Beatrice Joanne - The Changeling - Book Report/Review Example

Beatrice Joanne- THE CHANGELING "Just as it sometimes happens that deformed offspring are produced by deformed parents, and sometimes not, so the offspring produced by a female are sometimes female, sometimes not, but male, because the female is as it were a deformed male." -Peck 175 Aristotle's words, as quoted from Generation of Animals, bring to mind, a comparable proximity to the definition of the word 'changeling'. As is largely understood, a changeling is a person who; by a twist of fate, or nature, or personality flaw; becomes the subject of either pity or disgust. The Changeling, as a tragedy, is best defined by the downfall of its main character Beatrice Joanne, who, in a desperate attempt to deceive everyone around her through mindless plotting and planning, ends up proving herself to be the renegade in the entire plot. Typically, a tragic hero, according to the Aristotelian definition, must be of noble birth and nobler intent, flawed only by the hubris that carries him to his doom. The tragic hero must carry within himself all virtues but one which is enough to invoke a feeling of either pity or disgust towards the end. Moreover, the fall/death of the tragic hero is also punctuated by self-realisation and awareness of the flaw, which may or may not be followed by remorse; the presence or absence of which, incurs in the reader/audience, a corresponding sense of pity or disgust. If one were to consider this generic definition of the tragic hero, Beatrice Joanna fails the eligibility criteria by a total miss. Yes, indeed, she is born of noble lineage; the daughter of a wealthy government official Vermandero, but fails to register in the minds of the reader, any act of noble intent. Beatrice, from the very first act, comes across as a deceitful, arrogant and vain woman, with less than little kindness for the less fortunate. As the plot thickens, so does her tendency to cheat and strive to achieve what she desire, without weighing it with rationale or consideration of the consequences that would affect her as well as those related to her. Like an ill-raised brat, she weaves a web of intrigue and is pulled into it herself for lack of intelligence or integrity of character. In Act 1, Scene 1 she does give a fleeting glimpse of a sense of self-awareness and the impending turn of events due to the turn in her emotions. "For this time, sir. [Aside] I shall change my saint, I fear me: I find A giddy turning in me.-" That sense, however, is as transient as her love for Alonzo as she gradually moves from one conspiracy to another without any call from her conscience. As her end nears, the realisation of her circumstances, coloured by fatality, grows upon her but not the knowledge of her hubris or demented intellect. Here again, she fails to acquire the status of a tragic heroine by the sheer lack of self-knowledge, humility or remorse. In fact, even when Alsemero confronts her over her illicit relationship with DeFlores, she claims to be a lady of 'spotless virtue' (Act 5, scene 3). Therefore, it may be safely surmised that Beatrice Joanna does not fit into the classic classification of a tragic heroine. Interestingly, the other major characters namely Alsemero, De Flores and Diaphanta fall within the entrapments of a typical tragic hero as they were indeed noble of intent with merely one error of judgment or a character-quirk leading to their downfall and tragic death. In the case of Alsemero, it was his unbridled emotion and for DeFlores, it was his insatiable lust for Beatrice, tinged with vengeful malice. Diaphanta, too, on a similar platform, sans the malice, falls to her death as she falls in lust. THE JACOBEAN SOCIETY However, a character in a tragedy from the Jacobean times goes beyond the measure of merely individualistic personality flaws. The authors of The Changeling, Middleton and Rowley, hailed from the times when the throne had passed on from Queen Elizabeth 1 to King James 1. Society, and consequently Drama, saw a sea of change from the Elizabethan sensitivities of great moral order to that of lack of moral retribution and redemption. This however, did not contribute much to bringing about much of a change in the set patriarchal system. Patriarchy- the most commonly understood outcome of which, is the subordination of women-may manifest itself in the physical, intellectual, emotional and sexual subservience of women to men. However, in Beatrice's case, even though the reader, at the behest of history, is likely to believe that the societal pressures on her (metaphorically depicted by her father, Vermandero) to get married to Alonzo were tremendous, but it is evidently not true. Her mercurial decision to get married first to Alonzo, then to Alsemero and finally proclaiming love for Deflores ( who she loathed initially), only depict her sense of frivolity in relationships as also her malicious abuse of a sense of freedom to choose. Even though, she attributed her vices to the fact that she needed to keep her secrets well guarded from her father and her husband and thus maintain a dignified social image as the prevalent ethics in those times demanded of her. However, a lady of her position and worth defied the liberty available to her by her own doing or undoing. Throughout the play Beatrice, in connivance with her partner-in-crime, exhibits a dispassionate lack of reason, commitment and concern for anyone but herself. At no crucial moment of heightened drama, does she fall prey to the pressures of a patriarchal setup. On the contrary, she uses the system and the sexual overdrive to meet her own selfish ends. That she becomes a participating witness to these crimes perpetrated by sexual obsessions, is yet another story. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS The play opens with a hint of romance in the air with Alsemero proclaiming to Jasperino his love for Beatrice. Her initial impact on the audience with the lines- "Be better advis'd, sir: Our eyes are sentinels unto our judgments,''They can then check the eyes, and call them blind.