| Thomas Kyd was well known as the grandfather of revenge tragedies.His writing style and his great work The Spanish Tragedy are studied by many scholars.At present,a lot of scholars analyze The Spanish Tragedy from these perspectives such as religion,the theme of revenge,language,etc.In the thesis,the author uses Nie Zhenzhao’s theory of ethical literary criticism especially from the perspective of rational will and free will to analyze the three main characters,plots and causes of their death tragedies in The Spanish Tragedy.Besides,the author wants to further explore how the contradictory relationship between rational will and free will influences the main characters to make their own ethical selections and to react.Nie Zhenzhao demonstrates that free will derives from people’s instinctive desire or passion and rational will makes people ethical.In the play,Hieronimo,Bel-imperia and Lorenzo’s tragedy are related to their uncontrolled free will.Lorenzo forces his sister to marry the Portuguese prince out of his selfish desire for wealth and power and kills innocent people.While Bel-imperia and Hieronimo plan to kill the prince and Lorenzo for freedom and revenge.Their wrong ethical choices imply their tragic fate.Therefore,the author argues that once people are out of control of rational will,free will would gradually be irrational if affected by strong impulse,passion or instinctive desire.It warns that human beings should enhance rationality and learn to control free will because whoever violate law and morality will be punished eventually.Through consulting relevant literature,the author finds that barely no author use the theory to analyze The Spanish Tragedy.Therefore,the author hopes to provide a new perspective for appreciating the play. |
