Fouler Visage: A key turning point in The Changeling
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Fouler Visage: A key turning point in The Changeling
One of the key passages of The Changeling occurs in II.ii, when Alsemero and Beatrice confront their need to be rid of Alonzo. It is a compact passage, but a good deal occurs within it: Alsemero proposes to “off” Alonzo through a duel; Beatrice declares that this would serve no end but to deprive her of Alsemero forever (through death or imprisonment); and, finally, Beatrice declares that Alsemero is too fair to have the guilt of murder thrust upon him. The passage is curious, however, in that it also marks the point where Beatrice actively plots Alonzo’s death on her own and envisions using DeFlores as a vehicle for Alonzo’s murder. In doing so, she is implicitly aligns herself with DeFlores, for whom she has shown nothing but contempt. This brief essay will explore the odd implication that Beatrice recognizes herself as foul enough to bear the guilt of murder, and it will suggest how this recognition serves to realign the characters in the play and push forward the line of action by which Beatrice becomes involved sexually with her darkest nemesis.
The passage turns on the phrase “Blood-guiltiness becomes a fouler visage.” There are two ways in which this phase serves as a pivotal point. On one level, it is a decisive turning point for the action. The moment Beatrice speaks the words “a fouler visage,” DeFlores comes to mind. Of course, it is impossible to know whether she had him in mind from the start of the sentence; however, the way the language is structured, it is as if the words “fouler visage” prompt her to remember something. She says “And now [that I] I think on one—“ It is as if she had said, in more contemporary parlance, “Come to think of it…” At the start of this encounter, we are led to envisage Alsemero as the one who will kill Alonzo, in a duel. However, the moment Beatrice muses that blood guilt would not be becoming so fair and perfect a gentleman as Alsemero, we are tipped into a new scenario, where Beatrice and DeFlores will be the sources of Alonzo’s end.
On a second, subtler level, we might speculate that the phrase marks a turning point in terms of Beatrice’s sense of self. After remarking that Alsemero is too fair to be burdened with blood-guilt, her thoughts turn to DeFlores. However, there is something funny here, because, after all, she is the one plotting Alonzo’s death. Had Alsemero taken on Alonzo in a duel, there would have been something almost honorable in the challenge. However, Beatrice is interested in a darker route, where Alonzo will have no chance to fight. She is the author of that route, and in that sense, she—along with DeFlores—will inevitably be marked by “blood-guiltiness.” In saying that the guilt does not belong with someone fair and good, implicitly she seems to be saying that she is not a part of the fair and the good herself.
It is particularly curious that Beatrice is willing to align herself this way, because from the start of the play she has locked herself into a sense of binary opposition to DeFlores. He is so repugnant to her that she will not take back the glove that she dropped and he picked up. In I.i she remarks that DeFlores is “as a deadly poison,/Which to a thousand other tastes were wholesome;/Such to mine eyes is that same fellow there, / The same that report speaks of the basilisk.” To her he is a poisonous snake. Yet suddenly, she is aligning her position with his own, not only in terms of a single act, but in terms of essential character—being someone foul enough to bear blood guilt.
In this sense, then, the passage serves to reposition all the characters of the play. Beatrice may in some sense have scorned DeFlores not for his looks along, or even for that primarily, but rather for the sense that they have something dark in common. DeFlores is cunning throughout, positioning himself exactly as he needs to in order to achieve what he wants. Beatrice is no less cunning, and in that sense there is a kinship between them. The kinship may be even stronger, we could speculate, since both are in positions of subservience—DeFlores as a servant, Beatrice as a woman. Yet neither appears particularly constrained by that lack of power; rather they seem both to grasp intuitively how they can use their inferior positions to angle for the things they want. This odd bit of logic in her speech to Alsemero, then, seems to portend the moment where Beatrice will in fact be bound to DeFlores as his lover.
One of the key passages of The Changeling occurs in II.ii, when Alsemero and Beatrice confront their need to be rid of Alonzo. It is a compact passage, but a good deal occurs within it: Alsemero proposes to “off” Alonzo through a duel; Beatrice declares that this would serve no end but to deprive her of Alsemero forever (through death or imprisonment); and, finally, Beatrice declares that Alsemero is too fair to have the guilt of murder thrust upon him. The passage is curious, however, in that it also marks the point where Beatrice actively plots Alonzo’s death on her own and envisions using DeFlores as a vehicle for Alonzo’s murder. In doing so, she is implicitly aligns herself with DeFlores, for whom she has shown nothing but contempt. This brief essay will explore the odd implication that Beatrice recognizes herself as foul enough to bear the guilt of murder, and it will suggest how this recognition serves to realign the characters in the play and push forward the line of action by which Beatrice becomes involved sexually with her darkest nemesis.
The passage turns on the phrase “Blood-guiltiness becomes a fouler visage.” There are two ways in which this phase serves as a pivotal point. On one level, it is a decisive turning point for the action. The moment Beatrice speaks the words “a fouler visage,” DeFlores comes to mind. Of course, it is impossible to know whether she had him in mind from the start of the sentence; however, the way the language is structured, it is as if the words “fouler visage” prompt her to remember something. She says “And now [that I] I think on one—“ It is as if she had said, in more contemporary parlance, “Come to think of it…” At the start of this encounter, we are led to envisage Alsemero as the one who will kill Alonzo, in a duel. However, the moment Beatrice muses that blood guilt would not be becoming so fair and perfect a gentleman as Alsemero, we are tipped into a new scenario, where Beatrice and DeFlores will be the sources of Alonzo’s end.
On a second, subtler level, we might speculate that the phrase marks a turning point in terms of Beatrice’s sense of self. After remarking that Alsemero is too fair to be burdened with blood-guilt, her thoughts turn to DeFlores. However, there is something funny here, because, after all, she is the one plotting Alonzo’s death. Had Alsemero taken on Alonzo in a duel, there would have been something almost honorable in the challenge. However, Beatrice is interested in a darker route, where Alonzo will have no chance to fight. She is the author of that route, and in that sense, she—along with DeFlores—will inevitably be marked by “blood-guiltiness.” In saying that the guilt does not belong with someone fair and good, implicitly she seems to be saying that she is not a part of the fair and the good herself.
It is particularly curious that Beatrice is willing to align herself this way, because from the start of the play she has locked herself into a sense of binary opposition to DeFlores. He is so repugnant to her that she will not take back the glove that she dropped and he picked up. In I.i she remarks that DeFlores is “as a deadly poison,/Which to a thousand other tastes were wholesome;/Such to mine eyes is that same fellow there, / The same that report speaks of the basilisk.” To her he is a poisonous snake. Yet suddenly, she is aligning her position with his own, not only in terms of a single act, but in terms of essential character—being someone foul enough to bear blood guilt.
In this sense, then, the passage serves to reposition all the characters of the play. Beatrice may in some sense have scorned DeFlores not for his looks along, or even for that primarily, but rather for the sense that they have something dark in common. DeFlores is cunning throughout, positioning himself exactly as he needs to in order to achieve what he wants. Beatrice is no less cunning, and in that sense there is a kinship between them. The kinship may be even stronger, we could speculate, since both are in positions of subservience—DeFlores as a servant, Beatrice as a woman. Yet neither appears particularly constrained by that lack of power; rather they seem both to grasp intuitively how they can use their inferior positions to angle for the things they want. This odd bit of logic in her speech to Alsemero, then, seems to portend the moment where Beatrice will in fact be bound to DeFlores as his lover.