(Act 1, scene 1) - is that of an intellectually evolved person but as soon as the impression is made, it is diffused by her immediate cognizance of her love for Alsemero and dismissal of Alonzo from her heart: "Oh, there's one above me, sir. [Aside] For five days past To be recall'd! Sure, mine eyes were mistaken; This was the man was meant me. That he should come So near his time, and miss it!" (Act 1, Scene 1) Beatrice maintains a consistently hypocritical stance through out the play where on one ground she laments to her father over his eagerness of her marriage to Alonzo (Act 1, Scene 1), "Nay, good sir, be not so violent; with speed I cannot render satisfaction Unto the dear companion of my soul, Virginity, whom I thus long have liv'd with, And part with it so rude and suddenly'" This, in comparison to her (even though protested but subsequent) loss of virginity to DeFlores by the end of Act 3, in the most undignified manner leads the reader to believe in her hypocrisy and opportunistic stance. Besides, her outrageous claim to being honourable and dignified only glorifies her own ignorance of the pettiness of her act ( Act 3, scene 4). "Why, 'tis impossible thou canst be so wicked, Or shelter such a cunning cruelty, To make his death the murderer of my honour! Thy language is so bold and vicious, I cannot see which way I can forgive it With any modesty." The Aristotelian method of literary criticism of plot and characters may well have been the norm for centuries. However in agreement with the new age critic-the neo-Aristotelian, as opposed to the new Critics-and as defined by Ronald S. Crane; we may choose to define the character of Beatrice in a more pluralistic manner, "in order to use Aristotle's principles comprehensively and systematically enough to be developed beyond what Aristotle had himself set down"(Guerin 305). In order to gel with this theory, it becomes pertinent to dissect the character of Beatrice in relation to her conscious and unconscious flaws. The fact that she was vain, selfish and intellectually short-wired is evident in the following Scene 5, Act 1 "One struck, and yet she lies by't. Oh, my fears, This strumpet serves her own ends, 'tis apparent now, Devours the pleasure with a greedy appetite, And never minds my honour or my peace, Makes havoc of my right; but she pays dearly for't: No trusting of her life with such a secret, That cannot rule her blood to keep her promise. Beside, I have some suspicion of her faith to me, Because I was suspected of my lord, And it must come from her. Hark, by my horrors, Another clock strike[s] two." At the same time, if one would consider her ignorance of her vanity and selfish conduct, she becomes the deserving recipient of the benefit-of-doubt as at no point does she portray a sense of evil taking over the call of the conscience and in her case, all her acts were a result of an unmeasured impulse, rendering them a certain innocence of a twisted degree. This quirkiness becomes apparent in the same scene as she mouths praises for DeFlores: "Already! How rare is that man's speed! How heartily he serves me! His face loathes one, But look upon his care, who would not love him' The east is not more beauteous than his service." Ironically, as she descends upon felony after felony, the magnitude of her faults does not dawn upon her and in scene 5, it becomes known that DeFlores was actually controlling the reins of the entire plot with Beatrice in the foreground. The reader may read between his lines and grave plans in Scene 1, Act 1 as he says "Here's a favour come with a mischief'.I know she hates me, 'I'll haunt her still; Though I get nothing else, I'll have my will". This followed by Beatrice's instinctive fear of his evil intent "I never see this fellow but I think Of some harm towards me: danger's in my mind still; I scarce leave trembling of an hour after." His lack of dignified thought for the woman he claims to love comes across in Act 2, scene 2 "I'm sure both Cannot be serv'd unless she transgress'.. She spreads and mounts then like arithmetic, One, ten, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, Proves in time sutler to an army royal." Towards the end of the play, however, he manages to convince the audience about the craft and cunning of the woman in question, and cleverly absolves himself of the guilt of being the arbitrator of evil thought (Scene 5, act 1) "Rewarded' Precious, here's a trick beyond me; I see in all bouts both of sport and wit Always a woman strives for the last hit." SUMMARY From a psychoanalytical viewpoint, it remains a debatable question whether Beatrice Joanne did fit into the picket fence drawn by Aristotle. According to Geoffrey Hartman, "psychoanalysis involves a transference and counter-transference " of words, and that it " puts the interpreter, not only the text or person interpreted, at risk". The interpretation of a character's bent of mind that play upon his/her acts remains a subjective issue right from the author to the last reader of the text. In Beatrice's case, whereas the classic theory may indicate that she remains unfit to be called the Aristotelian tragic heroine; another perspective ekes out a sympathy; not so much for her as for her ignorance, as she plays pawn to the clever devices of a loathful man. In this respect, the patriarchal setup could be held responsible for her eventual downfall, wherein all the strings are drawn by one man, and the fate of the women in close proximity to him remains, without their knowledge, at his mercy. SOURCES Aristotle. Generation of Animals, translated by Arthur Leslie Peck (1943) Barker, Roberta, and David Nicol. "Does Beatrice Joanna Have a Subtext': The Changeling on the London Stage". Early Modern Literary Studies 10.1 (May, 2004) Butcher, S.H. , Gunter Ralfs and Henery Thomas. Aristotle's Theory of poetry and Fine Art. Ludhiana : Kalyani Publishers, 2002 Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanee C. Reesman and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of critical approaches to Literature-4th edition. New York : Oxford University Press, 2004 Lodge, David . Modern Criticism and Theory-2nd edition. Singapore: Pearson Education, 2004. Middleton, Thomas and William Rowley. The Changeling - Revels Student Editions . N.W Bawcutt : Manchester University Press, 1998. http://purl.oclc.org/emls/10-1/barknico.htm>. http://www.answers.com/topic/the-changeling-play-1 http://www.tech.org/'cleary/change.html Read More

 

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