder of her brother and the murder of Pelias. Rejected, mocked and betrayed, her pride and hatred of Jason cause the destruction of all those connected with him, Glauce, Creon and her own children. Medea, as much as her victims suffers as a result of the primitive force that drives her. This is Euripides message to his audience in a society that he sees as at risk of destruction because they fail to recognise the power of uncontrolled passion and primitive instincts. 

The Chorus is at times an awkward addition in Medea but there are moments when it adds appreciably to the mood and pace of the play. In the interlude when the Chorus reflect on the ills of child bearing Euripides uses an anapaestic metre to accelerate the pace of the play before the Messenger enters to announce the deaths of Glauce and Creon.

‘The childless, who have not discovered
Whether children prove in the end a delight
Or a sorrow for men – for they have no experience of them
Are freed from many troubles.’ (1094 – 1098)

‘You wretched woman, why has this anger fallen on you
and oppressed your heart, and why does
raging murder follow on murder?
The pollution of blood shed on the ground from kin,
I know, bears hard on mortals, and woes in answer fall
From the gods
On the house of the kin-slayers.’ (1263 – 1267)

Once the Chorus become aware of her intentions they turn against her, attempting to make her see reason and in the final ode they condemn her while acknowledging that her actions are the manifestation of a greater power and thereby re enforce Euripides tragic theme.

Additional notes on technique 

Language

Medea lacks the organic structure that derives from a plot predicated on three dimensional characters. Rhetoric and debate dominate a series of loosely connected situations linked by Medea’s passion and scenes of stasis (inaction) alternate with scenes of violence like a court room drama examining the failures of social institutions to meet the desire for retribution.
Kerrigan (1996) sees the eloquence of Revenge Tragedy characters as ‘part of the action which it imitates, the way it tell its story. …legal speech making and tragedy depends on prosopopoeia, on a verbally active performance in which the participants assume the identities of those they represent.’(p.28) Therefore we have what Kerrigan describes as ‘varieties of stichomythic speech, of sophisticated dialectic and inwardly divided monologue.’(p. 29)
Does rhetoric clarify ethical issues and provide social commentary or blind us to the avenger’s guilt?
Rhetoric is seen in the debates between Medea and Creon (272- 357); Medea and Jason (446-628); Medea and Aegeus (709 – 758).  An example is the heated argument between Medea and Jason after the death of the children that soon becomes a forensic debate providing not merely background information on both characters but re asserting Euripides’ message. (1318 – 1387) The intellectual force of Euripides’ argument is effective: uncontrolled passions caused by primitive forces within humanity destroy the fabric of society. Characterisation and organic plot development are incidental.

Performance and audience

Euripides’ schematic if slightly improbable plot and relatively two-dimensional characters are further compensated for by his use of surprise and theatricality. For example the description of Glauce’s and Creon’s deaths by the Messenger (1137 – 1230); Medea’s murder of the children (1251 –1293) and the dramatic Deus ex machina -the chariot drawn by dragons in Medea’s triumphant exit (1318 – 1413). Euripides conveys Medea’s destructive passion and his thesis powerfully to his audience.

Structure

The Nurse’s Prologue (1 - 49) sets the scene for the play with the undramatic description of Medea’s voyage to Corinth and Jason’s betrayal of their marriage vows. Euripides immediately focuses the audience’s attention on what Medea, the victim of obsessive love, has already destroyed and is capable of doing now she has become a victim of her own manic jealousy.
Similarly with the Epilogue, since Euripides has chosen not to develop empathic and complex characters it is the narrative that concerns the audience. What more effectively restates Euripides’ dramatic thesis than the theatrically convenient Deus ex machina, linked to a religious rite and a location, the graves of the murdered children?

If Medea had been brought to justice, as is a convention in many Revenge Tragedies, the strength of Euripides’ statement to the audience would have been weakened. He wanted them to remember that these destructive, primitive forces are within all our natures and society can be destroyed if we are not aware of and prepared to respect the danger these forces represent.

Conventions of Revenge Tragedy and Medea

• Avenger – Medea is from Colchis, possessed of magical powers but isolated and injured by Jason, she is at odds with a corrupt/indifferent society.
  
  
• Horror and Pathos - the horrible deaths of Creon and Glauce, the pitiful murder of the children are all motivated by sexual jealousy.
  
  
• Contextual concerns - links to the values and concerns of the context such as the role of women, the role of the Gods and Athens’ role in the Peloponnesian war.
  
  
• Madness - uncontrolled passion, destructive primitive emotions leading to madness and chaos.
  
  
• Highly charged emotive and rhetorical language - every dialogue that includes Medea.
  
  
• Supernatural forces - the Chariot drawn by dragons that takes Medea to safety.
  
  
• Symbolism – characterisation of Medea and Jason, the children, the chariot.
  
  
• Ethical and social commentary in the chants by the Chorus.

The context, performance venues and styles of Medea

As this is a study of genre and performance texts it is useful to be able to picture Medea in performance.

• Medea was performed as part of the annual religious Festival of Dionysus and dealt with topics of common interest.
  
  
• Medea was based on a familiar myth.
  
  
• The theatre was a natural amphitheatre designed to accommodate very large audiences. The seats were cut into the surrounding hills.
  
  
• There was a circular dancing space called an orchestra that was used by Chorus, behind which was the altar. Musicians probably stood on the steps of the altar that was designed to resemble the original temple.
  
  
• The central building had three doors, one large one in the centre and two smaller doors on either side for the actors’ entrances and exits. The Chorus used two side passages between the audience and the stage.
  
  
• There were no sets or scenery but an ornamental background on the building itself and two periaktoi (triangular prisms) on either side that could represent a change in scene.
  
  
• Later stages may have included a raised stage and steps leading up to it.
  
  
• One every important aspect of the staging was the use of machinery, the Deus ex machina that included a crane from which a god could descend or in Medea a chariot drawn by dragons. There was also a wheeled platform and a machine to make thunder.
  
  
• Actors were all men and wore padded robes and masks that denoted their status and dominant emotion. There is controversy as to whether the masks had a form of megaphone but the tragic actors certainly had built up boots (cothurni), embroidery and padding in their robes and a headdress (onkos) to increase their stature. Euripides seems to have simplified costumes but characters were static, depending on their voice and the use of rhetoric for dramatic effect.

Analysis of Text and Language in Medea;

Make sure to comment on:

• episodic structure of the plot
• restricted characterisation
• rhetorical episodes as ethical debates
• alternation of static and violent scenes
• function of chorus
• irregularities in the text in the context of Greek classical tragedy: murder of children, arrival of Aegeus, deus ex machina
• social commentary, questioning of the gods, role of women, status of children born of Athenians and non Athenians, including freed slaves
• voices of characters including the use of dramatic irony.

When studying Medea

Remember the syllabus requirements and that is only one part of your study of genre. Revenge Tragedy has been influenced by a variety other genres over the years depending on the social, philosophical and performance context in which the texts were developed. In planning your responses, refer to the rubric in the syllabus and take into account the HSC Markers’ comments.

Remember that the ‘how’ of the language must be integrated into your comments on the relevant aspects of the text: characterisations, mood, theme, pace, tension etc. Examiners regularly comment that the better students critically consider the concept and critically evaluate how effectively the texts convey the concerns. The more sophisticated and fluent responses demonstrate control of their own language, a detailed knowledge of the set texts and their own related material that they integrate and interpret in keeping with the requirements of the question.

The creative writing component of the question in the HSC should also reflect an extensive knowledge of Revenge Tragedy, the set texts and independent research that in turn enable you to compose your own original imaginative text in response to the question. Prepared answers rarely have the sophistication or relevancy required for Extension 1.  

Exercise:

• How does the context of Greece in 413 and Euripides’ concerns with the destructive forces of uncontrolled passion influence the revenge tragedy Medea? 
  
  
• Research Euripides and Medea. Comment on how and why Euripides ignores or adapts the rules of classical Greek Tragedy.
  
  
• Read Euripides’ Electra and comment on how Electra’s revenge conforms to Aristotle’s rules for tragedy and the convention of Revenge Tragedy.
  
  
• Revenge Tragedy as seen in Medea addresses enduring and context specific issues. Discuss with detailed reference to the text.
  
• Assume the persona of any character other than Medea and write a series of diary entries reflecting on the causes and the results of her revenge.
  
  
• Write a short story with original characters and set in a modern context that addresses some of the some of the more controversial issues raised in Medea.

The Revenger’s Tragedy and Jacobean England in the 17th century.

Context
Jacobean England followed on from as period of comparative stability under Elizabeth 1 but the audience was very familiar with the complexities of Court life and how quickly a favoured individual could fall from grace and be arbitrarily executed. They were aware of the results of religious persecution and also familiar with the concept of blood feuds and duels to the death to defend personal or family honour.

Another worrying trend was the shift away from a feudal society and the emergence of a new class of wealthy landowners who had aspirations to positions in Court. Therefore, there was a perceived need for drama to satirise social and moral errors in the tradition of Medieval Morality plays. Seneccan influence on Elizabethan theatre had developed the audience’s taste for gore, horror, violent action and rhetorical language and The Revenger’s Tragedy reflects this new context.

