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Terms
A theatrical aside is most often a monologue in which characters share their thoughts and feelings with the audience—without anyone else on stage hearing them. Sometimes, an aside can also be a short scene between two characters, in which they reveal inner truths to each other instead of to the show’s viewers. In The Changeling, characters like Beatrice, DeFlores, Lollio and Isabella all frequently communicate using asides, allowing audiences to see the gaps between their public presentations and their internal beliefs and motivations.
Aside Quotes in The Changeling
The The Changeling quotes below are all either spoken by Aside or refer to Aside. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 2, Scene 1
Quotes
ALONZO: I should depart
An enemy, a dangerous, deadly one
To any but thyself, that should but think
She knew the meaning of inconstancy,
Much less the use practice; yet w’are friends.
Pray let no more be urg’d; I can endure
Much, till I meet an injury to her,
Then I am not myself. Farewell, sweet brother.
How much we are bound to heaven to depart lovingly.
Exit.
TOMAZO: Why, here is love's tame madness; thus a man
Quickly steals into his vexation.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Act 3, Scene 4
Quotes
BEATRICE: Look you, sir, here’s three thousand golden florins:
I have not meanly thought upon thy merit.
DEFLORES: What, salary? Now you move me […]
Do you place me in the rank of verminous fellows,
To destroy things for wages? Offer gold?
The life blood of man! Is anything
Valued too precious for my recompense?
BEATRICE: I understand thee not.
DEFLORES: I could ha’ hir’d
A journeyman murder in this rate,
And mine own conscience might have slept at ease
And have had the work brought home.
BEATRICE [Aside]: I’m in a labyrinth;
What will content him? I would be rid of him.—
I’ll double the sum, sir.
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Act 4, Scene 2
Quotes
ALSEMERO [Aside.]: Push, modesty’s shrine is set in yonder forehead.
I cannot be too sure though.—My Joanna!
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Get the entire The Changeling LitChart as a printable PDF.
Aside Term Timeline in The Changeling
The timeline below shows where the term Aside appears in The Changeling. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1, Scene 1
...Alsemero’s mind is made up: all he wants now is to marry Beatrice. In an aside, Beatrice muses that Alsemero seems destined for her (“this was the man was meant for...
(full context)
...such a proclamation, and she chides him for his “unnecessary blabbing.” DeFlores laments in an aside that though Beatrice is always cruel to him, he remains intensely attracted to her. DeFlores...
(full context)
Act 1, Scene 2
Alibius, the owner and manager of the local mad house, pulls his assistant Lollio aside. Alibius trusts Lollio, and he confesses that he has an important task for Lollio to...
(full context)
Act 2, Scene 1
DeFlores enters, admitting in an aside that he is “sick”: even as Beatrice spurns him, he invents 20 reasons a day...
(full context)
In an aside, DeFlores resolves to continue to follow Beatrice: “as children cry themselves to sleep,” he consoles...
(full context)
Act 2, Scene 2
...exiled or made into a laughingstock for daring to undertake such a challenge. In an aside, Beatrice blames herself for her ill fortune: she should have been more strategic when men...
(full context)
...him the castle. DeFlores agrees to be Alonzo’s “servant” in this tour, remarking in an aside that Alonzo is now in DeFlores’s clutches, “thrust upon me beyond hopes.”
(full context)
Act 3, Scene 4
...to kiss Beatrice. She dodges him, shocked, but DeFlores will not be deterred; in an aside, Beatrice blames herself for the servant’s newfound boldness. DeFlores insists that the only way Beatrice...
(full context)
Act 4, Scene 2
...other? While Alsemero ponders these contradicting stories, Beatrice enters, lamenting her own situation. In an aside, she explains that Diaphanta is preparing to have sex with Alsemero; though Beatrice knows this...
(full context)
Alsemero takes an aside to Jasperino, explaining that this drink is meant to test a woman’s virginity. As Beatrice...
(full context)
