ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -A Revenge tragedy, is a tragedy, as its name implies, in which the tragedy is brought about by the pursuit and accomplishment of revenge. The revenge tragedy was very popular during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, and it owed its popularity largely to the influence of Seneca, the ancient Roman dramatist.

Detailed explanation-2: -Shakespeare’s plays Hamlet, Othello and even King Lear may be referred to as revenge tragedies but it is Titus Andronicus that truly embraces this genre.

Detailed explanation-3: -Senecan tragedy, body of nine closet dramas (i.e., plays intended to be read rather than performed), written in blank verse by the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca in the 1st century ad. Rediscovered by Italian humanists in the mid-16th century, they became the models for the revival of tragedy on the Renaissance stage.

Detailed explanation-4: -But there is a slight difference between the Senecan tragedy and the revenge tragedy. In the Senecan tragedy the violent incidents and actions are merely reported by an agent such as the Chorus or a messenger whereas in the revenge tragedy the scenes of murder and bloodshed they took place on stage.

Detailed explanation-5: -The revenge tragedy, or revenge play, is a dramatic genre in which the protagonist seeks revenge for an imagined or actual injury. The term revenge tragedy was first introduced in 1900 by A. H. Thorndike to label a class of plays written in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras (circa 1580s to 1620s).