Two Sides of the Same Coin of Revenge - Essay Example

ngeling.“Such readings may speak to a wish to construct the violence of revenge as a purely “male” problem or an effect of patriarchy” (Willis 22). Shakespeare and Middleton turn the tables by using a female revenger, Tamora and Beatice-Joanna, in their plays. These two characters are two sides of the same coin. Tamara is the “imagery of [a] womb, tomb, and pit” (21) while Beatrice-Joanna is the image of sight; both these qualities are fuel for their revenge. Hunger’s role is to gain more power while the sight is blinded by the end goal, both on a verge of destruction.

Both female characters seek out revenge and use their influence and position to obtain their desired vengeance through indirect, coercive, and manipulative channels. These characters seek revenge only to leave a trail of lies, blood, and deception, which follows them to their graves for truth cannot be hidden for long. Titus Andronicus and The Changeling highlighted the many ways in which the plays are informed by gender ideology (21). It maybe said that tragic plays revolve around a masculine character.

“Men had a vested interest portraying vendettas as “grand struggles[s]” highlighting masculine traits of bravery, daring, and fighting skill” (24). The beginning of the play is started off with Saturninus and Bassianus fighting over who should be named Emperor. They chant their speeches but Marcus steps in to announce the “returns the good Andronicus to Rome” (Shakespeare 1.1.37). Men would use their strength to gain power and authority, while women “appeared as idealized figured of chastity to be protected, or more darkly, as vulnerable vessels of the enemy to be raped and despoiled.

But in many of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as in those by other Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists, women are sometimes active participants in revenge plots” (24). For revenge to be there, first a crime must be committed and for one reason or the other the law cannot punish the