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
Isabella, meanwhile, is still stuck in Alibius’s house, and she has had enough of all the suitors competing for her attention. “Does love turn fool, run mad, and all at once?” she asks Lollio. Isabella then informs Lollio that Franciscus has sent her a letter, confessing that his insanity is merely a ruse and professing himself her “true and faithful lover.”
As the show’s most consistent voice of reason, Isabella here articulates a major thematic idea: “love” (or sexual passion) can “turn fool” and “run mad,” meaning that passion can literally make people insane. Yet, as Franciscus’s letter demonstrates, those in love think they are speaking with unusual clarity, not with clouded judgment.
Themes
Lollio reads the letter for himself. Franciscus is demanding to see Isabella: “I remain, mad till I speak with you,” Franciscus claims, “from whom I expect my cure.” Isabella asks Lollio what she should do about all these pretend madmen and fools, and Lollio suggests that she should take advantage of them just as they have tried to take advantage of her. Isabella asks Lollio for the key to his closet, and then she exits, a plan quickly forming in her mind.
Alibius’s role as a doctor now takes on explicit parallels with Isabella’s role in Franciscus’s sexual imagination—in both cases, the couple is seen as putting a stop to “madness,” albeit in different ways. This formulation also echoes Jasperino’s earlier claim that the only way to stop the insanity of sexual desire is to consummate it.
Themes
Alibius arrives, expressing some anxiety that Vermandero expects the madmen and fools to perform again as part of one final wedding-related event. Lollio assures him that both the madmen and fools will be well-behaved, so as to avoid their doctors’ “pizzles” (whips made from bull genitalia).
Though Alibius and Lollio are often depicted as harmlessly comic characters, the threat of painful “pizzles” makes clear that there is violence behind their commodification of their patients—instead of healing, as they claim to, it seems that Alibius and Lollio actually cause a great deal of harm.
Themes
Alibius then shifts his attention to Isabella; he wonders how she is doing now that he has confined her to the house. Lollio argues that Isabella needs some more freedom, so Alibius decides that he will bring her to Vermandero’s castle to see the fools and madmen perform. Lollio teases Alibius about the size of his nose, and Alibius leaves, laughing at his colleague’s antics.
This passage illustrates how much Alibius treats Isabella as property—just as he reduces the madmen and fools to “staple commodities,” Alibius only allows Isabella freedom when it is a chance for him to parade her around in public.
Themes
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Now, Lollio summons Antonio, forcing him to dance and threatening him with the whip when he hesitates. Lollio and Antonio continue to trade jokes about honor and status, but this time, the quips are a little more barbed. Lollio leaves and Isabella enters, dressed like a madwoman and speaking nonsense about Icarus and Daedalus and the minotaur.
Lollio knows about Antonio’s trick now—so Lollio’s joking habit of blurring the line between caretaker and patient carries extra force for both men. Isabella’s allusions to myth (like Franciscus’s earlier mention of Oberon and Titania) once again center on transformation and disguise: the minotaur is a mutant creature created as the result of one queen’s intense sexual lust.
Themes
Upon spotting Antonio, Isabella praises his body with incoherent poetry. She tries to kiss him, and Antonio pushes her away, wishing a “pox” on her and threatening to kick her if she touches him again. Isabella then reveals her true self—and Antonio reverts to his former praises, calling her his “dearest beauty.” But Isabella won’t hear it: “I have no beauty now,” she declares, “nor never had, but what was in my garments.”
By revealing herself in this way to Antonio, Isabella makes the point that desire is circumstantial—appearance and class are shifting, unreliable things. Therefore, people like Antonio (or Beatrice or DeFlores), who value status and physical attraction above all, will always find themselves disappointed and surprised.
Themes
Isabella exits as Lollio re-enters. But Antonio now no longer cares about maintaining his ruse; he warns Lollio that if he does not keep his distance, “I shall change condition and become as you are.” Antonio threatens violence against Lollio, but Lollio warns him that if he strikes, “I shall not forbear the gentleman under the fool.” Lollio also reveals that he has known about Antonio’s real identity for a while.
Again, Lollio’s ability to surprise Antonio with the depth of his own knowledge recalls the overlapping asides from earlier scenes. In this play, there are so many transformations and deceptions that no character can ever really know who holds the truth. Antonio’s threat to “change condition” echoes the play’s title, while Lollio’s insistence that he will not “forbear the gentleman” underneath the fool establishes the true source of his authority—though Lollio has no more status or skill than Antonio, he does have the power to do more violence.
Themes
Now, Lollio sets to work on a new scheme. He promises Antonio that Isabella actually loves him but is conflicted because there is another gentleman in disguise in the house: Franciscus, who is pretending to be a madman. Lollio promises Antonio that if he can get rid of Franciscus after tonight’s dance at Vermandero’s, Isabella will be all his. Antonio, vowing to triumph over Franciscus, exits.
As Lollio’s challenge reveals, Franciscus and Antonio both view Isabella as a commodity (much as Alibius views his patients as commodities). Though this subplot is meant to provide comic relief, the conflict and threat of bodily harm between the various men in the madhouse now begins to mirror and amplify the tension in the castle.
Themes
Franciscus appears, still pretending to be a madman. But Lollio stops him in his tracks, reading the letter Franciscus sent to Isabella (in which he revealed his sanity and gentlemanly status) out loud. Knowing that he has been caught, Franciscus switches tactics, hoping to enlist Lollio in his courtship of Isabella. Lollio informs Franciscus that there is another man—Antonio—who has also faked his way into the madhouse in an attempt to sleep with Isabella. Franciscus vows to do away with this new rival, though Lollio convinces him to wait until after the dance.
Lollio’s ease at tricking these men perhaps suggests the stupidity that goes along with such intense desire; though Franciscus and Antonio may have initially seemed clever, Lollio now has no trouble convincing them to go along with this ill-advised scheme.
Themes
Alibius returns, ready to watch a rehearsal for tonight’s dance. He instructs Lollio to invite Isabella to watch. Lollio brings the madmen and fools in, and they all begin dancing. Alibius is pleased with what he sees: “well fit but once these strains,” he predicts, “we shall have coin and credit for our pains.”
As it becomes more and more clear that Lollio and Alibius use violent force to ensure that their patient will dance, Alibius’s celebration of “coin and credit” gets darker—after all, it is not Alibius but the people he treats who will have to suffer “pains” for his profit.
Themes
