Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Venice Preserv’d, Or A Plot Discover’d was one of the most successful Restoration period tragedy play that was written by Thomas Otway and was first performed in 1682. It is a political drama that gained momentum in the background of the Rye House Plot which was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother (and heir to the throne) James, Duke of York. People of the Restoration era also had strong memories of the Poppish plot and hence general public was enthusiastic about discovering plots against the state. Thomas Otway depicted a lucid conspiracy of rebels to overthrow the state and how that plot was foiled.
Venice Preserv’d have many similarities with William Shakespeare’s Othello which was inspired by Cinthio’s Hecatommithi. Shakespeare’s Desdemona marries a moor Othello against her senator father’s wishes and Otway’s Belvidera marries Jaffeir against her father’s wishes. Othello kills Desdemona and himself, and Jaffeir kills Belvidera and commits suicide. However, unlike Shakespeare’s Othello, Otway’s Jaffeir fails to gain the sympathies of the audience. Despite his tragic end, he fails to become the tragic hero Othello is.
In fact, there’s hardly any hero in Otway’s Venice Preserv’d. The rebellions who conspire against the senate are as greedy, power-hungry, tyrannical, immoral, and corrupt as the senators are. There’s no better side, and thus, Otway presented this drama as a She-tragedy, the tragic lead is Belvidera who gains all sympathy.
Characters of Venice Preserv’d, Or A Plot Discover’d
Priuli is a senator of Venice who is comparatively honest and less corrupt than others. He has a daughter whom he loves very much, but not more than himself. Priuli can be compared to Shakespeare’s Barbantino from Othello. However, unlike Barbantino, he doesn’t conspire against Jaffeir to get his daughter back, he simply disowns his daughter when she marries a man without her father’s permission. Belvidera is Priuli’s daughter, a beautiful voluptuous girl who falls in love with Jaffier and marries him despite her father’s resistance to the marriage. She is a benevolent, affectionate, constant, and pure girl who is not gullible. She is intelligent and can be manipulative, but she is completely loyal to Jaffeir. Belvidera can be compared to Shakespeare’s Desdemona but unlike Desdemona, she is not a passive tragic heroine. Belvidera is much more prominent than Desdemona. She recognizes the corruption of the senate but when she comes to know that the conspirators are no better, maybe more corrupt and immoral than the senate, she convinces Jaffeir not to condone the plan of the conspirators, but to instead turn them into the senate. Later on, she manipulates her father, who has already disowned her, to pardon Jaffeir’s friend who conspired to kill Priuli by reminding him of her mother. Though the pardon comes a bit late.
Jaffeir is the husband of Belvidera who can be compared to Shakespeare’s Othello. He is expected to fulfill the roles of husband, friend, and rebel conspirator. However, he remains confused and cannot figure out the right path for him. He lacks any moral integrity. He also lacks appreciation for Belvidera’s love considering she gave up her father and privileges only to be with him. In addition, he lacks patience. Othello fell prey to the conspiracies of Iago who filled Othello’s heart with suspicion against Desdemona. However, Jaffeir knows that Belvidera is always loyal to him, yet he decides to sacrifice her and threatens to kill her if she fails to get a pardon for his friend.
Pierre is a friend of Jaffeir. He can be compared to Shakespeare’s Iago. He is a soldier of Venice who conspires against the senate and plans to murder Priuli. However, unlike Iago, who had no reason to act villainous, Pierre has a proper reason. He is the lover of Aquilina, a high-class courtesan whom a corrupt senator Antonio exploits and uses for his lust. When Pierre comes to know about it, he complains against the senator to the senate of Venice and asks for justice. However, the senate ignores the charges and claims that Antonio's behavior was a privilege entitled to the senators. This angers Pierre. As Priuli is a senator, he decides to murder him and brings Jaffeir into the conspiracy by exploiting his hatred against Priuli. Antonio is a corrupt senator who is lewd, immoral, and lecherous. He exploits Aquilina and often treats women with disdain. He addresses Aquilina as his “little Nacky” which indicates a female genital organ. Renault is the bloodthirsty head of conspirators. While he exploits the anger and frustration of Pierre and Jaffeir for his purpose of attacking the senate and gaining power, he is as corrupt and tyrannical as Antonio. He forces Jaffeir to keep his wife, Belvidera in his custody as a guarantee of his allegiance, and then he tries to rape her.
Venice Preserv’d as a She-Tragedy
Overall, Otway shows that none of the men treat women as they should. Priuli disowns his beloved daughter for she disobeyed him and married a man she loved. To get his revenge against Priuli to disown Belvidera and hence disallow Jaffeir his share of Priuli’s wealth as his son-in-law, he decides to support the conspirators. When he is asked to keep Belvidera in Renault’s custody, he agrees to that and effectively transfers his authority over Belvidera to Renault. The same happens in Shakespeare’s Othello where Othello leaves Desdemona in the care of Iago. Jaffeir later threatens to murder his wife, the girl who left her father and privileges to be with him.
Pierre loves Aquilina, but he neither trusts her nor respects her. Pierre arranges meetings of rebels at Aquillina’s house but she is not allowed to attend any of those meetings or listen to anything related to their plan. Pierre never discloses his conspiracy to her as if she is untrustworthy. Aquilina is comparable to Shakespeare’s Emilia, the wife of Iago in Othello.