The Revenger’s Tragedy

How does The Revenger’s Tragedy in 17th century England conform to, adapt or subvert the conventions of Revenge Tragedy explored in Medea in 5th centuryGreece and how do these changes reflect the very different context of Jacobean England?

The authorship of The Revenger’s Tragedy (1606-7?) is controversial but for our purposes we will refer to Cyril Tourneur as the writer. The play was influenced by the Seneccan tragedy made popular by Thomas Kyd in The Spanish Tragedy and Shakespeare in Titus Andronicus. It abounds in blood, torture and horror and also borrows heavily from contemporary texts including The Malcontent by Marston and Hoffman by Chettle.

If Medea shows the influence of Early and Middle Greek tragedy, The Revenger’s Tragedy marks the shift in public taste towards horror as seen in the display of Junior’s bloody, freshly severed head.  A taste for the supernatural is seen in the thunder during the Duke’s attempted seduction of the ‘bony lady’, his murder and the falling star that marks the death of Lussurioso.  Medea and The Revenger’s Tragedy share the pervasive use of ironic reversals such as when Lussurioso dismisses Hippolito to employ Piato to help him seduce Castiza; the Duke engages Piato as a pandar and facilitates his own death; Lussurioso’s efforts to protect the Duke’s honour become an attack on his person and honour and Supervacuo and Ambitioso’s ‘trick’ to free their brother and kill Lussurioso results in the opposite.     

Inga – Stina Ekeblad (1960) rightly states that The Revenger’s Tragedy consists of a Seneccan – Kydian Revenge play, a dramatic Satire and elements of the Morality plays from the Medieval didactic tradition with the Revenge play obviously dominating the plot (p. 58).

The use of Revenge Tragedy conventions in The Revenger’s Tragedy differs from Medea as follows:

• A complex plot consisting of multiple intrigues and sub plots

• A hero (the malcontent) seeking to cleanse the moral corruption of society (the Court) not only avenge his honour and a grave personal wrong

• The hero who degenerates into a villain corrupted by the pursuit of revenge

• A revenger who stands outside the complex plot to make satirical comments on human frailty

• A group of conspirators who work with the avenger

• The use of physical disguises and masks not merely lies and manipulation

• The use of humour, burlesque and farce as well as satirical wit

Characterisation of Vindice

Does Vindice begin the play a honourable man seeking revenge against the Duke for the death his mistress, poisoned for rejecting the Duke’s sexual advances and the death of his father from disappointment?  Vindice is certainly convinced of his righteousness and the pace and complexity of the plots and counterplots carry him and the audience through his increasingly sadistic and violent acts until the ironic reversal of the denouement. Vindice professes to see his crimes and accept his fate when Antonio condemns him and Hipollito to death for treason. Order is restored.

Vindice’s characterisation differs from the other revengers studied in the roles he assumes: a revenge tragedy malcontent bound to avenge his lover and father; the witty Piato an amoral pandar who bribes Gratiana to force Castiza exchange her virginity for Lussurioso’s money and favour; a pandar for the Duke and a melancholic re invention of himself employed by Lussurioso to murder Piato.

When Vindice reveals his thoughts to the audience in asides and satirical monologues, he plays the role of the detached observer like a Morality character commenting on the evils of humanity. Tourneur’s  objective treatment of Vindice forces the audience to judge his actions and their society. (Bowers. 1940) Vindice as righteous revenger, restorer of order or self deluding villain appealed to the Jacobean audience for his wit, use of rhetoric, ingenuity and taste for increasingly grotesque revenge.

Murray (1964) suggests Vindice unlike the other revengers grows and changes to become a more complex, psychological character. His transformation is from moral blood revenger to an egotistical, sadistic killer and finally a cynical moralist.

Supporting characters

The supporting roles are far more important in representing the dramatic thesis than in Medea.  They reflect the blend of blood feud revenge, Morality and burlesque/farce genres that distinguish the play. The Duke and his Court are two dimensional, intent on their own intrigues little more than the vices they represent. The old Duke epitomises the corruption of the ruling classes, as does the Duchess who is intent on being revenged on him by committing incest with his bastard Suprio who in turn plans revenge against the Duke much as Edmund in King Lear.  Lussurioso, the Duke’s heir, is as lecherous and amoral as his father, intent on seducing Castiza and gaining revenge against Spuria. 

The Duchesses’ sons include the unrepentant Junior, convicted of raping Antonio’s wife and executed by mistake. Ambitioso and Supervacuo whose names represent their vices, plan revenge on Lussurioso but their tricks result in Junior’s death. The intrigues, plots, counterplots and ironic inversions of these characters drive the action of the play rather than Vindice’s revenge. Their actions contribute to the didactic function in warning the audience against amoral inverted values in a world dominated by lust for money and rampant sexuality.    

Plot – brilliant situations loosely linked together.

The plot reflects the Jacobean taste for violent action, horror and wit rather than coherent development of action. The abundance of plots, counter plots and villains diminish the role of the protagonist as the driving force for the action and the didactic message. The Court is already disintegrating due to internal conflicts when Vindice arrives and his revenge is diverted into his pursuit of Lussurioso. Vindice’s murder of the Duke occurs almost by default. The rest of the Court perform most of Vindice’s function as the restorer of order by killing each other culminating in the final masque. The play’s strength lies in scenes such as the brother’s cross examination of Gratiana, the murder of the Duke while he observes Spurio and the Duchess committing incest, the macabre irony of the stabbing of the Duke’s corpse and the theatricality of the play itself.

Pattern of plot – Rather than seeing the plot as loosely constructed, Murray in Jacobean Revenge Tragedies (1964) sees scenes in the second half patterned on those in the first half with themurder of the Duke as the centre of plot.

Vindice/Piato hired by Lussuriso to seduce Castiza curses his mother. Lussurioso curses his own dead father albeit disguised as Piato.

Vindice convinces Gratiana to corrupt Castiza, she pretends to succumb to test her repentant mother.

The Duke condemns Junior for rape, a crime he too has committed.

At the final masque Ambitioso and Supervacuo plot Lussurioso’s death as do Vindice and Hippolito.

Antonio as Duke in the closing scenes condemns the brothers for a crime committed with his blessing.

Additional notes on technique

Language

Transformations and disguise - Murray (1964) in Jacobean Revenge Tragedies suggest that like many other Jacobean dramatists Tourneuruses transformations as a metaphor to represent the inverted moral values of the Court. Characters disguise themselves to achieve their ends and even their plans suffer ironic reversals such as Ambitioso and Supervacuo’s plans to free Junior and kill Lussurioso.

In this corrupt world the lust for money and power are allied with sexual appetite. These transformations dominate and create a pattern within the action of plot. Vindice disguised as Piato (transformed by the poison of Lussurioso’s money) uses the offer of money – ‘golden angels’ to transform Gratiana from a loving mother into a bawd ready to sell her daughter.

Skull as dominant image - Murray argues that the dominant symbol of this corruption and transforming is the skull and therefore ‘momento mori’ (p. 67) and the traditions of Morality plays. The image of the skull, transformed into references to faces, brows and heads is a dominant motif and represents Tourneur’s central thesis. Junior’s severed head; the Duchess’ successful plan to murder the Duke ‘in the head’ with his own bastard; Gloriana’s ‘grave’ transformation and her disguised skull enact revenge on the Duke; Piato’s Machiavellian logic promises Castiza her bejewelled forehead will ‘dazzle’ onlookers if she succumbs to Lussurioso’s lust. All the disguises, the pursuit of wealth and pleasure end in the grave. Even flesh dissolves before god’s judgement as Vindice so graphically and cynically describes as he addresses the skull.

Convention of disguise - Disguise is organic to the plot in action as in language. Irony dominates the complex web of disguises and deceits when Vindice disguised as himself, is commanded by Lussurioso to murder Piato, and later when he repeatedly stabs the corpse of the Duke disguised as Piato, Vindice feigns shock and dismay. Ambitioso and Supervacuo disguise their hated for Lussurioso when they weep while ordering his execution only to feign delight when he is freed.

Irony  - Irony too contributes to the patterning of the play. Vindice considering Antonio a fellow victim confesses his crime only to be sentenced to death as seen in his final soliloquy. Vindice and Hippolito loyally seek revenge together but Vindice’s boasts ironically lead to their deaths, similarly, their devotion to Castiza nearly leads to her ruin. This relationship Murray suggests neatly reflects the fatal relationship between Supervacuo, Ambitioso and Junior.

Paralleling - Murray goes on to comment on the paralleling seen in the action of the play. Supervacuo and Ambitioso discuss using their daggers against the adulterous Duchess, similarly the stage directions tell us that Vindice and Hippolito simultaneously threaten their mother with daggers. All four men are disguised at the final masque and unmask themselves to murder Lussurioso.

