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Category Archives: Psychological detail
Paulina’s Guise (The Winter’s Tale, Act III Scene II)
(The following post contains spoilers to the end of The Winter’s Tale)
While Paulina’s account of Hermione’s death may seem shocking and quite feverish in its delivery, with the later ‘reanimation’ of the Queen in mind, it is possible to read her delivery as a kind of act to disguise the truth of Hermione’s death. Even before Paulina has left and returned to announce the Queen’s death, she hints at the potential fatality, she states, “This news is mortal to the Queen–look down / And see what death is doing.” This foreboding warning to Leontes cannot be mere happenstance. Perhaps Paulina and Hermione have decided to take advantage of her sons death in order to escape from the rampaging madness and rashness of the king. This would also allow Hermione to live a (relatively) free life, until the events of the play would allow for her return.
Paulina’s sudden hysterical reaction to Hermione’s death can easily be interpreted as an expression of grief for her departed mistress. Yet, Paulina’s previous behaviour in the play depicts her as an observant and persistent person. Even when she playfully calls Leontes a tyrant when she attempts to present his new born child to him, she remains witty and logical in her banter and advice/condemnation. To suddenly turn so explosive, so explicitly brutal in her tone and speech, is a auspicious turn of character for Paulina.
“What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? / What wheels, racks, fires? What flaying, boiling / In lead or oils?.”
Later when questioned about her explosive behaviour by one of the gentlemen at court, Paulina rationalizes her actions as “the rashness of a woman.” This posture of Paulina’s could further indicate her pretense of Hermione’s death. Paulina understands the benefits that this performance affords her. Socially, her role as a woman excuses her irrational behaviour, and by fulfilling that expected role of the over-emotional grief stricken woman, by conceding to these conventions (and hiding her normally rational behaviour–thus allowing Paulina to overcome this particular branch of madness, implying perhaps another win for the distaff sphere) Paulina can successfully hide the death of the Queen and convince the court of her sincerity.
Posted in Comedy, Life vs. Death, Love relationships, Power struggles, Psychological detail, Tragedy
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Incest and Sororicide
As a biologist I know that human children that are raised together are averse to having sex with each other because of a complex network of genes that have evolved in order to prevent these sorts of relationships from yielding offspring. The offspring of closely related family members typically inherit all the recessive or abnormal genetic traits. In the Anthology’s introduction to Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford (not assigned reading), the authors discuss the theme of incest. They tell us that dramatists stage incest because it is a matter that the audience pays serious attention to. Most times incest is associated with the villains. In the The Duchess of Malfi, incest was not discussed directly, but rather through Ferdinand’s obsession with his sister’s sex life. Ferdinand’s suppressed sexual desire of his sister morphed into a desire to see her dead. From incest to sororicide, the descent is quite rapid and as a member of the audience, I am riveted. I look forward to seeing how “Ford makes the incestuous lovers central and… rather ordinary” (p1905) in Tis Pity.
ASIDE: I also recommend A Song Of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin and the spin off Game of Throne on HBO for the dramatization of incest and sororicide on Middle Earth (which is strangely like Renaissance England).
“The Changeling”
I wondered what the title really meant for this play as I was reading through the scenes. I recognized that Antonio was listed as ‘the changeling’ in the cast list but from what I perceived, he was a minor character compared to Beatrice and De Flores. But it is clear by the end of the play that Antonio only serves as a faint parallel of the true changelings.
Beatrice’s working in cahoots with De Flores for their murder plots may not seem like an unusual situation for a Jacobean drama. What makes this unique is the fact that they have completely different image between themselves and the world. There are many examples where a switch in emotions is seen in Beatrice and De Flores, like their relationship; Beatrice went from despising him to seeking out his company and De Flores in changing his view of Beatrice from infatuation to controlling.
While these are obvious observations I noticed that their personalities never really changed. I felt Beatrice remained a spoiled and indifferent character throughout the play, from picking and choosing who her husband would be to killing people just for the sake of her well being. She blamed others on her misdirection, such as De Flores and Alsemero, rather than herself. Also, De Flores remained a trickster and a person in control throughout the play, even to the point of suicide. It is understandable that emotions will change day in and day out but I personally didn’t feel that these two characters genuinely embody the definition of a “changeling.”
Love Sick
“Are you not well, sir?,” Jasperino says as soon as he hears that Alsemero is unwilling to depart for Malta. Jasperino knows something is obscuring Alsemero’s judgment. Alsemero responds a bit sarcastically saying, “Yes, Jasperino, unless there be some hidden malady within me that I understand not.” They have a very “brotherly” relationship despite Jasperino being a friend of Alsemero who is a nobleman. They are close enough for Jasperino to recognize that Alsemero is acting a bit strange.
