ŠJust as he wanted _Marino Faliero_ to be more than a political drama, Byron also wanted it to be more than a revenge drama portraying psychological unrest, and thus he chose not to found the play's action on jealousy. Michael Steno's irreverent conduct, he explained, provides only a "first motive" -- not a complete explanation of the conspiracy. The central issue, as critics since [Samuel C.] Chew's day [_The Dramas of Lord Byron: A Critical Study_, 1915] correctly have remarked, is "the conflict...between the patricians and the people"; the "private wrongs" recorded in the play "spring from public vices, from the general corruption generated by the foul aristocracy." We need now to understand what this means in terms of the social construct Byron is re-creating.
To say that the aristocracy is corrupt is not necessarily to indict their private conduct nor to suggest that they publicly and physically abuse the Venetian citizenry. Their corruption lies in their consuming self-interest....As rulers they disseminate and uphold values which ostensibly represent the best interest of everyone, but which in reality do not recognize the needs or the integrity of private citizens.
One of the key ways Byron defines this corruption and pinpoints the built-in injustices of Venetian ideology is by emphasizing the disparity between the nobility of the aristocracy's language and the actual self-interest of their actions. They disguise their selfish motives and subdue the Venetian citizens with a hollow rhetoric that serves as an outward show of sincerity, dignity, and humility. For instance, while on the one hand the patrician insult the Doge's private integrity as well as his public office by imposing only a token punishment on Steno, at the same time their verbal position is one of esteem and concern for Faliero: "The high tribunal of the Forty sends / Health and respect to the Doge Faliero" (I, ii, 45-46). This kind of disparity is seen again in the episode with the patrician Lioni and the plebian Bertram. Actuated by true friendship and concern for human life, Bertram tries to save Lioni from imminent assassination. Lioni, however, uses Bertram's sincerity to extort information concerning the conspiracy. Speaking in noble language that professes the encompassing value and importance of the state ("who are traitors save unto the State?" "Say, rather thy friend's saviour and the State's," IV, i, 299, 317) he persuades Bertram to compromise his personal integrity to save the patricians. The irony of this is underscored by the fact that Lioni's noble language consistently is contrasted by his fast regard not for the state but specifically for aristocracy. His interest in Bertram never extends beyond what "Beseem[s] one of thy station" (IV, i, 137); he is willing to assist Bertram only if Bertram "hast not / Spilt noble blood' (IV, i, 144-45). Once the conspiracy has been prevented, too, the patricians justify their brutal treatment of the prisoners in noble language. After being tortured on the rack, and before finally being executed, Israel Bertruccio and Philip Calendaro are told by the Chief of the Ten that they have committed treason "Against a just and free state, known to all / The earth as being the Christian bulwark 'gainst / The Saracen" (V, i, 10-12); further, they are told that they can save their souls only by confessing the injustice of their actions against the state: "...we would hear from your own lips complete / Avowal of your treason.../...the truth / Alone can profit you on earth or Heaven" (V, i, 29-32).
What critics mean -- and what Byron meant -- when they speak of the play's criticism of a corrupt aristocracy is that the ruling class value system does not serve the Venetian citizenry at large. The dominant values of the society, reflected in the language of the patricians, consist largely of an abstract honor that practically and materially benefits only a few people. Those who do not benefit (for example, Faliero and the plebians) eventually come to see themselves as slaves rather than citizens (I, ii, 106-08, and 461-62). The corruption, then, that generates the revolutionary conspiracy does not rest solely in the Steno decision nor in the physical abuse of Israel Bertruccio: it lies in the _system of values_ that not only produces such atrocities but also sanctifies them.
Byron develops his characters' sensitivity to unjust Venetian values in terms of their growing awareness of social class. It is common for critics to remark Faliero's "aristocratic contempt for the mob," his desire to "win real power," or his habitual adherence "to a princely code of honor." But Byron's treatment of Faliero involves more than this. It is intended to capture the sentiments and conflicting passions of an individual who suddenly finds himself standing outside the social sphere that he and his forbears have been bred into. Attention is not focused mainly on Faliero's drive for power nor on his princely conduct, but, as Andrew Rutherford puts it, on "the tensions in Marino's mind when he made common cause with the plebians against his own class." The play examines Faliero's awareness that his class position allows only a narrow social perspective, incapable of alleviating the pervasive social injustices plaguing Venice, and follows him in his effort to cultivate a fuller understanding of society's needs.