Sexual innuendo – double meanings re-enforce the moral message that merely entering life entails moral corruption. ‘Entering’ links sexuality with money and corruption and chastity must be maintained at all costs. Murray draws our attention to Lussurioso’s speech with Vindice ‘And thus I enter thee‘(81-6) and it is the entrance of the devil when Vindice accepts Lussurioso’s money and later regarding when Lussurioso says of Castiza:

Enter upon the portion of her soul,
Her honour, which she calls her chastity.
And bring it into expense. (Act 1. Sc iii. 111-15)   

Piato attempting to lure Gratiana says ‘That woman is all male that none can enter.’(111 -112).  Entering is also connected with poison and daggers; the Duke poisons Gloriana and he is poisoned by her skull; Gratiana is poisoned by her words (Act. 1V, Sc iv 135-6); Vindice is poisoned by Lussurioso’s money and Vindice must penetrate to the heart of the court to be revenged on the Duke.

Time and Pace - Time and pace are inextricably linked to the themes and action of the play. The times are corrupt, The Duke’s age is belied by his lusts, Vindice harries Gratiana and Castiza to accept Lussurioso’s offer before the night and the most effective example of the use of time is when Piato rushes Castiza towards the Court, debauchery and damnation ‘Nine coaches waiting – hurry, hurry, hurry’, (Act 11 Sc ii 201 -3)

It is only a macabre accident of timing and Ambitioso’s hurry to become ‘duke in a minute’ (Act 111 Sc i. 13) by ensuring Lussurioso’s death that leads to Junior’s untimely execution by officers who will not delay ‘The third part of a minute.’ (Act 111 Sc iii. 18) Tourneur’s warning is clear, damnation and salvation can be minutes apart in a world dominated by lust of the flesh and the struggle for salvation. 

Murray cites Vindice’s memento mori as epitomising the relationship between the moment of sin, death and damnation. As Vindice addresses the skull he reminds the audience

To have thee seen at revels, forgetful feasts,
And unclean brothels; sure ‘twould fright the sinner
And make him a good coward…. (Act 111 Sc v. 90 –3)  

The pace of the play escalates at a feverish rate towards the final masque, the feverish murders and the revenger’s deaths.

Structure

Morality not Revenge Tragedy conventions - L.G Salingar (1961) sees Tourneur’s use of satire influenced by Seneca and Morality stock characters and situations that depict his concern for contextual issues rather than the conventions of Revenge Tragedy. If in Medea Euripides warns his fellow Athenians of the devastation that can result from primitive and destructive passions so too does Tourneur in The Revenger’s Tragedy. His warning is less dire and therefore his chosen form is not as tragic. Just as Medea is more the instrument of her passion than a three-dimensional character, these characters reveal their context rather than develop as individuals and the play is structured in a series of situations that are logically related as in an allegory.

Satirical tirades - Many of the speeches are satirical tirades partially directed at the audience. Salinger sees Ambitioso’s speech as the traditional Morality underplot where Vice is defeated ‘I see now there’s nothing sure in morality, but morality (p.143) and justifies Vindice’s stoical acceptance of his death. Tourneur’s pervasive concern with death and decay, intensely introduced in Vindice’s opening address to the skull are still active in his final speech.

Conceits, asides and colloquial language - Tourneur’s didactic aim is seen in the frequent use of asides, colloquial language and the resonances of the Moralities that he uses to involve the audience. In Salingar’s opinion Tourneur uses the physical world consistently to represent the ‘moral order, man in relation to the divine will’ (p. 144) and the ‘usuer’s son’ shares sensuality with the ‘uprightest man’ and the ‘infernal fires’ burning in the Duke’s veins.  The ‘trite sentences’ at the end of impassioned speeches, criticised by others, Salinger sees as Tourneur’s ‘conceits’ to lower the tension, appeal to the logic and drive home his point: “A usuring father to be boiling in hell, and his son and heir with a whore dancing over him” and “Who would not lie, when men are hanged for truth?”(Act V, Sc. i.) 

Revels and masques provide unity – To a Jacobean audience greed, ambition and wasteful self-indulgence were against the moral order and unnatural. Spurio’s desire for revenge against the Duke is expressed in terms of his bastardy – conceived in the aftermath of a revel. (Act 1 Sc ii) This is why the Court Masque is a moral allegory for the ironic destruction of Duke’s rule. The metaphor of the masque as a revel provides unity to the play as well as maintaining the themes. In Salinger’s view even the excitement and hectic pace of the plot, the characters and the themes of the danse macabre indicate the ripeness that precedes decay and are expressions of Tourneur’s ironic treatment of his subject, symbolic not naturalistic, and in keeping with the Moralities not the conventions of Revenge Tragedy.

The malcontent – Vindice represents the impoverished scholars among the aristocracy and is symbolic of the aristocracy forced to relinquish their estates while the Court bestowed favours on sycophants and adventures. Greed for wealth without a social conscience was normality and it was not only earthly inheritance that was squandered as seen in Vindice’s address to the skull. (Act 111. Sc v)

Salingar’s concluding criticism of the play is that despite Tourneur’s skilfully integrated symbolism and his ‘finely wrought passages of high mental and nervous tension and passages of clumsy sententious generalisation ‘he cannot maintain an ‘emotional equilibrium,’ (p.155) and his depiction of the complexities of individual motives and emotions fails.

Does Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy, like Euripides’ Medea, succeed in attacking what is perceived as threatening the morality and social stability of the community?

Performance, audience and the Jacobean Globe

Having analysed the text let us examine how the performance venue contributed to conveying Tourneur’s dramatic thesis. The Church and Christian values dominated theatre until the Renaissance with Mystery plays based on Bible history and Morality plays personifying abstract virtues and vices. These influences inform the values, the themes and names of the characters in The Revenger’s Tragedy and the Renaissance taste for Seneca’s tragedies are reflected in the horror and bloody revenges.

As this is a study of genre and performance texts it is useful to be able to picture The Revenger’s Tragedy in performance.  The Jacobean actors enjoyed a far more interactive relationship with their audiences than those of Ancient Greece. Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences were used to the structure of a thrust stage (raised platform stage) that they could surround on the three sides, with the groundlings standing around the performance area and the nobility, including the reigning monarch, seated in the tiers surrounding the stage.

An elaborate wooden façade represented either an indoor or street scene. Behind the platform stage were doors through which actors could exit and enter. Above this wall was an area for musicians and complex stage machinery also used for creating thunder. There were trap doors in the floor for ghosts or devils. Above the stage itself was the blue canopy with painted with stars referred to in The Revenger’s Tragedy. There was a space behind the ‘platea’ or acting area that could be revealed by drawing back a curtain as in the area where Vindice murders the Duke.

The all male cast had to be able to dance as seen in the elaborate Court Masque at the end of The Revenger’s Tragedy. Jacobean audiences in the Globe Theatre or the New Swan Theatre enjoyed the intimate indoor performances lit by torchlight, elaborately costumed and reflecting the gossip, scandal and intrigues of the Court. The rapid scene changes and the frenetic pace of The Revenger’s Tragedy were facilitated by the non-representational platea and torchlight emphasised the elaborate costumes and jewellery symbolic of Tourneur’s satire of vanity, greed, ambition and lust corrupting his world.  
                                         
Analysis of Text and Language in The Revenger’s Tragedy

Refer to the syllabus document, the rubric and the HSC Markers comments before you begin your critical, interpretive or imaginative responses to The Revenger’s Tragedy. Make clear connections between the rubric, Medea, The Revenger’s Tragedy and texts from your independent research. How do the changes in the conventions reflect the contexts?

The mixture of Morality and Revenge Tragedy Conventions in The Revenger’s Tragedy.

Make sure to comment on:

• Strong use of situations linked to allegorical themes and the vices and virtues of the Morality Plays. A morally corrupt society, specifically the aristocracy, associated with usury and prostitution.
• Stock characters representing the vices and virtues.
• Tourneur’s commentary on the collapse of the feudal economy and the changing social order including the role of women and the disinherited. Rhetoric, witty satirical monologues and diatribes target the vices undermining the social order.
• An increasingly frenetic pace driven by the protagonist.
• The protagonist, an injured malcontent’s gradually shift from the role of the wronged, righteous individual to a sadistic and egotistical murder.
• The dominant use of the language and imagery of disguise, transformation and inverted moral values.
• The use of dramatic irony both in language and plot structure.
• Violence, horror, death, bloodshed and perverted sexuality. Seneca and Melodrama.
• Use of the supernatural.
• Emotive language including insult.
• Symbolism.
• Final realisation (ambiguous?) by the audience and hero of the dramatic thesis.

Exercise:

• ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy is a controversial text consisting of a variety of genres including Sennecan Tragedy, Morality Plays, satire, farce and Revenge Tragedy that reflect the changing context of Jacobean England.’ Discuss.
  
  
• Using Medea and The Revenger’s Tragedy as examples discuss the validity of a genre study.
  
  
• ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy is substantially a satire in the tradition of the Medieval Morality Plays in response to Jacobean context.’ Discuss.
  
  
• How does Tourneur use the female characters in The Revengers Tragedy, are they plot devices for the multiple plots and intrigues and/or Morality vices and virtues designed to satirise Jacobean society?
  
  
• Write a dramatic monologue by any of the characters before or after a significant event such as Castiza before she attempts to trick her mother into believing she has accepted Lussurioso’s offer or Gratiana’s reflections when she hears Vindice and Hippolito have been condemned to death. Remember to maintain their voice in terms of vocabulary and point of view.
  
