English Literature Essay Sample

The Spanish Tragedy, King Lear
and Doctor Faustus – political,
philosophical and psychological
context

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1
KING LEAR BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ........................................................................................... 1
Feminist critics in King Lear .................................................................................................................... 2
Gender and feminine issue in various Acts and Scenes of King Lear ....... Error! Bookmark not defined.
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY BY THOMAS KYD ....................................................................................... 2
DOCTOR FAUSTUS BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE ........................................................................... 3
POLITICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF THE PLAY ............... Error!
Bookmark not defined.
King Lear of William Shakespeare ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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1
INTRODUCTION
“Let dangers go; thy war shall be with me,but such a war, as breaks no bonds of peace”
This quote is by Thomas Kyd from the Spanish Tragedy. Bell-Imperia, an important
character in the Spanish Tragedy have spoken such lines to Horatio, who was her lover. With this
quote, she simply means that how she intends to love him. When speaking in regards with formal
level, as per Thomas, the passage reflects the love of parallelism, balance, oxymoron and
antithesis. This passage shows a sympathetic side to Bell-imperia. Earlier she was obsessed in
regards with the thoughts of revenge, but as if now, her intellect was very playful. Attributed
from the above passage, the current essay will discuss in brief in relation with the various
instances that has taken place in the Spanish tragedy story and their context in regards with
politics, psychology and physiology. Two other famous stories by William Shakespeare such as
Doctor Faustus and King Lear will also be explored in this report. All these plays have raised
certain gender and feminine issues, which will be discussed by the researcher in this subsequent
essay.
KING LEAR BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
William Shakespeare is the greatest writer and pre-eminent dramatist in the English
language. He has produced most of his own work between the year 1585 and 1592. Many of the
plays being written by him were published and all the editions were of varying quality and
accuracy. Out of all the plays of William Shakespeare, King Lear is the last play being written by
him. This was considered as his most famous tragedies. King Lear was being adapted from a
well known folk tale of that time and thus, it is not a very complicated story. It is deeply a sad
tale of a king, who bestow all his power and gradually becomes crazy (Bercovitch 215-29,
Sacvan 215). The king’s has two daughters, Goneril and Regan, and they have got half of the
kingdom of his father. However, soon it becomes quite apparent that half is not enough foreither
of them. When speaking in regards with this play, each individual being involved in this play is
out to get everybody else. In addition to this, they all have some hidden agenda. Nevertheless, as
the dramaprecede further, the audience become conscious that most of the events in the story are
being controlled by the two women i.e. Goneril and Regan. William Shakespeare, in his play of
King Lear, portrays women as a stronger sex, as opposed to thecultural standards of his time.
Gender and feminine issues or criticism relates with the type of literary theories that is required

to highlight the way different classes, genders, races, religions, etc. are portrayed in a piece of
literature (Bevington).
2
Feminist critics in King Lear
When speaking in regards with the feminist’s critics, it is a type of literature that takes
into consideration how women are written about, and how they write.
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THE SPANISH TRAGEDY BY THOMAS KYD
Coming onto the other play i.e. the Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd, this play was
begun with the ghost of Don Andrea. He was a Spanish nobleman and was killed in a recent
battle with Portugal. Convoying with the spirit of Revenge, Don Andrea put in picture the story
of his death. He said that at the time of combating with the Portuguese prince Balthazar, he was
killed in hand-to-hand. He had fallen in love with beautiful Bel-Imperia and was having a secret
love affair with her. When he came in front of the judges, who are believed to allocate him to his
place in the underworld, they were not able to take a decision and send him to the palace of Pluto
and Proserpine, King and Queen of the Underworld (Okoro, 59). Seeking this, Proserpine has
made a decision that it is the revenge that will bring him back to the world of living. Further,
after through the gates full of horns, he will find himself. At the end of the play, the spirit of