We hear this all the time in the present. When someone is “love sick” and they are mixing logic and emotions which is obscuring perception. When you desire something so much you’ll neglect other sensible thoughts and actions to obtain it. This is usually the wrong way to go.
“The seamen call. Shall we board your trunks?,” says a servant. “No, not today,” responds Alsemero. Jasperino reminds him that it is the astrologically crucial day to leave and they should leave for a safe journey to Malta. Alsemero, against better judgment, refuses again.
When Beatrice-Joanna enters Alsemero greets and kisses her. Jasperino has a short aside to the audience in which he basically says “I knew it!” and “this cannot be good!” Jasperino’s entire point at the start of the play is that Alsemero’s new interest in Beatrice-Joanna is against better judgment and that it could have been avoided. Since Alsemero does not listen to his friend he has already foreshadowed his demise. All of which could have been avoided if he wasn’t so love sick and just boarded the ship.
Posted in Psychological detail, The Changeling
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You can’t always get what you want
Or can you? What’s the price than that you have to pay? Is it worth it? These are the questions that came to my mind after reading The Changeling. De Flores was able to achieve what seemed to be impossible at the beginning of the play. He was disrespected and despised by the woman that he was so obsessed with. The likelihood of his ever getting Beatrice’s attention was equal to zero at the time when the plot started. From this perspective the play is De Flores’ success story where the unlikely hero realizes his dream.
De Flores knew right away that his time had come when Beatrice asked him to get rid of Alonzo, and he grabbed the opportunity. He was so obsessed with her that he didn’t think a moment about the evil deed of stabbing her suitor to death. He knew his goal and he did everything to realize it. He succeeded; he got what he wanted, but the cost was tremendous. He committed two homicides and also the young and innocent Beatrice whom he was madly in love with has changed beyond recognition. All of this happened for the opportunity of having one sexual act with her. De Flores was a smart guy; if he wasn’t so obsessed he must have realized that at the end they will not live “happily ever after.” Instead of this they both end up dead. De Flores was so blinded by his goal to pursue Beatrice that he did not realize that this end is inevitable.
You can’t always get what you want – it is better this way. In order to be successful the advice is to set a goal and work your way toward it. It is something that is worth to take into consideration, but first, one should realize that there are things that not worth to pursue, and that another saying,“the end justifies the means” is also not an absolute one.
The Changeling
Beatrice and De Flores’ relationship in The Changeling was very peculiar to me. Throughout the play she was disgusted by him, but when taking him up on his service she was then almost attached to his fate. The first introduction the audience has of their relationship is De Flores coming to talk to her but then she cuts him off showing her dominating status over him. It wasn’t until her passion for another man led her to the beginning of her end.
Beatrice was flirting with her demise when she flirted with De Flores to get him to kill Antonio. At this point she shows a break in the social boundaries by telling De Flores to stand up, rising him to her level. After committing the act, De Flores comes back to gain his reward. Accept, contrary to what Beatrice thinks, the reward he seeks is much greater then any monetary value. I saw this as him outsmarting Beatrice and making her in debt to him.
By neither of the characters specifying the reward for De Flores’ servitude, it places him in the perfect position. As soon as she asked him for his help she sealed her fate. De Flores was then able to gain the upper hand and this is truly the point where they become equal. Him physically then taking her virginity enforces that she just gave away her power. Her virginity was in fact the thing that made her most desirable, and without it she was then portrayed as less then.
At the end when De Flores stabs Beatrice is again another peculiar scene. She cries out in a mixture of pain and pleasure confusing to those that hear it. De Flores was not only to blame for her loss of status but now her loss of life. As they died by each other it almost seems poetic, but the fact that he stabbed her just shows how desperate he was to be so truly equal if not overpowering her.
The Changeling: Falling victim to your own plans
Before writing this blog I was troubled about whether to elaborate on the class discussion on innocence and women or start a new thought. However after rereading today’s discussed schemes I found a small sub-theme inside the bigger theme of innocence. This theme comes out when De Flores says that Beatrice has lost her own innocence and is the slave of the deed rather than the mastermind behind the deed. I realized that De Flores highlight the sub-theme of victimization. In this case I found it interesting because Beatrice becomes the victim of her own plan.
Although many may argue that others are the victim to Beatrice’s plans, she is rarely alone in making decisions. Along her side is De Flores who comes up with the idea to burn a part of the house. She tries to save herself to prove her virtue; however, one of her lies leads to another which eventually leads to her death. De Flores mentions that she must think about her reputation above all else,but while thinking about her reputation she becomes lost in the things she does to save herself. She murders and lies and cheats; yet when push comes to shove she cannot take the weight of her own plans. An example of this is when she says she commits murder and deceit because of Alsemero’s love for her.
