The subplot plays a significant role in dramas, particularly Elizabethan and Jacobean dramas. The subplot reinforces the theme/main idea of the play by presenting characters that are in situations parallel to those of the main characters, yet have contrasting personalities. For example, Isabella and Beatrice are both young women with prospective men in their lives. Three men are vying for Isabella’s attention and affection (Francisco, Antonia, and Lollio) and three men are also interested in Beatrice (Alonso, Alsemero, and De Flores). Isabella’s placed in a situation that limits her freedom and makes her an object of her husband’s authority, while Beatrice also initially lacks the freedom to choose whom she wants to marry.
These characters dramatically differ, however, in that Isabella remains virtuous and chaste, and does not succumb to the pursuits of the men attempting to win her over. In fact, she ironically beats them at their own game and wittily exposes their true intentions. Beatrice, on the other hand, takes a very different approach and loses her innocence in every way possible. The consequence of her actions is a serious one–death. Although she temporarily gets what she wants, the ends certainly do not justify the means.
Isabella and Beatrice are foils of each other, and the inclusion of Isabella in the plot of the play makes the audience see even more clearly how the selfish, immoral acts of a woman lead to a snowball effect of destruction.
This is a cogent description of the parallel situations in the play’s two plots. I think the subplot of The Changeling is probably the most carefully developed of all the plays we’ve read together this semester. It’s worth thinking about the ways the playwrights learned to sharpen dramatic presentation and character development in the course of the 35 years or so that we’ve traversed from The Spanish Tragedy (1587?) to The Changeling (1622).