ABSTRACT
The concluding chapter argues that, like in real service relationships, the master-servant relationships depicted in domestic tragedies cannot be reduced to a typical experience or a unified pattern. The plays depict servants whose experiences range from the loyal to the treacherous, from the ones who have close relationships with their employers to the ones who are treated by them as enemies and threats. The chapter also challenges readings of domestic tragedy as didactic in purpose, arguing that the plays, at least when considered from the point of view of their depiction of servants, cannot be seen as didactic in any straightforward manner. Finally, the chapter challenges readings of depictions of service on the early modern stage as characterised by the notion of servants as dangerous, treacherous, and rebellious. The chapter argues that domestic tragedy offers more nuanced depictions of household servants than has been acknowledged in the scholarly literature.
