Dame Pliant Character Analysis

Kestrel’s sister. Just as Dame Pliant’s name suggests, she easily bends to her abusive brother’s will and demands. She is a young and wealthy widow, and her brother has decided that she must marry again—this time to a rich aristocrat. Dame Pliant accompanies Kestrel to see Subtle and have her fortune read, and Subtle kisses her and tells her she will soon be the wife of an aristocrat. Dame Pliant is also wooed by Face, who, like Subtle, kisses her and promises to make her “a lady.” When Surly arrives disguised as a Spanish count, Kestrel forces Dame Plaint to kiss him and says he will kick and “maul” her if she doesn’t agree to marry him. Surly admits to Dame Pliant that he is really a poor Englishman, and she agrees to marry him anyway, until Kestrel chases him off with his new quarreling skills. At the end of the play, Dame Pliant is married to Lovewit, who she is tricked into believing is a Spanish aristocrat. Like Kestrel, Dame Pliant represents gullibility within Jonson’s play. While Dame Pliant obviously has little choice but to obey her brother, she easily believes Subtle and Face’s con, and she likewise believes that Lovewit is Spanish at the end of the play just because he wears a Spanish cloak.