How we cite our quotes:
Quote #1
VINDICE
[…] Hum: whoe'er knew
Murder unpaid? Faith, give revenge her due:
(1.1.42-43)
Does murder always get its comeuppance? Or do people sometimes get away with it? When the bad guys get killed in this play, is that believable?
Quote #2
DUCHESS
Indeed, 'tis true an old man's twice a child:
Mine cannot speak. One of his single words,
Would quite have freed my youngest, dearest son
From death or durance, and have made him walk
With bold foot upon the thorny law,
Whose prickles should bow under him. But 'tis not,
And therefore wedlock faith shall be forgot.(1.2.113-119)
The Duchess is not impressed—she wants revenge because the Duke won't let her son immediately off the hook for his crime. Why might this character decide on a sexual revenge (leaving behind wedlock faith or faithfulness) instead of a violent one? We're thinking her gender has something to do with it, though it's also interesting that her son's crime was sexual in nature.
Quote #3
SPURIO
Duke, thou didst to me wrong, and by thy act
Adultery is my nature […]
(1.2.193-194)
Spurio complains that his father wronged him by fathering him outside of marriage (kids of unmarried parents don't inherit titles and property). He then argues that the Duke's sexual looseness encourages Spurio's own decision to get revenge by sleeping with the Duke's wife (Spurio's stepmother). This tortured logic makes a certain amount of (twisted) sense, even if the reality of it is pretty terrible to consider.