Meet the Cast
Vindice
Vindice has a central goal that drives his whole life: revenge. He's been seeking vengeance for nine years, and he's a bit like Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride. Inigo says he's been in the reve...
Hippolito
Hippolito seems more even-keeled and practical than Vindice. He's angered by injustice and can initiate vengeance when he thinks it's necessary (check out Act 1, Scene 4 to see this in action), and...
Duke
The Duke is one bad dude. He's apparently poisoned a number of young women who refused his sexual advances (2.3.146), and he's more interested in his reputation than in justice, as the trial scene...
Duchess
The Duchess spends most of the play reacting to things that are happening around her. We don't get too much of a chance to see what she's like on her own, because there's always something happening...
Lussurioso
The Duke's legitimate son, Lussurioso gets a lot of screen time in this play, and he's definitely on the villainous side. He's always sneaking around scheming, and he'll seduce any woman he can, wi...
Spurio
The Duke also has an illegitimate son, who is pretty bitter about the way his status prevents him from inheriting the power that the other sons are in line for. While we totally feel for him about...
Supervacuo and Ambitioso
These two sons of the Duchess from a previous marriage don't look like the greatest members of the Future Dukes of Italy Club, either. They're constantly scheming, and they try to get Lussurioso ki...
Junior
Maybe the youngest of the Duchess's sons turns out okay… or maybe not. Yeah, make that definitely not. See, Junior's pretty awful. On trial for rape, he jokes about it and says he'd gladly do it...
Castiza
Castiza is chaste, strong, and good with words. Even though we find her worrying about her poverty, she holds out against Lussurioso's offer of money in exchange for a sexual relationship. Heck, sh...
Mother/Graziana
The play presents Graziana in a mixed light but eventually ends up giving her approval. Her son seems impressed with her at the beginning, but unfortunately, she's poor, and this makes it harder fo...
Antonio
Antonio seems to be your standard generic nice guy, at least as far as revenge tragedy goes. There's not a lot about him in the play, other than the fact that the brutal rape of his wife sets one o...
Piero
Piero doesn't do a ton, besides promising to help Antonio achieve revenge and turning up to fight in the climactic last scene. But it's nice to know who he is, if only to avoid head scratching when...