Explore the presentation of the Duke in Act 2 Scene 3, linking to Loot
At the beginning of Act 2 Scene 3, Middleton presents the Duke as a cowardly figure who has
some awareness of his sins and corrupt nature. As Lussurioso breaks into his chamber, the Duke
begs for his life, stating “I must have days […] with penitential heaves”, the use of the quantifier
‘days' being used to emphasise the amount he must pray to make up for sins, showing he has
some small sense of self awareness, as when confronted with the end of his life, he feels the need
to pray, and ‘must’ indicating his desperation to do this, perhaps afraid of going to Hell for his
crimes. However, perhaps this also implies that he sees access to the afterlife as transactional. In
Jacobean society, the practice of selling indulgences raised much opposition, so perhaps
Middleton here is tying this practice to the Duke as a corrupt character, emphasising his cowardice
to take responsibility for his crimes and highlighting the corrupt nature of the church and society as
a whole, showing him to be paying his way to salvation through insincere prayers instead of
money. Furthermore, at the end of this scene, during the Duke’s soliloquy, he recognises his
crimes and their severity, making a nihilistic admission of his evil acts “many a beauty have I turned
to poison” again his vicious, evil acts brought to light through the use of ‘many’ demonstrating that
the murder of Gloriana was not his only crime of this sort. On top of this he states “my sins are
green” the use of colour imagery perhaps being used by Middleton to represent that his crimes are
driven by jealously over what belongs to others, but an alternative interpretation could be that his
sins are still fresh or have recently happened, the fact he explicitly calls them ‘sins’ shows that he
is aware of what he has done but is too much of a coward to admit them to anyone except himself.
Perhaps this idea of corrupt characters trying to hide behind religion can also be recognised in Loot
as the Catholic church is satirised by Orton and presented like a commodity that can be bought,
linking to the idea of indulgences. After Hal accepts his crimes, Fay states that he should “Book an
hour with Father Mac”, the verb ‘book’ showing it to be transactional and business like, the use of
the simple sentence reducing the holiness of the sacrament to something to be sold, which whilst
contrasting with the way the Duke calls it ‘penitential heaves’, still seems to suggest the same idea,
that religion is used as a mask for those corrupt in nature and too cowardly to own up to their sins,
of which they are aware.
The themes of perception and deception are prevalent throughout The Revenger’s Tragedy, with
each character either lying, cheating to disguising themselves to get what they want. In light of this,
Middleton present the Duke in this scene as perhaps more perceptive to what is going on than he
first appears, seeing through the power-hungry plotting of Supervacuo and Ambitioso and also
convincing them into thinking that he knows nothing of what they are doing. However, this
perception could be interpreted not as an attribute of the Duke himself but perhaps as a product of
the contextual setting, as during the Jacobean period, it wasn’t uncommon for male family
members to try to depose others, whether it be a brother or a father. The use of the question “pity,
boys?” creates an almost curious tone from the Duke, perhaps this could be interpreted in the
sense that the Duke knows what the brothers are doing, but is trying to put them on the spot and
question them as if he doesn’t. The Duke seems to almost use this to his advantage, using his
foreknowledge to play games with the brothers as he says “Go, let him be released”, the
imperative highlighting his authority. As the audience, we know the true plans of the Duke and are
able to see that he is trying to provoke a reaction and response from Supervacuo and Ambitioso,
his perception allowing him to hold power over the other two. Through this exchange between the
three characters, we are able to see the idea of facade in the play, the facade that the Duke puts
on of not knowing what is going on and of condemning Lussurioso, but also that of Supervacuo
and Ambitioso who pretend to be caring, but really only want power. Furthermore, once
Supervacuo and Ambitioso have exit the stage, the Duke makes it clear to the audience that he
sees through their plotting, “Here’s envy with a poor thin cover o’er it”, the use of the adjective ‘thin’
suggesting the transparent nature of their plan or even their characters, fitting quite well with
Supervacuo, his name meaning ‘empty’ and ‘lacking thought’, but could also be perhaps due to the
fact that he understands what it is like to be envious. Whilst Ambitioso and Supervacuo are envious
of Lussurioso being the true heir, the Duke has been envious of the men who have the women that
he desires, and then uses this envy to fuel his crimes once they deny him. Perhaps this idea links
to the theme of appearance vs reality in the play, a theme which is also prevalent throughout Loot,
