Spoilt Brat.

When reading that passage, I didn't think of anything about chastity. It seemed to me that the Duke's son just wanted what he couldn't have. If he were married to her, the thrill of the chase and the thrill of doing something wrong, would dissipate.
He just strikes me as a whiny little boy who wants things based on no real reason besides passing fancies. He wants to sleep with Castiza but definitely does not want to marry her- he's not mature enough for that. Possibly he realizes this about himself, and that's why he makes it clear from the beginning that marriage is definitely something he is not looking for.

Lussurioso is just bein' real, yo. Sure, what he says sounds pretty vile, and he's totally trying to do the nasty with everyone he can without getting married, but is that really any different from how we think today? Can we truly fault the man for wanting to "get some"? Before we condemn him, we should ask ourselves that incredibly important question -- What Would Snoop Do?

Well, here's what Snoop had to say: "Sometimes if you're lucky, someone comes into your life who'll take up a place in your heart that no one else can fill, someone who's tighter than a twin, more with you than your own shadow, who gets deeper under your skin than your own blood and bones."


Curse you Snoop! Why you gotta be all contradictin' me?

Unacceptable Liaisons

I agree with what everyone else has said. Lussurioso's obsession is founded in her purity. Were Castiza not a virgin, it would diminish the conquest in Lussurioso's eyes. Where's the fun in conquering an already conquered province? As far as class goes, sex does not connect people the way marriage would and therefore can happen between people of different classes. Lussurioso acknowledges his predicament to be one of lust. Having sex with someone of a lower class meant nothing more than satisfying a bodily urge. A woman is a woman, regardless of how much money she has or doesn't have. Marrying someone of a lower class would have meant connecting himself and his family with inferior people. That would have been unacceptable. Lussurioso came by this trait honestly. His father, the Duke, attempted to carry on an affair with Vindice's girlfriend. Vindice is of the same class as his sister and presumably his beloved would have been as well. The Duke also had a son with someone of a lower class. Lussurioso is merely behaving in the manner he's seen his father behave.

destruction of chastity

I have also noticed that there seems to be an obsession with chastity. In particular, people with high status desire chastity in a woman (such as Castiza and Lord Antonio's wife), yet their actions driven by this desire in turn is a destruction of this purity. After this destruction to the woman's purity she is no longer wanted or desired. However, so far in The Revenger's Tragedy, the desire of "chastity" had began to cause some turmoil and chaos within the court. Perhaps Thomas Middleton (?) was trying to state that without chastity people/rulers are corrupt and unjust.

Obsession of Chastity

Chastity seems to be the main concern of the rape of Antonio's wife and the planned rape of Castiza. Yes, these acts are awful and inhuman, but everyone is discussing how chaste these women are and were. When mourning and discussing his wife's rape, Antonio and Hippolito were consumed with how chaste she was, and how she would have rather died in virtue than live in shame. They also made it a point to express how she had made her name as an empress by being "compact" and how dignifying that was. The same goes for Lussurioso. I think he has a small obsession with Castiza because she is pure. He wants to strip her of her virginity; not after he marries her, but in an unlawful manner and against her free will.

Class Ain't Everything, Apparently

I guess this goes back to what we were saying earlier this semester about how social status is everything. Although for Lussurioso, class isn't anything when it comes to sex. Even though he seems to think Castiza lower and thus unworthy, he seems to let his "family jewels" do all the thinking. Lussurioso thinks that marriage with her would be beneath him and that the only way to satisfy his "love" for her is to physically act. Furthermore, throwing out all he knows of what his brother just did, Lussurioso thinks acting on his most primal of all human urges is the answer to his problem. Junior Brother, as he is called, was about to get sentenced for sleeping with someone unlawfully. Given Castiza is not married, Lussurioso would not be committing any crime, but the way he seems to be going now, Rape would be right at the end of that road.