  
• Choose some Revenge Tragedy conventions and write a short story in a modern context. Write a brief rationale for your choice of setting, plot, characters and convention.

Revenge Tragedy - The Cid – Corneille in France 1736 

Context

Corneille wrote when France at the height of her powers under the rule of Louis X111. It was important for the French to see themselves as a political and cultural force, Classicists were steeped in the Greek and Roman dramatists and philosophers including Seneca, Aristotle and Horace. They were already familiar with Spanish and European theatre and the concept of ‘pondonor’, a point of honour, was easily assimilated into their social, political and literary pursuit of decorum and order.

The Cid was designed to appeal to French pride and imagination in the depiction of the early life of a Spanish aristocrat, renowned as a military hero in wars against the Moors. Corneille’s dramatic thesis celebrated the centrality of honour and duty before love or personal ambition. Even true love, well considered and within an appropriate social class was considered a duty. However, duty to God, the King and family honour were the core of personal honour, social stability and national pride. The Cid was described as romantic tragi-comedy but it was more than entertainment. 

The Cid and Revenge Tragedy.

Is The Cid really a Revenge Tragedy? To what extent is Roderigo an avenger in terms of the Revenge Tragedy conventions seen in Medea and The Revenger’s Tragedy?

Medea’srevenge and uncontrolled passion drive the action and Vindice’s role is as much Morality satirist as avenger. Roderigo is the reluctant revenger and star-crossed lover of a romantic tragi- comedy, even his role as avenger is shared with his beloved Ximena, who assiduously seeks his death to satisfy the honour of her murdered father, Don Gomez. The only sub plot is the Infanta’s secret and unrequited love for Roderigo and this merely re enforces the importance of honour in a rigidly hierarchical society, she cannot love Roderigo, however noble he may be, because he is not a Prince.

Sources and Influences

Corneille refined the chronical play ‘Las Mocades del Cid’ by the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, in the romanesque style, choosing only those incidents from Castro y Bellvis’ early life that contributed directly to Corneille’s own dramatic thesis – the importance of honour in maintaining social order and developing a high moral sense.  Corneille’s purpose is demonstrated in the characterisations of Roderigo and Ximena, their rhetorical speeches and the revenge driven plot.  The lovers’ dilemma is exacerbated by their belief in honour, as they cannot love each other if honour is compromised.

The Cid was not critically acclaimed although it was a popular success. The theorists and critics of the Academie francaise (French Academy) deemed the play flawed, a romantic rather than a classical drama. The action did not take place in one setting, within one day and with unity of action – a single plot line as required by Aristotle’s rules for the classical unites. Like Medea itwas also seen to lack probability, the actions of the characters were considered to lack internal truth or consistency and the scene where Roderigo presents himself to Ximena in her home, in secret, after murdering her father was a further breach of decorum and considered scandalous. Finally, it had a happy ending and not a tragic one.

How does The Cid compare with Medea and The Revenger’s Tragedy?

Here too character is sacrificed to the flow of the action, the plot and sub plots are designed to endorse Corneille’s dramatic thesis; individual, family and community honour must be defended at all costs.

Language and action, as in both the other texts, dominate the play rather than the logical development of three-dimensional characters although both Roderigo and Ximena do experience inner conflict and Roderiogo grows in courage and strength through his militaristic pursuits.

Here too an evil action, Roderigo’s murder of Don Gomez, cannot go unpunished regardless of how pure the motive or how great the sufferings of the innocent. Ximena must demand Roderigo’s life for that of her father. The lovers can only be united after Roderigo achieves heroic status by defending Spain successfully against the Moors, receiving the tile of The Cid and fighting a duel with Don Sancho for Ximena’s hand.

Tragedy?

The tragedy in Medea is the death of the children and humanities’ ability to destroy themselves and others, there is little inner conflict; in The Revenger’s Tragedy the satirical, Morality elements diminish the tragedy of Vindice’s descent into sadism, self delusion and death. In The Cid, the tragedy is the inner conflict and prolonged suffering of two extraordinarily stoical characters pursuing their duty.

What all three plays have in common is the energy of their central characters but The Cid differs in offering the audience the innocent youthful passion of the lovers and therefore the play is much lighter in mood and tone. Unlike The Revenger’s Tragedy there is no bloodshed, atrocity or sexual perversion nor is there the biting satire of contemporary society, the Court and especially the King, Don Fernando are a benign, moral force. Corneille’s argument is clear, happiness without honour is impossible.

Characterisation of Roderigo – The Cid

Corneille’s Roderigo is the equivalent of a super-hero. His morals are above reproach as is his sense of duty, courage and military prowess. In Xemina and Elvira’s opening dialogue, Elvira describes his virtues in glowing terms, establishing him as a romantic hero.  This is re enforced in the next scene when the Infanta’s confesses her unrequited love for him. It is only her honour that prevents her pursuing Roderigo herself.

Roderigo is next presented as the loyal son who is prepared to sacrifice all to avenge his father’s honour. His soliloquy (Act 1. Sc 6. 291- 350) reveals his internal conflict and his determination to challenge Don Gomez, the father of his beloved and a renowned swordsman, to a duel. Further proof occurs at the opening of Act 2 when Roderigo challenges Don Gomez and the later reaffirms the importance of protecting one’s honour.  The sympathy and concern for Roderigo expressed by the Infanta, the King, Don Diego and various courtiers confirms Roderigo’s morality and honour and when Ximena demands his death to requite her dead father’s honour, the audience are positioned against her by the response of the other characters, especially when she refuses to accept his service to the country in battle against the Moors and insists on his death.

Roderigo’s melodramatic plea for Ximena to end his life places the importance of honour before the audience. Roderigo’s noble sparing of Don Sancho’s life contributes to his status as does his decision to battle the Moors again before claiming Ximena’s hand in marriage as granted to him by the King. There is no moral degeneration of his character as with Vindice nor does he begin the play with Medea’s ominous reputation. He does not suffer death or punishment at the end of the play because it is not necessary for Corneille’s dramatic argument. Roderigo has done more for the social fabric of his society than against the moral or social code.      

Characterisation of supporting characters

The supporting characters, including Ximena, if she is not considered a revenger herself, are similar to the other texts. They are plot devices and mouthpieces for the composer’s dramatic statement. Don Gomez and Don Diego’s quarrel over the appointment of tutor to the Royal household precipitates the action of the revenge plot and the theme of honour before all. There is little to distinguish one man from the other, both are equally driven by pride and concerns for honour. Similarly, the two governesses Leonora and Elvira are merely a device for developing the theme and revealing the inner conflict of the Infanta and Ximena. Lastly, unlike the other texts, the Spanish Courtiers and the King of Castille, Don Fernando re-enforce the audience’s faith in their social paradigms and their legal system.

Ximena

Corneille’s characterisation of his secondary avenger, Ximena is unlike Hippolito who is a pale shadow of Vindice. Her character is as honourable as Roderigo’s in birth and possibly more so in her pursuit of duty. Corneille engages the audience in her character by her inner conflict, her desire for Roderigo’s honour and his love and her duty to her dead father. Like Castiza she is never deterred from her duty or her honour.  Corneille uses her dialogues with Elvira and her distracted attack on Don Gomez whom she believes has killed Roderigo, to develop her character beyond the two-dimensional. It could be argued that revenge in The Cid ends happily not tragically because the revengers belong within and endorse the social code and values of 17th century France.          

Plot.

The plot is straightforward and clearly demonstrates the central dramatic thesis much as the plot in Medea. However, here as in The Revenger’s Tragedy minor characters set the plot in motion. Don Gomez attacks Don Diego and Roderigo is forced to revenge his father’s dishonour. Unlike Medea or Vindice, Ximena’s pursuit of revenge is within the social mores of Spanish and French society. The sub plot of the Infanta’s infatuation never disrupts the flow of the action and merely provides the audience with further proof of the importance of social stability and honour.

Additional notes on technique and language.

Structure

The play is patterned through mirroring characters and the structure itself reflects Corneille’s central thesis that includes the importance of balance and order. There are two old men, Don Diego and Don Gomez, two governesses Elvira and Leonora, the two lovers alike in their love for their fathers, dedication to honour and each other. This balanced universe reflects a world of certainties and order not one riddled with doubts like The Revenger’s Tragedy and Medea.
John Cairncross (1975) in his preface to the play sees the governing feature of the characterisation to be willpower and self-control that provides the Romanesque style of drama with a stable from and logical development of action. The rhythm and pace are also balanced with the alternation of fast and slow movements except for the conclusion where all elements draw together to achieve order and harmony.

Language and form

Not only did Corneille adhere to the classical unities and observe social decorum of speech, dress and behaviour of his characters (more or less) his language was governed by the strict rhythms of the alexandrine unlike Tourneur, a Jacobean dramatist, who used the more flexible rhythms of blank verse to reflect a more complex and turbulent world. The discipline imposed on the language by the alexandrine, each line with twelve syllables and written in rhyming couplets resulted in the formality and rhetorical quality on the speeches. The rhymes drew attention to the artificiality of the language and reflected the French value of rhetoric, control and sophistication. As with the audiences in classical Greece and to a lesser extent, Jacobean England, rhetoric, sophisticated command of language and declamatory style, reminiscent of political oratory, were admired. Harwood (1984)  

Conventions of Revenge Tragedy & links to the values and concerns of the context.

