The Irony of Beatrice and De Flores' Agreement in The Changeling

When Beatrice first approaches De Flores with her proposition to kill Piracquo, she thinks she is quite clever in treating him so sweetly and quite generous in offering him such a large financial reward. Meanwhile, De Flores manages to interpret her every word, praise or not, as an unequivocal sex invitation. The irony of Beatrice and De Flores' agreement is that there is no agreement at all; the dramatic and verbal irony, as well as allusions, figurative language, and foreshadowing, all work in the passage to set up an intensely complicated disaster in which both parties think they are going to get exactly what they want, when in reality, they have reached no concurrence at all. Their banter, which appears congenial and industrious, is merely a mask for the influx of deception occurring inside both Beatrice and De Flores.

In the first lines of the passage, beginning with line 120, De Flores delivers what appears to be a loyal and admirable expression of respect to Beatrice. Beatrice takes this to mean that she can probably manipulate him to do whatever she wants him to. Obviously, Beatrice's plans to reimburse De Flores for his trouble include only monetary gifts, which she thinks he will love. It is ironic that, after she pegs De Flores as greedy and money-hungry, which are obviously not biblical traits, she uses the words "angel's food" to describe the financial reward she intends to give him. A man like De Flores, who has hardly performed any task that was not purely selfish, is the last character in the play who would seem to be interested in any spiritual compensation. According to the footnotes in the book, "angel's food" can mean food from heaven, but according to the OED, it can also mean a strong ale. Closely related terms (angel- cake and angel-dust) conotate a variety of edible sponge cakes with purgative powers, as well as hallucinogens and plants. It's ironic that Beatrice would assume that a man like De Flores would be interested in any of these things, so her choice of words is very interesting. Since she used the words in an aside, she couldn't have been saying them for De Flores' benefit, so either she thinks more of him than she lets on, or she personally views "angel food" as something other than a spiritual reference to the biblical "manna," as stated in the play's footnotes. A few lines later, after De Flores shows his eagerness to get his evil assignment, Beatrice interprets his eagerness as a dire need for money: "Possible his need is strong upon him." She tells him that his reward will be "precious," so naturally, De Flores assumes that he will be receiving what he has made clear is most precious to him- Beatrice's virginity.

Beatrice obviously has no idea what De Flores thinks she has promised him, as when he continues on about how much he has thought about his reward, she doesn't even flinch. De Flores says that the thought of his reward "ravishes," which is very much a sexual thing to say. The footnotes indicate that "ravishes" means both 'enraptures' and 'rapes' which is also in accordance with the OED. Further, the OED's definitions of the word include other meanings, such as "to seize and carry off," "to take by violence," "to commit rape upon a woman," "to transport with the strength of some feeling, to carry away with rapture," and "to make a prey of." None of these definitions sound like they particularly apply to De Flores' feelings toward Alonzo, so it is painfully obvious to the reader that De Flores is plainly telling Beatrice that he is looking forward to forcibly taking her virginity. The irony is that Beatrice seems completely oblivious to his very direct comments, and takes no issue with him for uttering them!

De Flores further insinuates his intentions when he tells Beatrice that he "[thirsts] for [Alonzo]." The footnotes state that even though he is presumably referring to Alonzo, he actually "thirsts" for Beatrice's love. Beatrice also misses this, but continues to praise De Flores as she has only recently begun to do. It certainly seems that Beatrice truly has no knowledge of De Flores' intentions, as she certainly would not be encouraging him with praise if she did. She tells him how wonderful he appears to her only after he has agreed to do her bidding, for what she believes is monetary compensation. It is almost laughable when she tells De Flores how well he will be rewarded, and he tells her he has definitely thought about that; it never occurs to her that this is purely sexual. He has many other ways of acquiring money, but Beatrice's virginity is the only thing he has plainly pined for throughout the entire play.

It is interesting that, when Beatrice implores De Flores to be careful about killing Alonzo, he responds with, "Why, are not both our lives upon the cast?" The word "cast," according to the OED, refers to performance, the delivery of a blow, a stroke of fortune, and near death or ruin. The use of this word definitely foreshadows the unfortunate outcome of the pact between Beatrice and De Flores. They both, indeed, perform an act: Beatrice pretends to like De Flores to get what she wants, and De Flores pretends to be loyal to his lord to lure him to death. They both deliver equal blows: Beatrice delivers the news that she never had any intention of sleeping with De Flores, and he informs her that certainly will be repaying him for his favor with sex. They both initially believe that they have struck a sort of fortune: Beatrice is ecstatic that she found someone to kill her fiancé for her, and that she can banish that someone (whom she happens to despise) upon completion of the act. De Flores is thrilled that he finally found a way to ensure that is was he who won Beatrice's virginity. In the end, they both come to ruin and death because of their actions. "Cast" is an extremely telling word when taken in all of its meanings.

Beatrice's strange statement, "Then I throw all my fears upon thy service," certainly sounds as if she is trusting De Flores, which she knows better than to do. However, she clearly means the phrase in relation only to the killing of Alonzo. When De Flores fires back, "They ne'er shall rise to hurt you," it is a bit of a surprise, because the reader already knows that his implication that he cares for her as well! Up until this point, there was no real evidence that he cared about anything but deflowering her, but this statement almost reassures us that he actually means her no harm, and even love. Beatrice's response that she'll help him get out of the country as soon as the deed is done shows us that she certainly doesn't return his love, and that she still sees the agreement as the best way to rid herself of both her fiancé and his servant. When De Flores dodges the comment by saying that they could discuss it later, Beatrice should have been alarmed by the fact that he obviously had no plans to leave her side. If the reader had been wondering up to this point whether Beatrice was simply playing innocent with De Flores and knew exactly what he was implying the whole time, then her closing remarks to the audience would certainly suggest that they believe otherwise. When she expresses her excitement at getting rid of "two inveterate loathings at one time," there is no mistaking Beatrice's hatred for De Flores. "Inveterate" means firmly established, of disease, full of hatred, malignant, and old-standing according to the OED, so it is obvious that she truly cannot stand the man and that she may even wish evil upon him. This also suggest that her initial opinion of him never changed, and that her complimentary nature of late was truly only for the purpose of convincing De Flores to do her bidding.

This entire passage is a terrific example of verbal irony, because there isn't a single thing, even though they both think they are. Their agreement is really not any sort of agreement at all, because neither of them has agreed to the unspoken terms of the other. Had each been more direct, their later predicament may have been prevented.