Conversation Piece - Monday, December 8, 2008
"Oh, come not near me, sir; I shall defile you.
I am that of your blood was taken from you
For your better health. Look no more upon't
But cast it to the ground regardlessly;
Let the common sewer take it from distinction.
Beneath the stars, upon yon meteor
Ever hung my fate, 'mongst things corruptible;
I ne'er could pluck it from him. My loathing
Was prophet to the rest, bu ne'er believed;
Mine honor fell with him, and now my life."
(The Changeling V.iii.158-67)
I am that of your blood was taken from you
For your better health. Look no more upon't
But cast it to the ground regardlessly;
Let the common sewer take it from distinction.
Beneath the stars, upon yon meteor
Ever hung my fate, 'mongst things corruptible;
I ne'er could pluck it from him. My loathing
Was prophet to the rest, bu ne'er believed;
Mine honor fell with him, and now my life."
(The Changeling V.iii.158-67)
Monday, December 8, 2008
Realization of the Stereotype
I agree more with Christina. I don't feel like the passage is so much a passing of the blame as it is an explanation or recounting of events unaware to Alsemero. While Beatrice seems to take an apologetic tone, it think she is more regretful that things couldn't be different. As she says many times over though, she is fated to be a corrupting source. I find it ironic that in all the plays we have read, women have often been the source of conflict whether through their own means or indirectly, and Beatrice is the only one that seems to recognize the plight of her own sex with the stereotype of women presented in Renaissance dramas. In the end, I see Beatrice's little monologue as a regretful explanation in which she demeans herself perhaps to make sense of what she has done to Alsemero.
