Inmaculada Polo

Teatro II

Alice. Is this the end of all thy solemn oaths?Is this the
fruit thy reconcilement buds?[9]Have I for this given thee
so many favours,Incurred my husband’s hate, and, out
alas!Made shipwreck of mine honour for thy sake? And
dost thou say ‘henceforward know me not’? Remember,
when I lock’d thee in my closet,What were thy words and
mine; did we not bothDecree to murder Arden in the
night? The heavens can witness, and the world can
tell,Before I saw that falsehood look of thine,’Fore I was
tangled with thy ’ticing speech,Arden to me was dearer
than my soul,—And shall be still: base peasant, get thee
gone,And boast not of thy conquest over me, Gotten by
witchcraft and mere sorcery!For what hast thou to
countenance my love,Being descended of a noble
house,And matched already with a gentleman Whose
servant thou may’st be!—and so farewell.
Inmaculada Polo
Teatro II

ANALYSIS
This monologue is about Alice, one of the main characters in the play Arden of
Faversham. Alice is the wife of a man named Thomas Arden, and despite being married
she has a lover, Mosby. Due to this illicit passion and her hatred and abhorrence towards
her husband, as it appears in the monologue, she plots with Mosby to have Arden
murdered. Alice main goal is to eliminate the men who may be an obstacle for her or
withstand their ambitious path to conquest and supremacy, in this case, is her husband.
Alice is a rather complex character since she is quite manipulative and does what she
wants with men. She uses the art of seduction and deception, not only with her husband
and her lover, but also with some characters from the rest of the play.
In this monologue we can see how Alice is hurt in her pride since Mosby wants to end
the relationship with her, to act as if they didn't know each other. This is probably
because Mosby is a more cowardly character than Alice could be, and her body is filled
with fear knowing that he is in love with a high-class person who is married. Besides the
fact he is terrified because he does not want anybody to know their plans to murder
Arden.
Alice Arden is the most ruthless and immoral character of the play since she manipulates
Mosby by reproaching all the things she has done for him, putting in risk her marriage,
even though she does not love him, and even putting in risk her own life because she is
not only planning to murder her husband, but is also having an affair. Alice recognizes
in this monologue that Mosby is not a very admirable character, she insults him and
reminds him what class he belongs to. In addition, she feels offended because she can't
stand that someone of lower class may split up with her, she assumes that her duty is to
continue with her husband, reminding Mosby that before she fell in love with him, she
was already in love with Arden and was very happy before she met Mosby.
According to the murder, she is the initiator and the central mastermind of the plot
aimed at the killing of Arden. Her ruthless determinism and her thirst for blood
determines all the deceitful loathsomeness of her actions. She hires professional
murderers, makes false promises, and allures anyone in order to succeed in her quest
for blood. Her yearning for her husband’s death is of such intensity that she even takes
an active part in his killing.