Reason and Passion in Thomas Middleton's The Changeling

This paper discusses the effect of passion when deciding the important life matters and judging others through emotional desire instead of reason. First, it demonstrates a short background of Jacobean drama and tragedy as a prominent dramatic genre of that time. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyzes characters' behaviour that leads to their own destruction. The methods that are employed in this study are the crucial notions of French psychoanalyst-feminist Julia Kristeva and her study of human behavior. Through play's textual analysis, the study has reached certain findings regarding the presentations of complex characters in Middleton's play, especially the main female characters. Finally, this study's conclusions elaborate the Kristeva's notions concerning certain behaviour that women characters perform in the play that show the motives behind their actions, whether driven by reason or passion. It is worth mentioning that Kristeva's critical notions related to desire and passion are used as the main tools of analysis to clarify the actions of one of the main female characters in the play, Beatrice, which result from her passional personality. The way Beatrice makes use of her body to achieve certain desires or even used as a means of seduction is analyzed through Kristeva's scope of studying feminine body.