Is The Cid a revenge tragedy? It certainly deals with revenge but it differs in tone, mood, action and characterisation from Medea or The Revenger’s Tragedy. Why?
Euripides warns against arrogance and the destructive primitive forces within humanity, Tourneur, influenced by the Moralities attacks and condemns the moral decadence of his age but Corneille celebrates the glory of France and the moral and social advantages of self will, devotion to duty and social decorum. The difference lies in the authorial intention and the context.

Revenge Tragedy Conventions and The Cid.

• Roderigo is well born, respected by the Court, a dutiful son, beloved by Ximena and the Infanta herself.
  
  
• He is only at odds with the highly moral and hierarchical society of Castille when his duty to his father’s honour drives him break the law and impinge on the honour of his beloved.
  
  
• There is no horror, bloodshed or sexual perversion and the duels are conducted off stage. Roderigo’s meetings with Ximena are as chaste as they are impassioned and romantic.
  
  
• There is no real use of disguise, lies or intrigues except for the Infanta’s decorously hidden passion for Roderigo and Ximena’s strenuous denial of her love for Roderigo.
  
  
• The enclosed settings are innocuous not potentially lethal. The Infanta and Ximena’s rooms respectively are where they reveal their love for Roderigo and he hides briefly in Ximena’s rooms only to beg her kill him. All the enclosed settings re enforce the importance of honour.
  
  
• The ending is happy not tragic or ambiguous and the revenger is rewarded with the hand of his beloved, military glory and the commendations of his King. The social order has not been disrupted per se and therefore it does not have to be restored.
  
  
• All the characters are self aware and self-controlled and there is no madness or self-delusion. There are no conspirators except in a benign sense when Ximena is tricked into believing Roderigo is dead and thus revealing her love for him.
  
  
• Corneille uses emotive language and symbolism effectively if not as profusely Tourneur.

Context, performance venues, audience and style

Performance Space

The Cid is tragi-comedy produced in 1637. The indoor performance space was long and narrow with a platform stage at one end. Spectators stood in front of the stage in a substantial pit (parterie). Behind them was the amphitheatre consisting of tiers of raked benches with overhanging boxes (loges) on either side. Candles provided the lighting and Corneille is said to have rejected the use of simultaneous settings in favour of a flexible performance space similar to that used in Shakespearean England.

Actresses performed the female roles and the structure of the performance space forced the actors to advance to the edge of the stage to deliver lengthy rhetorical speeches to the audience before stepping back to allow another actor to speak.

This theatre lacked the intimacy of England’s Jacobean stage and the satirical or conspiratorial asides of revengers and their victims were as difficult to perform as they were unsuited to the purpose and style of 17th century French theatre.

The characterisation and action of the play clearly establishes Roderigo as a respected member of the Court by virtue of his father’s reputation as a warrior and an erudite man as much as by the passionate love and respect Roderigo himself inspires in the Infanta and Ximena. It is only his dutiful revenge for his father’s honour that paradoxically causes his brief fall from grace. Corneille ensures Roderigo’s status as hero is almost immediately restored by assigning him the task of protecting the state against the Moors.

Even under threat from the King, Roderigo’s actions are the epitome of nobility, he even pleads with Ximena to restore her honour by killing him, all the while declaring his undying love. Unlike Vindice or Medea, his sufferings are a source of honour and he is the victim of a moral code as much as circumstance. Even when he exacts revenge, it is done without lies or disguises against a far more able opponent. Ximena is also an avenger and a victim. Much of what has been said above can be applied to her character. Her suffering and internal conflict is the result of her honour and does not diminish her morality. Both young lovers are empathic characters and not objective characterisations of revenge. 

Don Gomez, arrogant in his pursuit of his successful rival and his defiance of his King is perhaps the least appealing character but he is not the corrupt or cynical oppressor. Even Don Sancho rival for Ximena’s hand is honourable in his offer to defend her and gracious in his defeat. The Cid is certainly driven by revenge and tragic in the suffering of the young lovers but the restraint demanded by both Corneille’s socio-historical and literary context result in a more benign narrative celebrating the centrality of honour in a stable and prosperous society with only a gentle warning against hot headedness and arrogance.

Summary of the analysis of Text and Language in The Cid

Always remember your study is of Genre and the extent to which each text conforms to, subverts, adapts or even illuminates key conventions. You need to address what is occurring in the philosophical, historical and literary contexts that inform the content and the form.

It is important that you analyse and evaluate the links between the texts to you develop the internal logic of your response always remembering to comment on the techniques that dominate each text. Appropriate textual details and quotes are essential.  Read exemplars from past HSC papers and the HSC Markers’ comments to enable you to critically evaluate your own responses.

Essay

• Use The Cid, Medea and one of the other texts to analyse the relationship between the contexts, texts and conventions. What insights has your study provided into the changing worlds represented? Use detailed and integrated analysis of the texts in your answer. 
  
  
• Assume the role of a minor character from one of the texts you have studied and comment on the actions of the avenger. You can choose any text type but most maintain the voice and point of view of the character.    
  
  
• How and why does The Cid conform to or differ from the conventions of Revenge Tragedy? Discuss with detailed reference to the text.
  
  
• How does Corneille’s focus on honour influence the role of the avenger and the social commentary made by the text?
  
  
• Write an interview for the Arts page of a leading newspaper with a director of an Australian theatre company who is planning a new production of The Cid. How will Corneille’s theme of the conflict between honour, duty and revenge be adapted to suit a modern Australian audience?
  
  
• Write the script for a conversation between two actors preparing to play Ximena and Roderigo respectively. How will you portray your relationship with each other and the ethical issues associated with revenge?

Revenge Tragedy, High Noon - the Western

Zinnemann and 19th century America at the start of the cold war. 

Context

Critics condemned Medea, The Revenger’s Tragedy and The Cid for a lack of credibility but High Noon’s credibility, excitement and editing won critical acclaim and commercial success. Fred Zinnemann directed High Noon in post WW2 America and at the start of the cold war. The film resonates strongly with the oppressive atmosphere in America during McCarthyism when people, including many of the famous in Hollywood, were being investigated by the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC) and often ostracised for alleged links to Communism.

Films in the 1950’s were noticeably less lavish and independent ventures with smaller budgets and more complex or controversial concepts such as High Noon with its elements of film noir and melodrama began to emerge. High Noon was seen by some critics such Andrew Sarris to celebrate ‘heroic individualism’ and mark the emergence of ‘the liberal anti-western’ (Drummond. 1997. p. 66)

Internet Links:

• How the Gunfighter Killed Bourgeois America, by Ryan McMaken http://www.lewrockwell.com/mcmaken/mcmaken109.html
  
  
• The Cowboy and the Christian: Quakers and Christian Pacifism in the Early Western by Diana Pasulka http://organizations.uncfsu.edu/ncrsa/journal/v06/pasulka_cowboys.htm
  
  
• Fred Zimmemann – by Robert Keser - http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/04/zinnemann.html

High Noon and Revenge Tragedy.

High Noon is predominantly a Western in terms of genre however, as with the other texts set for study in Extension 1, it was a controversial text. The film did not conform to the conventions of the typical Western and glorify a laconic super hero, paradoxically a man of honour and a killer. It did not present the sweeping vistas of open plains with heroic settlers at the mercy of savage swarms of Indians, nor did it have a simplistic plot where country values prevailed against the odds thanks to the gunslinger hero. It was not an escapist reaffirmation of predominantly conservative, Christian bourgeois values. The elements of film noir are confined to intrusion of the past into the narrative, the moral ambiguity of retribution and the darkness of the challenge it presents to the moral certainties of America post WW2.

To what extent does it conform to Revenge Tragedy conventions?

Drummond quotes Will Wright’s view of High Noon as a post war Western with a ‘vengeance plot’. (p. 67- 68) Kane as ‘vengeance’ hero differs from the hero of classical Westerns. He leaves Hadleyville because of the values and weakness of the townspeople drive him to relinquishing his efforts to protect them. Unlike the anti-hero of a noir film, it is the townspeople’s lack of personal integrity and morality that has more in common with the villains than Kane. Thus Kane resembles the Revenge Tragedy hero in his negative relationship with society except that he begins the plot within society and ends an outsider. The corrupt and indifferent society defeats hero and villains alike. The women too differ from the Classical Western as they endorse the hero’s rejection of society rather than act as a medium for reconciliation and here we can see similarities to Castiza’s sustained condemnation of the Court. The two female leads have little in common with the femme fatale of noir, Helen’s sexuality is muted and Amy epitomises morality.

The setting and exact time are not significant other than being in the far West sometime between 1870 and 1875 because like the other revenge texts, the composer’s dramatic thesis has wider contextual ramifications and it is humanity that is the concern as much as a specific socio – historical paradigm. 

Will Kane (Gary Cooper) begins the film as a respected member of the community and a symbol of stability, not an outsider but he becomes increasingly isolated as the plot progresses. The final scenes show him as something like the malcontent when he rejects the morally bankrupt town with its facade of respectability and progress.

