A woman’s modesty can be questioned when she falls in love with a man while engaged to a different one. In a period where divorce was non-existent, this notion of separation from your fiance was not acceptable. In order to keep her honor and reputation in good terms she decides to pay De Flores, her father’s servant, to kill her fiance to have the opportunity to be with the man she currently loves. Of course De Flores, as his name suggests, doesn’t want to be repaid in money but with Beatrice’s “honor” or virginity. In Act 3.4 De Flores questions Beatrice’s defense of denying him her virginity.
Towards the end of this scene where De Flores makes clear his recompense for his “service,” he argues that a woman that is willing to kill cannot use the excuse of wanting to keep her modesty as a reason to not want to repay him. He states in line 27, ” A woman dipped in blood, and talk of modesty?” He also negates her excuse of wanting to keep her reputation in a good standing because “though thou writ’st maid, thou whore in thy affection!” The reason he considers her a whore is because she “changed from thy first love, and that’s a kind of whoredom in thy heart, and he’s changed now, to bring thy second on.” In other words, her love and devotion was first with one man, then she loves another, her affection is unreliable and lacks any sense of modesty.
As De Flores criticizes Beatrice for her immodest behavior the reader is left to question whether De Flores has any right to question it. This is mainly due to the fact that it is also immodest for a man to murder another simply for a reward, then blackmail the person paying for set service. What he was really looking after, as discussed in class, was a way to achieving an equal if not higher hierarchy than his “master.” Even though both of these characters show signs of immodesty as the saying goes, “it takes one to know one” and De Flores, displaying all these characteristics of a immodest man definitely can pin point and criticize Beatrice’s modesty because he is also an immodest character, even though Beatrice is the worst out of the two.
I would also like to point out a similarity between Dr. Faustus and his book of spells and the physicians journal that is seen later in act 4.1. In both of these plays, the book is used with intentions of being something that your not. In other words, Dr. Faustus was not satisfied with his knowledge and standing in his university he wanted to learn and know more so he used a book of magic in order to summon a demon to make this come true. Although there was no demon summoned in “The Changeling” and the book didn’t contain magic incantations, its effect was similar. The contents of the book was used in order for Beatrice to assure her chastity to her new potential husband. He does fall for it and continues with he wedding until the truth is discovered by the end of the play and he ends up calling everything off.
This comment is a good supplement to your original post, Glenda; our view of Alsemero changes when we see that he travels with a magical medical kit. His suspicious nature reminds us of Jasperino’s wonder when he sees that his master has finally fallen in love. I think you need to clarify for yourself who gets married when; the Dumb Show that precedes Act 4 enacts the wedding, so that Beatrice passes almost immediately from being engaged to Alonzo de Piracquo to being married to Alsemero. It’s too late to call the wedding off at the end of the play.