Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Changeling, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Appearance vs. Reality
Passion, Sanity, and Identity
Transaction and Commodification
Destiny vs. Agency
Summary
Analysis
A dumb show reveals Vermandero learning, confusedly, of Alonzo’s flight; Vermandero then points to Alsemero, signifying that he will be a suitable husband for Beatrice now that Alonzo is gone. All the gentlemen and servants applaud Vermandero’s choice. The dumb show then depicts Beatrice’s extravagant wedding to Alsemero. DeFlores is grinning at his victory, but his happiness fades when he sees the ghost of Alonzo.
In Jacobean theater, a dumb show was the equivalent of a kind of movie montage; here, the theatrical device is used to explain to audiences that Beatrice’s plan has worked, as Alonzo’s death has allowed her to marry Alsemero. The appearance of Alonzo’s ghost, another common Jacobean trope, is a way to make DeFlores’s guilt tangible.
Themes
Literary Devices
Now, the wedding has concluded, and Beatrice is in Alsemero’s chamber. Beatrice knows that Alsemero expects her to lose her virginity to him tonight—but she actually lost her virginity the night before, to DeFlores. As Beatrice tries to figure out what to do, she notices that Alsemero keeps a locked cabinet. Fortunately for Beatrice, he has left the key in the lock.
Alsemero and DeFlores’s shared obsession with Beatrice’s virginity once more cements the show’s idea that virginity itself is a commodity—Beatrice used her virginity to pay DeFlores off for his crime, but now she frets that she will no longer be of value to Alsemero.
Themes
When Beatrice opens the cabinet, she notices that the cabinet is filled with potions. The potions come with instructions, which make it clear that many of the potions are meant to test various things about women’s sexuality and anatomy. The final potion is the most stressful to Beatrice, as it claims to reveal whether or not a woman is a virgin (a “maid”). To use this potion, a man is supposed to give a woman water in a glass labeled “M”; if she is a maid, the woman will gape, sneeze, laugh, and then become sad for a moment.
The fact that Alsemero has these potions speaks to societal anxieties around sex and gender. But more than that, Alsemero’s cabinet testifies to his general distrust—Beatrice may appear lovely and innocent, and she may claim to be a virgin, but even smitten Alsemero has to acknowledge that Beatrice’s appearances might not line up with her interior reality.
Themes
As Beatrice frets about how to avoid this potion (she only has seven hours before bedtime!), Diaphanta appears. Not noticing Beatrice’s anxiety, Diaphanta fawns over Alsemero, comparing him to Alexander the Great in strength and power. Beatrice sees this admiration as immodest, while Diaphanta wonders why her mistress is not more excited to have sex with her husband for the first time.
Once again, things are not what they seem. Beatrice claims modesty and terror at the idea of sex, while Diaphanta is openly excited and desirous of this new experience. Yet while Beatrice is not a virgin, Diaphanta—despite her more brazen mannerisms—really is.
Themes
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Beatrice explains that she is afraid, claiming that man is still “unknown” to her, as he would be to any good bride. Beatrice then hints that she will give 1,000 ducats to any woman who will have sex with Alsemero before she does. Diaphanta is delighted by this idea, and she quickly volunteers to be such a woman.
Beatrice’s first instincts to solve her problem are disguise and payment. Not only has Beatrice not learned anything from her mistake with DeFlores, then, but she seems to instead be doubling down on transaction and deceit as the key to success.
Themes
Beatrice wonders if Diaphanta’s enthusiasm means that she is not really a maid, but Diaphanta promises that her excitement is just as much a proof of virginity as Beatrice’s fear is. To test both Diaphanta and Alsemero’s potion, Beatrice presents Diaphanta with the glass labeled ‘M.’ Sure enough, Diaphanta gapes, then sneezes, then laughs, then becomes sad. Beatrice is now convinced of Diaphanta’s virginity. For her part, Diaphanta is just excited to have sex with Alsemero and make money doing so.
Though there is some comedy in this ridiculous test of virginity, such trials were in fact common: doctors used to test pregnancy by how women responded to foul-smelling ribbons, while young girls suspected of witchcraft were frequently pricked with needlepoints as a test of their supposed evildoings.
Themes
Literary Devices