Cooper as the aging hero and husband of much younger Amy (Grace Kelly) contributed to High Noon’s departure from the norm of the classic Western. Kane has relinquished his active role to open a store with Amy. He is the victim of Miller’s (Ian Mc Donald) revenge.

Like Castiza and Ximena, Amy symbolises integrity and independence. A departure from the classic Western’s virginal schoolteacher, she is an independent woman and a Quaker, who condemns violence in all its forms and rejects the town’s hypocritical Christian values. She disrupts stability and the conventional mores of society by leaving her husband, only to return, assume the masculine prerogative of violence and finally participate in his outright rejection of the town. Helen Ramirez, (Katy Jurado) Kane’s former lover, successful in business and woman of the world chooses her men and her future. She does not exist in the Revenge Tragedy texts studied and also departs from the stereotypical Hispanic or Mexican female of Western films.

Frank Miller, his brother Ben (Sheb Wooley) James Pierce (Robert J. Wilke) and Jack Colbey (Lee Van Cleef) together assume the role of revenger, they intend to kill Kane for his role in convicting Frank. Savage and brutal they lack the intelligence or appeal of Medea, Vindice or Roderigo.  The people ‘up North’ are seen as culpable in releasing Frank, perhaps as a reflection of the conflicts of the Civil war. Along with Hadleyville they represent a lack of integrity and courage not dissimilar to the venal society in The Revenger’s Tragedy or the apathy of the Chorus and indifference of Creon in Medea.The plot is simple and the action is driven by Frank Miller’s revenge as much as Kane’s increasingly desperate efforts to enlist the support of the townspeople. There is certainly bloodshed and death, common to most Westerns, but none of the moral perversion of The Revenger’s Tragedy or the manic passion of Medea. Miller’s death is as ambiguous as the fate of Medea and Vindice and the audience is left to decide if order is restored, for how long and at what cost.

Sources and Influences

Zinnemann adapted John Cunningham’s 1947 short story ‘The Tin Star’ and Carl Foremen’s film script contained substantial changes. The film presents Zinnemann’s moral thesis, an individual with moral integrity cannot exist within a society dominated by apathy, indifference and self-interest.

Tragedy?

Where is the tragedy? We could argue that like The Revenger’s Tragedy, albeit on a much more realistic scale, it is humanity’s inability to maintain a courageous moral stand in the face of violence and corruption that is tragic. There are similarities to the other set texts. Amy’s suffering resembles that of Castiza, she is the only innocent individual, even Kane, for all his moral integrity, is a killer. His devotion to duty informs the narrative and his suffering is made clear through his laconic and increasingly disillusioned dialogue and anguished isolation. The convention of the Revenge Tragedy hero does not apply, Kane’s character remains true to the Western code of morality. The revenger, Frank Miller, too remains within the genre of the Western, a cold -blooded killer and his death along with his gang represents the restoration of order, however temporary.       

Characterisation of Will Kane.

Cooper’s middle aged Will Kane fights because he is driven to do so by duty and self-preservation. When he interrupts their flight to return to Hadleyville and face Frank Miller, Kane tells his bride Amy they will never be safe until Miller is dead. He lacks the passion, wit and energy of the other Revenge heroes and heroines, instead he engages the audience through his stoicism and desperate courage. As each of the townspeople, including the venal Judge Mettrick (Otto Kruger), the former Marshall Howe (Lon Chaney Jr), the Minister and his former deputies with the exception of Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges), clearly respect Kane as a man but oppose his decision to stay, deeming it a suicidal act of folly. Amy, his new wife vehemently opposes his actions in her pleas against violence and her subsequent departure. Kane withstands all opposition and isolation to do his duty as does Roderigo.

Kane’s character is further developed as morally courageous through the contrast between himself and all the other male characters. Harvey, his young Deputy is shown to be callow in his encounters with Helen when he tries to convince her Kane is a coward and later when he tries to force his attentions on her. His drunken behaviour in the saloon reduces him to a laughing stock and his attempts to blackmail Kane into making him Deputy in exchange for help in the final showdown provide an opportunity for Kane to prove his moral strength and eventually his physical strength in the stable brawl. Helen too contributes to establishing Kane’s character. Separated from him for a year, she cares enough for him to convince Amy that she should return and fight for ‘her man’.

The final fight including the tense cat and mouse game in the symbolically empty street and the burning barn provides the final proof of Kane’s intelligence, courage and skill.  Therefore when he contemptuously throws his badge in the dust before driving away with Amy into a precarious future, Kane’s character is established as a man of honour and courage who cannot exist within the venal social, economic and religious paradigms represented by Hadleyville.   

Characterisation of supporting characters

Amy begins the film as the epitome of the innocent young Frontier wife but comes to represents a substantial shift away from it. She has chosen to abandon her role within her own family by rejecting conventional Christianity and becoming a Quaker opposed to all forms of violence. Her early relationship with Kane is unexplained but her decision to walk out of her marriage if he does not conform to her wishes disrupts the social paradigm. Resembling Castiza she is a far more intellectually independent woman than the stereotype and she represents a new America that is turning its back on the mores of the Wild West. Zinnemann adds an ironic note when Amy returns to become Kane’s only deputy.  She shoots a man in the back and attacks her attacker, Frank Miller, which provides Kane with the chance to kill him. It seems Zinnemann’s view that America and perhaps humanity can never be free of violence and bloodshed.    

The Revengers. Frank Miller and his brother Ben belong to a Western tradition, linked by blood they are not dissimilar to Vindice and Hippolito. The gang represent a threat through their very inactivity until Frank arrives towards the end of the film. Ben’s violence, drinking and ominous sexuality which manifests itself in his interest in Amy and theft of a woman’s bonnet represent the threat the gang poses and reveals what the town is prepared to accept rather than reject by taking a stand against it. Drummond (p.56) sees them as ‘book ends’ for the action, overcoming their petty conflicts to remain a united force whose stasis forms a contrast with Kane’s increasingly isolation and his futile efforts to drum up support.

Judge Mettrick who marries Kane and Amy seems to represent a positive authority figure in his concern for their safety but when Kane returns the audience see his concern is for ‘progress’ not Kane. When he prepares to leave and symbolically packs away the folded flag and the scales of justice, he place Hadleyville in the context of Rome 5th century BC and more recently the town of Indian Falls, re enforcing Zinnemann’s negative view of human nature.

Mart Howe, the retired Marshall, whom Kane most admires, rejects his plea for help. Howe’s broken knuckles and arthritis are his excuse and he mirrors the Judge in his cynical summation of society contributing to Zinnemann’s condemnation of those in authority.

The Minister appears in the most incisive scene and the turning point in the film’s narrative. Kane enters the Church, where the townsfolk are hiding from him, to ask for deputies only to be met by condemnation for his lack of church going. The Minister falls back on religion for abandoning Kane to his fate saying he cannot tell his congregation to kill. Implicitly, conventional Christianity is found to be lacking. The Minister and his vociferous male congregation are part of Hadleyville’s moral atrophy.

The barber, the coffin maker and the desk clerk at the hotel are caricatures of stock Western characters providing comic relief while confirming the audience’s opinion of the town and empathy for Kane.

Helen Ramirez, the Hispanic foil to Amy, is an outsider by virtue of her ethnicity and her liberated views on sexual relationships. Unlike the Western stereotype, she is not a prostitute nor is she hopelessly in love with Kane and prepared to die in his defence. She too decides to reject the values of Hadleyville to seek an uncertain future.

The citizens of Hadleyville are united by their preoccupation with maintaining a façade of respectability and peace for the investors from ‘up north’ and what they perceive to be progress, but they are not the two dimensional mouthpieces. Sam Fuller (Henry Morgan) is symbolic of the townsmen when he insists his wife lies to Kane to avoid confrontation. Each cameo character is a clever play on the stereotypical small town characters of a Western although cumulatively they represent Zinnemann’s apathetic and self-interested majority.

Zinnemann is clearly endorsing the stature and suggesting to his American audience in 1952 the fate of the independent thinker who seeks to forge a moral and ethical stance, despite the pressure of society.          

Plot

Unlike the simple narrative of The Cid or Medea the film has three narrative strands. The intrusion of the past in the revenge narrative of Miller and his gang; the present narrative of the disrupted wedding and the third story that links the others, Kane’s increasingly negative relationship with the townspeople who see him as a source of trouble and an impediment to progress. Amy’s story unites the three through her interaction with Helen, the townspeople and Kane whom she returns to defend.

In addition Zinnemann organised the film around three elements: the atmosphere of threat symbolised by the motionless train tracks, the isolated victim, paradoxically clad in black and white against the colourless sky and the relentless passage of time represented by the dominant motif of the clocks. Neo realistic  in style the film reasserts the moral warning through the black and white images, grainy texture and symbolic use of imagery. The leitmotif of the song by Tex Ritter Do not forsake me O my darlin’ contributed to popular appeal even as it introduced a melodramatic element. Drummond (1971).

Additional notes on technique and language.

Structure

Drummond sees the film to be structured by ‘processes and rituals of social formation and de-formation’ (p. 46) beginning with the marriage between Kane and Amy and his decision to return and re assume the role of Marshall. Amy’s decision to defend him is precipitated by her reading of his will that the audience is not privy to. For the rest of the film Kane is increasingly isolated. Kane and Amy’s departure after he has discarded his badge echoes the opening with Kane and Amy united but there is an important difference. They have rejected all Hadleyville represents.