All her lies leads to her own death. She all along probably felt that she can control and tell people what to do, for example how she made Diaphanta go into bed with Alsemero. However she could not control the actual truth.
Two Characters–Similar in Situation but Different in Decisions
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.
Posted in Power struggles, Psychological detail, The Changeling
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What price goes murder?
On the surface, The Changeling isn’t all that different from some of the other plays that we’ve read in that by the end, justice (in some fashion) has been meted out to those deserving of it. Bodies strew the stage, dramatic final words are spoken (“‘Tis time to die when ’tis a shame to live.”), and things seem somewhat right by the close of the final curtain (perhaps because the two principal villainous characters are dead). Yet this play is far from just another Renaissance tragedy.
When compared with some other of our readings, the play’s conclusion seems rather tame; the deaths are numbered, and De Flores and Beatrice depart seemingly on their own volition. Yet by the time Joanna breathes her final breaths, she has already lost something perhaps more valuable than her life, her reputation. And what’s more the loss of this intangible is not merely the result of a one time occurrence, but rather a repeated and consistent set of choices that she makes throughout the play’s five acts. In many ways, The Changeling signifies the vast difference in female characterization that we’ve encountered since the start of our readings this semester. From the start of the play, Joanna is neither the passive nor genteel character we might’ve expected out of a female character. Her degrading treatment of De Flores from the onset foreshadows in many respects the downward moral spiral that her character will undergo.
As a character whose status is of less than noble standing, Joanna is able to hold herself on her virginal purity and (dare I say) innocence. She sullies both of these beyond repair. So to return to the question that Alsemero originally posed to De Flores in the final scene, What price goes murder? The answer for Joanna is not merely her life, but her reputation, honor and purity, and by 5.3, she pays up.
Posted in Power struggles, Psychological detail, The Changeling
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Bosola: Good or Evil?
The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster is an unpredictable tragedy that holds some very pure characters as well as some very wretched characters. Antonio is characterized as a loyal and loving husband who cares deeply for his wife, the Duchess, and their children. The Duchess, who is the heroine of the play, is of equally good character. She defies the wills of her brothers, Ferdinand and the Cardinal, to marry Antonio and attempt to live happily with her husband and children in secrecy. She loves Antonio dearly, as we can see in act 3.2 when they playfully tease one another, and lives for her family as she begs to be killed when she believes that they have also been killed in act 4.1. However, the purity of these two characters is met with the rotten souls of Ferdinand and the Cardinal. Throughout the play these two men are guilty of conniving against others, holding their sister prisoner, and committing murder. There is one character that is initially perceived as a rotten character but may in fact have a soul in search of redemption. Bosola represents the struggle of good and evil in this play, and even though he commits vile acts, he shows flashes of repentance and regret for the deeds that he has committed, much like Dr. Faustus of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
This play opens with a conversation between the Cardinal and Bosola in which Bosola reveals that he has served a prison sentence in the galleys for a murder that he committed at the demand of the Cardinal. This initial meeting of Bosola gives the audience a mindset that labels Bosola as an immoral character. This immoral image is added to when Bosola assists in the strangling of the Duchess at the command of Ferdinand. Bosola also kills Antonio, but this was due to pure mistake and cannot be blamed on his will. Whenever anyone is rampantly murdering people, it is difficult to say that they may not necessarily be a completely rotten individual, but in this case it can be justified that Bosola may have a heart after all.
After strangling the Duchess and her children, Bosola speaks with Ferdinand about his payment. During this conversation Bosola questions why Ferdinand does not have pity for the children and criticizes the brother for having empty hearts, ending the statement with, “I am angry with myself, now that I wake” (4.2.328). It can be argued that Bosola only criticizes Ferdinand and the Cardinal because he never received his payment, but it seems that Bosola truly regrets what he has done and is determined to redeem himself. After the Cardinal tells Bosola to also kill Anotnio in order to gain his reward, Bosola agrees but after leaving reveals his true plans to protect Anotnio and help him avenge the death of the Duchess. Bosola eventually kills both Ferdinand and the Cardinal to attempt to right his wrongs, but also dies as well after Ferdinand stabs him.
Bosola was a conflicted character. He was influenced by others to carry out heinous deeds with promises of payment as motivation, but he shows that he does in fact feel sorrow for the things that he has done. This is why he felt that he had to protect Antonio and avenge the Duchess’ death. He also gave Antonio and the Duchess’ oldest son a life free of living in fear of his uncles.
Posted in Power struggles, Psychological detail, The Duchess of Malfi, Tragedy
Tagged conflicted, good and evil
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