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Hieronimo is one of the principal characters in Thomas Kyd's ''The Spanish Tragedy''. He is the knight marshal of Spain and the father of Horatio. In the onset of the play he is a dedicated servant to the King of Spain.〔(Kyd, Thomas. The Spanish Tragedy. 1979. Ed. J.R. Mulryne. New York: New Mermaids, 1989.)〕 However, the difference in social status becomes apparent when his son is wrongfully murdered by Balthazar, the son of the viceroy of Portugal, and Lorenzo, the son of the Duke of Spain, which eventually causes tragic events to unfold.〔(Kyd II.iv)〕 In order to revenge the death of his son, Hieronimo takes on additional roles, a playwright and an actor. He uses his position in the King's court to write and perform a play within a play. This performance mirrors the actual events surrounding Horatio's death, and within this show Hieronimo commits his own acts of revenge against the perpetrators.〔(Kyd IV)〕 Many critics see Hieronimo as a dynamic character that by the end of the tragedy has become obsessed with taking revenge against the murderers of his son. Literature of 16th century England was greatly concerned with plots of deceit, confusion and madness as its central theme. The Spanish Tragedy is no different.〔(West, William N. "But this will be a mere confusion": Real and Represented Confusion on the Elizabethan Stage." Project Muse Scholarly Journals Online (2008): 217-33.)〕 ==The character of Hieronimo == In Peter B. Murray's ''Thomas Kyd'', he has his own summary and analysis of Hieronimo in The Spanish Tragedy. The author mostly dwells on the analysis of Hieronimo's play within a play. Murray emphasizes that the play is about how in the end love will kill and how the characters in the play were acting the opposite parts of their true selves; their acting roles did not reflect their true character. Murray also points out that Hieronimo seems to be delaying the revenge cycle throughout his play. "At several points in the play it might appear that Hieronimo delays revenge, Hamlet-style, but there is no invitation to deep psychological analysis of the delay".〔(Murray, Peter B. Thomas Kyd. Vol. 88. New York: Twayne, Inc., 1969.)〕 He is trying to prolong it as much as possible to get his point across and make sure that the audience truly knows whom each character is supposed to represent in real life. He feels compelled to destroy every one in his path by showing how they killed his son that he forgets to think about what he is actually doing and do everything with caution. Hieronimo's intentions may make sense and seem right and just in his mind, but he is letting his need for revenge cloud what is really happening around him. He is letting the play define what revenge means to him, "a force sent from the underworld when the judges fail, a demonic urge that promises a perverse 'joy amidst ... discontent'".〔(Murray 136)〕 His characters in his play within a play get carried away with the roles that they are acting that they end up getting themselves killed just like their characters die in the script. Hieronimo even suggests that the play be spoken in different languages. "As a result, each character will be isolated from the others within a language that he alone speaks, as they have been isolated by false use of language all along".〔(Murray 139)〕 He has two meanings behind this thought. One is so he himself will be able to explain what the play was about in hopes of furthering his need for revenge. The other is to cause drama to represent a revenge symbol with the fall of Babel. "By imagining Spain to be Babylon and by making the villains of his playlet be Turks, Hieronimo reinforces his earlier idea that heaven is at work in his revenge".〔(Murray 140)〕 Therefore, Hieronimo thinks that this allows him to play the murderer. He envisions himself to be "God's agent for the punishment of a whole nation"〔 consequently letting him think that there is no need for him to differentiate between the innocent and the guilty. In "The Spanish Tragedy, The Alencon Marriage Plans, and John Stubbs's Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf", by Andrew Hadfield, the plausibility of how the King had no idea that Horatio was murdered is brought up. "The King alone seems unaware that Horatio is dead; an extremely implausible situation."〔(Hadfield, Andrew. "The Spanish Tragedy, The Alencon Marriage Plans, and John Stubbs's Discoverie of a Gaping Gul." (2000): 42-43.)〕 Hadfield mentions that it should be noted that when this scene took place Hieronimo was hoping that the king would give justice to whoever killed his son. It is clear at this point the state of mind that Hieronimo is in when he throws the halter toward the entrance of all of the nobles. He is obviously not in the right state of mind anymore and the death of his son has really taken a toll on his mental health. Hadfield raises a good point when he says that "There is a mismatch between the needs of the state and the desires of the individuals within it, a situation that has tragic results when Hieronimo stages his deadly play to complete the cycle of revenge".〔(Hadfield 42)〕 Because the king is ignorant of the point that Hieronimo is so obviously trying to get across, he is in turn putting the "demands of foreign policy above those of its citizens".〔(Hadfield 43)〕 Similarly to what Murray thought, Hadfield also agrees that because the thought of revenge is so strong in the minds of the characters, the real issue is clouded and what does not need to be a tragic end becomes one. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hieronimo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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