The film maintains the classical unities and Kane’s isolated lawman drives the linear structure. Unlike Medea or Vindice, Kane does not plot or conspire against his enemy although his efforts at negotiation within the Church, the Judge’s chambers and the ex-Marshall’s home take place within enclosed settings.  Drummond refers to the film as a ‘chamber drama’ (p.46) where inaction and dialogue climax in the resolution of the tensions built up during Kane’s lonely and increasingly futile walks when he attempts to gain support. 

Drummond states that the moral centre of the film is the confrontation between Kane, the Minister and the townsmen who have sought to avoid Kane by attending Church. Out of the Babel of their conflicting interests, Zinnemann establishes their veniality and re-affirms Kane’ s isolated and heroic stance. Their main objections are monetary and obvious through their excuses: they have paid for lawmen and now they have to assume the potentially fatal role themselves.  Miller’s quarrel is a personal one with Kane not them and their future prosperity with the investors from ’up north’ is at risk. Henderson, a respected elder statesman concludes the argument stating Kane’s heroic return was unnecessary, even foolhardy. Hadleyville will work with the new marshal and maintain order.

Zinnemann shows us there is no room for honour or honesty in Hadleyville. The precipitous exit of Mettrick and resignation of Pell leave the town devoid of law. Unlike Medea, Vindice or Roderigo, Cooper’s portrayal of Kane depicts a ‘moral heroism’ achieved through stasis, he cannot act until Miller arrives at noon. An intelligent and intuitive ‘seeker hero’ he sees through the townspeople’s hypocrisy to achieve a ‘jaundiced social knowledge very different from the material solidarity he needs’ Drummond (p. 50 -51)

Language and form

The leitmotif of the clocks predominate the visual imagery of the film and contribute substantially to the escalation of suspense although the film merely presents ‘real time’ and onscreen time exceeds playing time. Drummond sees a ‘highly existentialist quality’ in the relationship between ‘time past and time future.’(p.58) Zinnemann’s use of the past to predict the present and future adds ‘noir’ elements. (p.62). When Frank Miller, sentenced to life imprisonment five years previously threatens to return the action in the present is driven by the past. The threat is emphasised by the only flashback and voice over in the film when the camera zooms in on the empty chair in Judge Mettrick’s office and Franks’ voice speaks the words ’I’ll be back’. His arrival follows swiftly on the news of his pardon. Amy’s past too contributes to the internal logic of the film, she confides in Helen that the deaths of her father and brother have caused her pacifist stance. Similarly, Helen’s past as Miller and Kane’s mistress forces her departure despite her denial that she fears Miller’s violence. Time represents the social pressures of society as much as the individual’s past relationships and Kane is the common thread between all the conflicting forces of the past. 

Zinnemann uses music too as a leitmotif through the presence of the theme ‘Do Not Forsake Me’ which strengthens the film’s links to melodrama and the classic Western. Drummond (p.62-3) sees the mood of the film differing from most popular Westerns of the period for three reasons: the film begins quietly with a ballad singer accompanied by a guitar, accordion and drums, the theme underscores the dramatic action as a private plea from Kane to Amy and as the narrative progresses the lighter elements are replaced by a much darker tone in keeping with Zinnemann’s bleak message.  The theme also serves to unite the conflicting elements of masculine violence and destruction with the regenerative forces of harmony and unity in marriage and provide a poignant voice for Kane’s mute suffering. 

Love/honour/duty - The theme song is used throughout the film to focus the audience on the conflict between honour, duty and love – with passages of incidental orchestral music and wind, brass and piano contributing to the increasingly darker tone.

Kane’s explanation to Amy reveals the importance of his code of honour, ‘They’re making me run. I’ve never run from anybody before’……They’d come after us and we’d have to run again, as long as we live.’…..I’m not trying to be a hero. If you think I like this, you’re crazy’.  Kane’s last will reflects his internal conflict between love and duty. A close up of the clock cuts to medium shot of Kane’s stooped body and haggard face. The reverse angle obscures what he has written to Amy from audience.

Irony – Irony pervades the narrative of Kane’s efforts to defend the town. Judge Mettrick’s comments and departure are ironic. As he prepares to leave he advises Kane -‘I’ve been a judge many times in many towns. I hope to live to be a judge again.’ Camera zooms in on empty chair and voice over of Miller ‘You’ll never hang me. I’ll be back. I’ll kill you, Will Kane. I swear it, I’ll kill you.’ Mettrick ends by saying ‘This is just a dirty little village in the middle of no where,...Now get out.’

Similarly ex-marshal Howe fails to support Kane. The medium shot of Howe in a chair and his comment ‘If you’re honest you’re poor your whole life and in the end you wind up dying alone in some dirty street. What for? For a tin star?’  Re-enforces Kane’s integrity and the futility of his efforts. Henderson (Thomas Mitchell) as the spokes person of the town epitomises their greed and ingratitude.  

Violence – See description of fist fight between Kane and Harvey Pell and the final gunfight.

Social commentary - Kane’s confrontations in the church with the Minister, Henderson and the townsfolk is one of the most significant insights into the context the film represents, at a textual and sub textual level. When Kane reminds the congregation that it owes the safety of the women and children to him and an unnamed man tries to defend Kane, both are ignored.

Kane’s failure to find support is more poignant in the medium shot of children playing outside the church and the child’s ‘Bang, bang your dead Kane’. Only a boy and the one eyed drunk support him.

The meeting between Helen and Amy contributes to the film’s departure from the stereotypical Western. These women resemble the women in the other Revenge texts studied. Costume and colour emphasise the contrasting roles.  Cuts between the two women with medium and close ups shots emphasise Helen’s contempt for Amy’s refusal to support Kane and Amy’s determined stance again violence. Both women are shown to be self reliant, independent thinkers.

The final departure of Kane and Amy is powerful statement against social apathy and greed; the over the shoulder shot of townsfolk gathered around the body of Frank Miller and medium to close up of Kane discarding the badge is a bitter rejection of the town and its values.

Symbolism – The title song is an effective symbol of the conflict between love and duty and a motif. The ballad’s plaintive repetition of the refrain symbolises the isolation of a moral individual.

Close ups of clocks are a dominant motif in the film although they do not actually represent ‘real time’. Intercut with close ups of Kane’s face, they develop the tension and act as a momento mori.

The repeated use of train whistles and long shots of the train tracks become a motif for the intrusion of the past and the danger threatening Kane and increasingly intensify the tension.

The Miller gang on outskirts of town are seen in a series of long shots and close ups in the opening sequence and symbolise the lawlessness of the West. The long shot of church and medium and close up shots of gang entering the town as part of opening sequence set up the societal conflict between America’s lawless past and increasingly commercialised future. The repeated use of train whistles and shots of train tracks symbolise the inevitability of future progress and the threat from the past symbolised by Frank Miller’s arrival.

Black and white and the monochromatic colour throughout the film contribute to the realism. Deep focus and black and white suggests the newsreel popular at the time (the nineteen fifties) and develops credibility.  In a subversion of Western and symbolic of the moral ambiguity depicted in the film, the lawman Kane is dressed in black and white and Miller wears a suit.

The over the shoulder shot as the departing Judge Mettrick packs away the symbols of justice and freedom, the American flag and the scales of justice as he says ‘I’ve been a judge ………..Now get out.’ A cut away and the camera zooms in on the empty chair and Miller’s voice over ‘You’ll never hang me. I’ll be back. I’ll kill you, Will Kane. I swear it, I’ll kill you.’ symbolises the corrupt legal system Kane is fighting against.

Several high angled tracking shots of Kane as he tries to find support and later as he approaches the street at noon visually represent his vulnerability especially when the camera pans upward preceding Kane and reveals the empty street and his utter isolation. 

Tracking shots of the gang members riding into town for the final shoot out are symbolic of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in representing the death and chaos.

One of the most powerful symbols in the film is the lawman’s badge. The camera moves to a close up of the badge as Kane hangs it up after his wedding and resumes it when he returns to do his duty. The most dramatic use of the badge is in the closing sequence when he finally throws it into the dust in disgust before leaving the town.

Disguise/lies – There is limited use of lies such as the excuses of townsfolk, including Howe and Sam Fuller who hides and insists his wife says he is not at home. Zinnemann creates suspense by obscuring FrankMiller's face when he arrives and providing a close up of his face for the first time when he looks menacingly toward Helen as she boards the train. The sequence of quick cuts between close ups of Miller’s and Helen’s faces intensifies his presence as a threat.

Structure of narrative – the narrative consists of inaction and stasis until the violent confrontation when villain enters near the end of the film. The escalation of violence begins with a tracking shot of Kane and Harvey in brutal fight in stable. Medium and close up shots of Kane’s exhausted face and prone body build tension and empathy, suggesting Kane is incapable of defending himself. Sound effects of horses neighing and low angled shots of the fighting men between the horses hooves build tension which peaks when Kane is trapped in the burning barn.  Reverse angle medium and tracking shots of horses stampeding obscure Kane at first.

