The Changeling: Analysis of Setting
"The Changeling: Analysis of Setting" focuses on the various locations within the play, which are integral to understanding its themes and character dynamics. The play is set in Alicante, a Mediterranean port city in eastern Spain, where the narrative begins outdoors near a church. This setting introduces the nobleman Alsemero, who becomes entangled in the schemes of Beatrice-Joanna, reflecting the play's exploration of illicit love and betrayal.
As the action shifts indoors, the settings—primarily Vermandero's castle—underline women's domestic confinement and the darker aspects of human nature. The castle serves as a metaphor for Beatrice-Joanna herself, with its hidden depths symbolizing her moral decay. Another significant location is Dr. Alibius's house, which represents the chaotic and often mad nature of society, contrasting with the struggles of Alibius's wife, Isabella, who symbolizes virtue and resistance against temptation. The play concludes with references to "hell," adding a layer of moral consequence to the characters' actions, illustrated through the game of "barley-brake," which emphasizes the inescapable fate awaiting Beatrice-Joanna and De Flores. Overall, the settings in "The Changeling" create a rich backdrop that deepens the understanding of the characters' psychological and moral dilemmas.
The Changeling: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1653
First produced: 1622
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Tragedy
Time of work: Early seventeenth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
*Alicante
*Alicante. Mediterranean port city near Valencia in eastern Spain in which the play is set. The play opens outdoors, near a church by the port, with the Valencian nobleman Alsemero delaying his departure for Malta and getting drawn into Beatrice-Joanna’s adulterous and murderous plots. The rest of the play is wholly restricted to interiors, as if to suggest women’s domestic confinement.
*Valencia
*Valencia. Capital city of the eastern region of Spain from which Alsemero comes. Valencia is about one hundred miles north of Alicante—a distance great enough to make Alsemero a “stranger” to Beatrice-Joanna’s father, Vermandero, who hesitates to give him a tour of his castle.
Vermandero’s castle
Vermandero’s castle. Alicante headquarters of Governor Vermandero and the setting for all the scenes in the play following its opening. The castle citadel into which Beatrice-Joanna invites her lover Alsemero represents Beatrice-Joanna herself, with the underground vault in which De Flores murders her fiancé reflecting her sinful depths.
Dr. Alibius’s house
Dr. Alibius’s house. Home of Alibius, a jealous old doctor who keeps his lovely young wife, Isabella, confined at home with his mad patients. The madness and folly observed in Alibius’s institution form a grotesque reflection of the madness and folly of the outside world. The determination of Isabella to resist “lunatic” adulterous propositions counterpoints Beatrice-Joanna’s moral defeat at the castle. The nominally Spanish madhouse actually evokes England’s Bethlehem Hospital, an asylum in Bishopsgate, London—especially in a line referring to “the chimes of Bedlam [Bethlehem].” Thus, virtue triumphs in a more English setting.
Hell
Hell. Ultimate destination to which Beatrice-Joanna and De Flores are doomed, evoked twice by reference to a country game called “barley-brake,” in which couples hold hands and are forbidden to separate, while trying to catch others who run past them as their replacements in the central space called “hell.”
Bibliography
Bradbrook, M. C. Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan Tragedy. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980. Analysis of the drama of the period, including its staging and conventions of plot and character. Chapter on Middleton finds him untypical in his simplicity of language, but subtlety of implication.
Brittin, Norman A. Thomas Middleton. New York: Twayne, 1972. A good basic guide to Middleton’s drama. It claims that he is the most important writer of the Jacobean comedy of manners. Sensitive analysis of The Changeling and a useful summary of critical assessments.
Farr, Dorothy M. Thomas Middleton and the Drama of Realism. New York: Harper & Row, 1973. Traces Middleton’s development, initiated with the aid of Rowley in The Changeling, toward a new form of tragic drama, which, Farr claims, is close to the modern theater.
Jump, J. D. “Middleton’s Tragic Comedies.” In The Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vol 2. New York: Penguin Books, 1964. Focus is the two tragedies, Women Beware Women and The Changeling, with emphasis on the quality of the verse and the realism of the drama.
Mulryne, J. R. Writers and Their Work: Thomas Middleton. New York: Longman, 1979. Surveys the body of Middleton’s work, including The Changeling. Useful bibliography.