SOURCE: Jordan, Robert. “Myth and Psychology in The Changeling.” Renaissance Drama n.s. 3 (1970): 157-65.

In the following essay, Jordan concentrates on mythic and poetic images in The Changeling.

Commentators on Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling seem to be close to agreement on at least one point, the psychological subtlety of the play.¹ Critic after critic comments on this feature, and many of them concentrate their energies on a depth analysis of the characters. In the present article I would like to challenge this standard critical perspective by suggesting that in the very place where so many critics see complexity of character there can also be found operating something vastly different—a mythic and poetic pattern that may do more to build the play's haunting power than any amount of psychology.

Talk of the play's richness of character inevitably concentrates on two figures. Apart from Beatrice and De Flores...