Stasis is effectively conveyed in the montage of townsfolk in church and the saloon, the empty street and the gang at the station combined with the whistle shattering the silence as the approaching train precedes the escalating action of the climactic gunfight. Extreme longs shots of the empty street, over the shoulder medium shots of the gang, high angles shots of the street from Kane’s point of view build the tension. Action escalates in a medium shot of Ben about to shoot Kane that is disrupted by the sound of a shot and his fall that reveals Amy as the shooter.  The violence escalates with a medium shot of Frank holding Amy hostage then a medium shot of her scratching his face and allowing Kane to kill him.The concluding scenes revert to the measured pace of the body of the film encouraging the audience to reflect on Zinnemann’s dramatic thesis.     

The mixture of Revenge Tragedy and Western Conventions in High Noon

• Kane is seemingly respected by the community, a lawman and newly married man not a malcontent.
  
  
• Kane’s actions are the result of his sense duty, justice and his rigid moral code like Roderigo and to a lesser extent Vindice. Rejected by the townspeople for jeopardising their short-term prosperity with his ethical stance against Miller, he becomes increasingly disillusioned.
  
  
• Bloodshed is limited despite the gunfight and sexuality is only hinted at in Helen’s past and costumes. A darker sexuality is conveyed in Ben Miller’s lecherous aside about Amy ‘That wasn’t here five years ago’ and his explanation for stealing a bonnet, ’I just want to be ready’.
  
  
• There is no disguise or intrigue; townsfolk only lie to avoid confronting the Miller gang.
  
  
• The enclosed settings are indicative of the townsfolk’s small mindedness and apathy. Kane is predominantly seen in the open, walking the streets in search of men to act as his deputies. The scenes in the Marshall’s office contribute to his stoical, generous character as he frees the town drunk and writes his last will.
  
  
• There is no madness or obsessive behaviour except Miller described as ‘kind of crazy’.
  
  
• Language is sparse and realistic in keeping with the conventions of the Western although Zinnemann makes effective and pervasive use of symbolism through the use of clocks.
  
  
• The ending is ambiguous, social order disrupted by Miller is restored by Kane only to be rejected when he discards the badge and leaves with Amy. The tragedy is the failure of society epitomised by men of Hadleyville.

Context, performance venues, audience and style

As discussed previously, High Noon departed from the classic Western and has been read as variously supporting and opposing Communism and the Conservative cause.  It has also been seen to present a more passive representation of masculinity and a more independent and active depiction of femininity. The Christian right have claimed it and others have rejected the negative attitude towards conventional religion. The film has become a classic Western even if it remains controversial.  

The analysis of Text and Language in High Noon and the study of Genre

Refer to the comments made in the summary of the each of the previous texts. When preparing for the HSC you need to:

Revise the syllabus requirements, the rubric and the HSC Markers comments.

Respond to past Extension 1 HSC Exam papers and time your responses. Mark your own critical and creative writing responses against the HSC Markers’ comments or exchange texts with another student, mark the texts using common criteria and discuss your evaluations.

Read and analyse exemplars of past critical and imaginative HSC Extension 1 responses. Note what you need to do to improve including the fluency and sophistication your own written expression.

Integrate analysis of the texts and maintain the internal logic of your arguments. Synthesise a close study of the techniques used to convey the meaning, detailed textual references and accurate quotes.

Avoid repetition and generalisations. Be specific, concise and demonstrate your personal understanding of the topic based on rigorous independent research and thorough preparation.

Flair and sophistication in understanding the concepts and responding to the question with textual depth and fluency are important. This includes an informed knowledge of all the socio–historical, literary and performance influences and how the context shaped the content and the form of each text.

A variety of supplementary texts should be chosen, prepared and the most suitable integrated with the set texts in a fluent and sustained response that discusses the material as Genre - Revenge Tragedy.

Imaginative and creative writing responses should have a distinctive voice, your own. Avoid using plots from films or television. If you are required to assume a particular persona make sure you sustain the language and point of view.   
 
Exercise

• Analyse High Noon and comment on how the Revenge Tragedy conventions are adapted to those of the Western. Make detailed reference to the role of the revenger.
  
  
• How does Zinnemann use the medium of film to transform the short story The Tin Star into a classicfilm about an isolated and paradoxically idealistic killer?
  
  
• Choose two films that use the conventions of Revenge Tragedy. Analyse the films and critically evaluate how the conventions have been adapted to reflect the context and the medium of film.
  
  
• Use ONE other of the set texts, ONE text of your own choosing and High Noon to answer the following question. ‘A moral individual is forced to take the law into their own hands by a corrupt and indifferent society’. Discuss

Appendix 1 – Style examples

1.1              Medea

Technique	Examples	Reference
Rhetoric All of Medea’s sustained speeches are examples of rhetoric	Medea/Jason – Resembles lawyers representing a case. Jason uses maritime imagery. (Episode 2. Includes lies/deceit) Medea /Chorus (Parados) role of women Medea/Creon (Episode 1. Includes lies/ deceit) Medea reveals her revenge to Chorus	446 –575 215 -271 272 - 323 364 - 409
Emotive language, pathos?	Medea’s monologue before killing the children includes internal conflict and obsessive jealously. (Episode 5) Chorus/Medea – lyrical chant to persuade Medea not to kill the children (Episode 3)	1022 -1080 823 – 864
Irony	Medea justifying her lies to Creon Medea justifying her lies to Aegeus. (Episode 3. Turning point. Includes Rhetoric)	364 - 409 764 - 824
Symbolism	Dragons drawn chariot, symbolic of the Gods’ indifference	1318 –1323
Insult & Invective	Medea /Jason (Episode 2) Jason /Medea. Sustained speeches, stichomythia and chant.	465 - 517 1324 –1414
Honour & ethics	Chorus choral ode condemning Medea	251 – 269
Horror/violence	Messenger/Medea – deaths of Creon and Glauce. (Episode 6) Voices of children (Final Episode – Chant of Chorus (Exodus)	1137-1250 1271-1293
Disguise/lies	Medea to Creon Jason/Medea-support for children (Episode 2) Medea/Jason (Episode 4. Includes dramatic irony)	271 – 358 445 - 464 869 –973
Social commentary	Choral song condemning Jason and sympathising with Medea Chorus sings of the destructive power of unrestrained passion Chorus chants of Medea’s murderous plans and Jason’s lack of respect for his marriage oaths. Chorus – lyrical chant on the suffering children bring. Also used to develop tension. Chorus – chant. Positive change in the future of women	410 - 444 628 - 664 977 – 1001 1251 – 1270 764-810

Revenger’s Tragedy

Technique	Examples	Reference
Satire Morality vices, virtues, situations.	Vindice opening speech over the skull Spurio’s condemnation of the Duke Vindice/Piato attempting to seduce Castiza Vindice preparing the skull for murder	Act 1. Sc i. 1- 49 Act 1. Sc ii. 176 –202 Act 11. Sc i.174- 231 Act 111. Sc v. 50-106
Rhetoric Sustained monologues or dialogues:	Spurio’s justification of incest Lussurioso/Piato. Vindice’s concern for his morality as pandar to Castiza	Act 1. Sc ii. 176 –202 Act 1. Sc iii. 169 - 185
Irony Can includes satire and horror	Vindice/Piato pandar for Lussurioso and the Duke Lussurioso’s attack on Duke/ Duchess Brothers’ failed plot to free Junior. Vindice employed to kill Piato Vindice’s murder of Duke’s corpse. Execution of Vindice & Hippolito.	Act 1. Sc iii. 109 – 169 Act 111. Sc v. 1- 33. Act 11. Sc iii. 50-106 Act 111. Sc i –iv. 8-35 Act 1V. Sc ii. 32 –220 Act V. Sc i.  1-60 Act V. Sc iii. 109 –128
Insult-Throughout text	Vindice of Lussurioso, Duke, Gratiana
Horror	Head of Junior (includes irony) Duke’s death (includes irony/ symbolism) Stabbing of Duke’s corpse	Act 111. Sc iv. 1- 54 Act 111. Sc v.121-220 Act V. Sc i. 1-60
Parallel characters Plots	Vindice/Hippolito attack on/reconciliation with  Gratiana Ambitioso and Supervacuo attack Lussurioso Vindice & conspirators at Masque/ Brothers & conspirators at Masque	Act IV. Sc iv. 1 -94 Act V. Sc iii. 49 –56 Act V. Sc iii. 1-84
Disguise/lies Vindice/Piato. Vindice/Vindice.	Duke’s pretence of condemning Junior Duchess plans to cuckold Duke Brothers’ plan to kill Lussurioso Duke’s corpse/Piato	Act 1. Sc ii. 1-10 Act 1. Sc ii. 93 -115 Act 11. Sc iii. 58 –104 Act V, Sc i.  1-100
Symbolism	All references to faces, brows, flesh – death. Skull opening speech Falling star	Act 1. Sc i. 1- 49 Act V, Sc i. 102
Structure/ pace	Passages of stasis followed by hectic action

The Cid

Technique	Examples	Reference
Honour/duty/love	Don Diego/Don Gomez. Includes the use of stichomythia, insults and sustained monologues.