Though the characters in The Changeling come from many different socioeconomic backgrounds, nearly all are fixated on money and its symbolism. For the middle-class Alibius, currency is the best measure of happiness and success. He seeks to squeeze every inch of profit from his madhouse, charging high rates and forcing his patients to perform at weddings and festivals; when his wife Isabella accuses him of turning his patients into a “staple commodity,” Alibius can only reply that “we must eat, wear clothes, and live.” Similarly, noblewoman Beatrice uses her ample funds to commit murder and adultery, boasting that there is almost nothing “gold cannot purchase.” Though Beatrice is quick to part with money and Alibius is comically thrifty, both feel that money is the essential ingredient to success.
But while The Changeling explores the functions and appeals of “gold,” it also suggests that this monetary power is limited. The villainous DeFlores is disgusted by the way Beatrice commodifies him; when she tries to give him gold for committing murder on her behalf, he is outraged that she thinks he would “destroy things for wages.” After all, DeFlores wants Beatrice’s sexual and romantic companionship—so her focus on economic transaction feels degrading and deluded. Other characters share a similar disdain for money. Alsemero chooses his love for Beatrice over the opportunity to go on a profitable trading excursion; the less-wealthy Jasperino insists on being honest with his employer, even though it could jeopardize his livelihood. Even the plot suggests that while money can be an effective tool, those who let it consume them don’t fare well in the end: Beatrice winds up dead, for instance, and Alibius winds up a laughingstock. Meanwhile, characters who don’t let material wealth consume them, like DeFlores, look back with no regret. The Changeling thus suggests that commodifying relationships robs them of their meaning and purpose—and that people’s real goal should be “to comfort one another,” with mutual care taking the place of transaction and exploitation.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Transaction and Commodification ThemeTracker
Transaction and Commodification Quotes in The Changeling
LOLLIO: Tony; mark my question: how many fools and knaves are here? A fool before a knave, a fool behind a knave, between every two fools a knave; how many fools, how many knaves?
ANTONIO: I never learnt so far, cousin […].
LOLLIO: I’ll make him understand it easily; cousin, stand there […]. Master, stand you next the fool […]. Here’s my place; mark now, Tony, there a fool before a knave.
ANTONIO: That’s I, cousin.
LOLLIO: Here’s a fool behind a knave, that’s I, and between us two fools there is a knave, that’s my master; ‘tis but we three, that’s all.
BEATRICE: Methinks I love now with the eyes of judgment
And see the way to merit, clearly see it.
A true deserver like a diamond sparkles,
In darkness you may see him, that’s in absence,
Which is the greatest darkness falls on love;
Ye he is best discern’d then
With intellectual eyesight.
LOLLIO: This is easy, sir, I’ll warrant you: you have about you fools and madmen that can dance very well; and ‘tis no wonder, your best dancers are not the wisest men; the reason is, with often jumping they jolt their brains down into their feet, that their wits lie more in their heels than their heads […]
ISABELLA: Y’have a fine trade on’t,
Madmen and fools are a staple commodity.
ALIBIUS: O wife, we must eat, wear clothes, and live;
Just at the lawyer’s haven we arrive,
By madmen and fools we both do thrive.
BEATRICE: Look you, sir, here’s three thousand golden florins:
I have not meanly thought upon thy merit.
DEFLORES: What, salary? Now you move me […]
Do you place me in the rank of verminous fellows,
To destroy things for wages? Offer gold?
The life blood of man! Is anything
Valued too precious for my recompense?
BEATRICE: I understand thee not.
DEFLORES: I could ha’ hir’d
A journeyman murder in this rate,
And mine own conscience might have slept at ease
And have had the work brought home.
BEATRICE [Aside]: I’m in a labyrinth;
What will content him? I would be rid of him.—
I’ll double the sum, sir.
DIAPHANTA: Are you serious still? Would you resign
Your first night’s pleasure, and give money too?
BEATRICE: As willingly as live. [Aside.] Alas, the gold
Is but a by-bet to wedge in the honor […]
Y’are too quick, I fear, to be a maid.
DIAPHANTA: How? Not a maid? Nay, then you urge me, madam;
Your honorable self is not a truer
With all your fears upon you—
BEATRICE [Aside.]: Bad enough then.
DIAPHANTA: Than I with all my lightsome joys about me.
ANTONIO: I’ll kick thee if again thou touch me,
Thou wild unshapen antic; I am no fool,
You bedlam!
ISABELLA: But you are, as sure as I am, mad.
Have I put on this habit of a frantic,
With love as full of fury, to beguile
The nimble eye of watchful jealousy,
And am I thus rewarded?
[Reveals herself.]
ANTONIO: Ha! Dearest beauty!
ISABELLA: No, I have no beauty now,
But what was in my garments.
You a quick-sighted lover? Come not near me!
Keep your caparisons, y’are aptly clad;
I came a feigner to return stark mad.
[VOICE] (within): Fire, fire, fire!
BEATRICE: 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.
[VOICE] (within): Fire, fire, fire!
ALSEMERO: Here’s beauty chang’d
To ugly whoredom; here, servant obedience
Changed to a master sin, imperious murder;
I, a suppos’d husband, chang’d embraces
With wantonness, but that was paid before;
Your change is come too, from an ignorant wrath
To a knowing friendship. Are there any more on’s?
ANTONIO: Yes, sir; I was chang’d too, from a little ass as I was to a great fool as I am […]
FRANCISCUS: I was chang’d from a little wit to be stark mad,
Always for the same purpose.
