Pessimism and bleakness Flashcards
Quotes and critics
“Orton does nothing in Loot to vitiate the depravity of Fay, Hal, and Dennis, and yet they vigorously hold the audience’s affections.”
Dean
“None of the characters feel the need for any atonement, principally because they feel no sense of sin, guilt or immorality.”
Dean
Example 1:
Hal: I want the body stripped.
[…]
Hal: For the bonfire then. Her teeth can go in the river
[…]
Fay: What about payment?
Hal: Twenty per cent
Fay: Thirty-three and a third
Hal: You can keep her wedding ring
Fay: Is it valuable?
Hal: Very
Orton uses the act of stripping the corpse and the burning of the clothes to satirise the hypocrisy of society. While death is traditionally treated with respect and veneration, characters such as Hal and Fay show irreverence and complete disrespect towards the corpse of Mrs McLeavy, who is the former’s mother.
The characters are driven by greed, selfishness and survival and have no redemptive qualities.
Example 2:
Fay: Can accidental death be arranged?
Truscott: Anything can be arranged in prison.
[…]
Hal: It’s comforting to know that the police can still be relied upon when we’re in trouble.
The play’s ending is nihilistic, with Truscott accepting the bribe and arranging for McLeavy, the only innocent character, to be murdered in prison.
The play ends with a lack of accountability amongst the characters, suggesting that those in power are complicit in perpetuating the very crimes they are supposed to prevent and bring justice to.
Ending could be ‘merely cynical in making morality, if not life itself, seem futile’
Foakes
Vindice: ‘Tis the best grace you have to do it well; / I’ll save your hand that labour
Vindice: And useless property, no - it shall bear a part
Vindice: As much as the dumb thing can, he shall feel
This absurd and farcical act highlights the perverse nature of humans and how the members of the court are driven by materialistic desires, with no higher ideals that can counteract their depravity. For example, the love and devotion Vindice once had for his fiance, is corrupted in an instrument of vengeance.
Antonio: Away with that foul monster / Dipped in a prince’s blood
[…]
Antonio: Just is the law above.
In the end, even Vindice and his brother are executed, suggesting that revenge only perpetuates the cycle of violence and despair. There is no redemption, as Vindice becomes indistinguishable from the villains he seeks to punish, corrupted by vengeance and is ultimately sentenced to death.
Middleton could be implying that death is a direct consequence of the moral decay of society.
