The Fair Penitent” by Nicholas Rowe, now here’s a play I really enjoyed! The fact that the play was a she-tragedy really appealed to me. I don’t want to come off as a bitter and cynical person, but tragedies are much more interesting (at least in these eighteenth century plays!) I sympathized with the character of Calista, even though she continuously dug the hole she created for herself deeper and deeper. Although she was presented with several opportunities to save herself, she seemed fixated on dying and blew every opportunity to escape. Altamont basically said “hey babe its cool, I’ll forget the whole thing” but she still chose option B, which of course was death. The situation in which she found herself in was very believable. She wasn’t in love with Altamont, and gave into Lothario who fooled her with false promises. She didn’t seem like the promiscuous
type and seemed to believe that her shenanigans with Lothario would lead to marriage.

Unlike some of my classmates, I found that the relationship between Altamont and Horatio was pure friendship and nothing else. I found it refreshing to see an example of true friendship because none of the characters in any of the other plays I’ve read this term displayed such loyalty.