Instead of vouching for his friend Jaffeir’s loyalty, Pierre persuades him to keep his wife Belvidera in the custody of Renault. Renault, who becomes the custodian of Belvidera, tries to exploit and rape her. The whole drama is based on the depiction of women as an object of lust and control and Otay exploits the victimhood of women for the success of the play. Unlike Venice Preserv’d, Shakespeare’s Othello doesn’t depend on the pathos brought about by the unjustified treatment of women. Though, the murder of Desdemona and the death of Belvidera both bring about the same degree of lust. Belvidera reminds Jaffeir of Lucrece after she saves herself against Renault’s onslaught and reaches him. Lucrece committed suicide and to challenge the standard that requires suicide of (female) rape victims, which seems a tacit admission of their guilt, she demands Jaffeir take revenge. Her disheveled and unnerved state eroticizes her suffering which is the main ingredient of a She-Tragedy. The rape attempt of Belvidera is depicted in such a sexually explicit manner that brings forth her sexuality. In the case of Othello, Desdemona acts as a passive victim. She is sleeping when Othello kills her and her murder is also depicted as erotic as it could be. Othello stands over his inert and sleeping wife and states: "I will kill thee and love thee after." The situation is depicted as overtly necrophilic, suggesting that Desdemona will reach the utmost desirable state after her murder, the state where she will be silent, chaste, and obedient.
Summary of Venice Preserv’d, Or A Plot Discover’d
Jaffeir is a poor Venetian soldier who falls in love with Belvidera, the daughter of a highly prestigious and rich senator of Venice. Belvidera also loves him but Priuli, her father is against this relationship. Nonetheless, she elopes with Jaffeir and marries him, hoping that her father, who loves her dearly, will accept her marriage. Priuli couldn’t bear this and he publicly denounces and disowns Belvidera, cutting off her inheritance. This angers Jaffeir as he hoped to get rid of his penury after marrying Belvidera, the rich girl. When Jaffeir’s friend Pierre comes to know about this, he decides to infuriate Jaffeir more against Priuli for his own reason of revenge against the senate. A corrupt senator Antonio has been sexually exploiting and using Aquilina, Pierre’s beloved. Pierre complained against him in the senate but didn’t get justice. Thus, he made contact with Renault, a power-hungry, bloodthirsty conspirator who plans to overturn the government by attacking the senators. The most strong, most reliable, and most trustworthy senator is Priuli and if he is killed, Renault hopes that the general public will side with the rebels for the uprising. Pierre takes Jaffeir to meet Renault who manipulates him into murdering Priuli. Jaffeir has his own motive if Priuli is murdered, he is the legal husband of her only daughter, and will get all his wealth in inheritance. However, Renault cannot trust Jaffeir as he is the son-in-law of Priuli. Thus, Jaffeir agrees to keep Belvidera in the custody of Renault as a hostage until Priuli is murdered. Belvidera is unaware of the plot but Jaffeir transfers her to Renault’s place. They plan to murder Priuli the very next morning. When Renault sees Belvidera sleeping at his place, lust engulfs him and he attempts to rape her. Belvidera resists and runs away in a disheveled distraught situation. She reaches home and informs Jaffeir. Jaffeir tells her about the conspiracy. She asks him how could he support such wretched people who tried to rape his wife. She then suggests Jaffeir turncoat and inform the senate about the conspiracy to which he agrees. But he is worried about his friend Pierre. Belvidera then plans that Jaffeir will reveal the names of conspirators and then will claim their lives as his reward and thus, he will get a right to pardon Pierre and save his life. Jaffeir agrees and reveals the conspiracy to the senate. However, the senate doesn’t offer him the reward he sought and condemns all conspirators to death. Jaffier is distraught. He feels guilty of disloyalty towards his friend Pierre. He goes to Belvidera and curses her for making him the cause of Pierre’s death sentence. He threatens her that if she fails to get a pardon for Pierre, he will murder her. Belvidera is distraught. She just faced a rape attempt on her and now, the man for whom she left her father and all privileges is threatening to murder her. She goes to her father who has already disowned her. Priuli discards her again and rejects her plea to help her by getting a pardon for Pierre who conspired to murder him. However, Belvidera insists and reminds Priuli of her mother to whom he promised to protect Belvidera in all situations. Priuli submits and agrees to pardon Pierre. Belvidera runs to her home to inform Jaffeir but finds that Jaffeir has gone to imprisonment to meet Pierre. She follows him to jail.
Meanwhile, Javier meets Pierre who is about to be hanged. Pierre is crestfallen as he failed in taking his revenge. Furthermore, he is about to be hanged, and he will die a death of ignominy unlike a brave soldier in the battleground. He says that he has forgiven Jaffeir but demands him a favor and asks Jaffeir to murder him with his own sword before he is hanged. Jaffeir rushes towards him and stabs him with his dagger, killing him. Later on, Jaffeir feels such intense remorse for killing his friend that he commits suicide by running the same dagger on his throat. At the same time, Belvidera reaches the gallows and before she could inform that she has won the pardon for Pierre, sees the death of Pierre and Jaffeir both. This breaks her completely and she goes insane and dies.
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