Revenge promises that Don Andrea will see his revenge. In this play also, the gender and
feminine issues were highlighted. Castile, along with the King in the Spanish tragedy were used
to take Bel-Imperia as an instrument of peace, which will be going to ensure friendly relations
between Portugal and Spain. The character of Bel-Imperia in the Spanish tragedy needs more
attention, however it was quite neglected. In this play, she was depicted as a woman, who is very
courageous, fortitude and independence long before anyone has coined the term “feminism”.Bel-
Imperia was not interested in arrange marriage and her unwillingness regarding this is the major
indication that she want to have companionate marriage. In other words, it represents the
rejection of arranged marriage that plays a quite dominant role in the society in the past few
years (Pick, Lucy 265).
DOCTOR FAUSTUS BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Other than the Spanish tragedy, there is one more play, which is being discussed in this
essay i.e. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. Doctor Faustus was a well known and
reputable German scholar, who was not contended with the limits of traditional forms of
knowledge, law, logic, medicine and religion. Consequently, he decided to learn to practice
magic. He got instructions from his friendsValdes and Cornelius in regards with the black arts,
and started a new career a magician by calling up Mephastophilis, a devil (Sue-Allen). Thus, it is
a story of man, wherein he sells his soul to a devil for power as well as knowledge. However,
this play got lot of criticism because of its interaction with the demonic realm. After this play and
story, many other authors have also started writing in order to expand the views of the
spirituality world and how quickly and frequently man can fall into this.
3

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As a result of this differentiation in the level of interest, a chaos arises in each of the
nation in order to satisfy their individual interests. In the Spanish tragedy play, the political
conflicts took place because of the variation between Spanish and Portugal and this was quite
evident by the assassination of Don Andrea. He was got killed in a battle with the Portugal. This
was attributed from the comment in the Spanish tragedy, which states that “the play frame is the
story of the ghost dons Andrea, who was a Spanish nobleman and was assassinated in the war of
Spain and Portugal”. Don Andrea confesses the whole story in regards with how he was fallen in
love with the prince in the play. He also had a love affair with the prince. Further, he was killed
at the time of combating with the Portuguese prince Balthazar. The death of Don Andrea was all
because of the political conflict in the nations. The inheritors to both the nations were destroyed
by the way of killing and finally, Spain managed to win the war. After the death of king’s son,
diplomatic negotiations were also started. In addition to this, several meetings were organized by
the Portuguese ambassador and the Spanish king in order to make sure that Balthazar comes
back. Thus, all these political, psychological, spiritual and physiological conflicts are being
evidenced by several characters in the play (Sue-Allen).
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REFERENCES
“A King Lear & feminist theory primer sheet.” n.d.
<http://gregteach.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Lear-
Fem_theory_primer.318213921.pdf>
“Compare the character of Faust to Doctor Faustus.” 2011.
<http://imadouphis.deviantart.com/art/Compare-the-character-of-Faust-to-Doctor-
Faustus-272254767>.
Bercovitch, Sacvan. Love and Strife in Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy. 1969. Print.
Bevington, David. Christopher Marlowe: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide. Oxford
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University Press, 2010. Print.
Bowers, Fredson. The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2008. Print.
Byron, Mark. “Logic's Doubt: The Spanish Tragedy and Tamburlaine.” Comitatus: A Journal of
Medieval and Renaissance Studies 30.1 (1999): 1-14. Online.
Case, Sue-Allen and Aston, Elaine. Feminism and theatre. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Print.
Empson, William. The Spanish Tragedy. The University of Virginia: 2009. Print.
Gurr, Andrew; Kyd, Thomas and Mulryne, James. The Spanish Tragedy. A&C Black. 2009.
Print.
James, Stuart. “English Literature and Literature in English: Repackaged and Anthologised by
Oxford University Press,” New Library World 92. 6 (2010): 5-6. Print.
Okoro, Dike. “Current Issues and Trends in Special Education: Research, Technology, and
Teacher Preparation.” Advances in Special Education 20 (2010): 59-69. Print.
Pick, Lucy. "Edward Said, Orientalism and the Middle Ages". Medieval Encounters 1999, 5.3
(1999): 265-271.
Thacker, Holly. Gender and Sexuality in Shakespeare's King Lear. 2008.
<http://suite101.com/article/gender-and-sexuality-in-shakespeares-king-lear-a93285>.
Twying, John. Forms of English History in Literature, Landscape, and Architecture. London:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.
Willis, Paul. “Tongues in Trees’: The book of nature in as you like it.” Modern Language
Studies 18.3(1988): 65-74. Print.
Winston, Joe. Drama, Narrative, and Moral Education: Exploring Traditional Tales in the
Primary Years. London: Falmer Press, 1998. Print.

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