Character Analysis
The Machiavel
Bel-Imperia and Hieronimo are the only really complex characters in the play. The rest are more or less blah, consistent types that play straightforward roles. And Lorenzo is straightforwardly evil. He is a classic Machiavellian character common to stage productions in the late 16th century.
The Machiavel character type is named after the Florentine political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli is the author of The Prince (1513), a groundbreaking book that justified cold-blooded schemes for maintaining state power. Machiavelli was all about getting the job done in an ends-justify-the-means kind of way. So, the word "Machiavel" became shorthand for ruthless stage villains.
If the Machiavelli stuff doesn't work for you, just check out the moustache twirling dude in this clip. And if you're interested in other Machiavels of the Renaissance stage, check out Barabas from Marlowe's The Jew of Malta and Iago from Shakespeare's Othello.
Motiveless Malignancy
So yeah, Lorenzo is pure bad.
And what's more, he seems to be bad just for the fun of it. Sure, you could make the argument that he just wants his sister to marry a big shot. If so, point to this passage:
Why, then, remembering that old disgrace
Which you for Don Andrea had endured,
And now were likely longer to sustain,
By being found so meanly accompanied,
Thought rather—for I knew no readier mean—
To thrust Horatio forth my father's way. (3.10.54-57)
Basically, he's saying he killed Horatio to spare his dad grief over his daughter slumming with a lowborn guy.
Really? The easiest way was to hatch a convoluted murder conspiracy that kills three people, critically endangers the reputation of his family, and puts his own life in peril? We'll let you make the call. But maybe he only says this to provide an excuse?
Whatever you decide, it's hard to say that Lorenzo is concerned about personal ambition. Because If Bel-Imperia marries Balthazar, we know their first male child will be king. If she doesn't marry Balthazar, Lorenzo would likely become king. So he's wreaking murderous havoc to limit his own power?
If Lorenzo has you scratching your head right now, then maybe that's the point. Sometimes the scariest evil is totally arbitrary. By obscuring Lorenzo's motives, his character is free to move the plot along without distracting you from the big point: how can justice deal with purely random acts of evil?
Hmmm, that sounds like a nice paper topic.