Byron's emphasis on class consciousness is seen again in his handling of the conspiring plebians, who -- like Faliero -- must wrestle with the problem of class relationships. The conspirators are keenly sensitive to their position in the social hierarchy. When Israel Bertruccio informs Calendaro that a new member will shortly join their ranks, Calendaro responds: "Is he one of our order?" (II, ii, 161). And later when Faliero is introduced to the conspirators, reaction to him is unanimous: "To arms! -- we are betrayed -- it is the Doge! / Down with them both! our traitorous captain, and / The tyrant he hath sold us to" (III, ii, 90-92). Their initial response is as expressive of class prejudice as Faliero's. They, too, are presented the challenge of admitting that integrity and moral passion can be found outside their own class....Moreover, only by developing a social rather than simply a class perspective can they hope to mount a revolutionary campaign that will do more than merely reverse or re-arrange existing class structures.
...They play [also] explores...the difficulty of rationalizing the physical violence that must accompany any effort to change the social structure....Even before Faliero meets with the conspirators he tells Israel Bertruccio that he cannot unfeelingly "take men's lives by stealth" (III, i, 108). And again, after the Doge has held commune with the plebians and agreed to lead them in the conspiracy, he asks: "And is it then decided! must they die? (III, ii, 449). Though he realizes that "'Tis mine to sound the knell, and strike the blow" (III, ii, 491), still he "quiver[s] to behold what I / Must be, and think what I have been' (III, ii, 498-99).
In two main ways Faliero justifies the violence that he knows must accompany the revolution. First, he convinces himself that he has no choice; he is, as it were, a creature of circumstance who must perform the deeds that Fate has destined for him: "...the task / Is forced upon me, I have sought it not" (III, i, 9-10). He resorts to this justification more than once, giving the impression, as Professor [Jerome J.] McGann puts it, that he "act[s] freely against [his] own will and feelings." In trying to explain his actions, Faliero remarks that "there is _Hell_ within me and around, / And like the Demon who believes and trembles / Must I abhor and do" (III, ii, 519-21). Another more practical and realistic way in which he comes to terms with violence is by refusing to see the patricians as individual human beings. He identifies them, rather, with the abstract mechanisms of the ruling order: "law," "policy," "duty," "state" (III, ii, 351-54). Instead of looking on them as former friends, he tries to see them as "Senators" who inveterately have viewed him as "the Doge" (III, ii, 377-78):
To me, then, these men have no _private_ life, Nor claim to ties they have cut off from others; As Senators for arbitrary acts Amenable, I look on them -- as such Let them be dealt upon. (III, ii, 382-86)
It is in this way that he must finally account for revolutionary violence. He must identify the individuals of the ruling class entirely with the corrupt political machine that is to be destroyed; only then can natural sympathy for human life be contained and prevented from interfering with the demands of revolution.
Byron does not treat the horrors of violence as uniquely a problem for leaders: all persons engaged in revolutionary activities must come to terms with violence. He illustrates this point in the character of Bertram, a plebian involved in the conspiracy. Bertram focuses the moral question that Faliero had raised: How does one rationalize the violence and deceit that is a necessary part of the drive to establish a right and just social order (III, ii, 64-69)? Unlike the Doge, however, he cannot separate the political machine from those who run it: "...even amongst these wicked men / There might be some, whose age and qualities / Might mark them out for pity" (III, ii, 24-26). Though he is as anxious for the revolution as Faliero or his fellow plebians, he ultimately destroys the possibility of revolution by his inability to resolve the moral question of violence; his decision not to betray his patrician friend Lioni transforms him into an unwilling informer: "Then perish Venice rather than my friend! / I will disclose -- ensnare -- betray -- destroy -- / Oh, what a villain I become for thee" (IV, i, 314-16).
If Marino Faliero gives the question of violence its noble, tragic dimension, Bertram gives it a universal significance. His concern with the morality of violence assures that we do not read the play as a narrow or incomplete picture of a moral dilemma unique to aristocracy. As with the other prominent social issues treated in the play, Byron implicates all classes of individuals, making them equally responsible for the way society is and for meeting the practical demands of social change....
[Endnotes omitted.] -- Yoshie
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