Stalking Members of Time

Although this play has many scenes that are influenced by being in the right place at the right time, the scene that most interested me was when De Flores witnesses the lovers' interlude in Act 2, Scene 2. The meeting is supposed to be private and secret, yet De Flores views the interlude without being caught. He overhears the conversation held between Beatrice and Alsemero. In this one instance of being in the right place at the right time, De Flores sets the action in motion that will later cause the tragedy of the play. As he states, "I have watched this meeting, and do wonder much/what shall become of t'other; I'm sure both/Cannot be served unless she transgress," he is devulging information about not only his agency in the play but also his inability to stop his obsession with his desire for her body (Act 2, Scene 2, lines 57-59). This part of the play insinuates that there is an overlap between what is chance and what is choice. For instance, De Flores chose to follow Beatrice because of his obessession for her. He chose to confront her after witnessing this scene. He even chose to murder for her. However, it was also chance, and possibly destiny/fate, working for him when he happened to watch the meeting between Beatrice and Alsemero (since it was supposed to be private). It was also fate that led him to be the one Beatrice chose to employ as assassin. This scene, this chance encounter he's witnessed, led him to believe that she would "fly from one point, from him she makes a husband,/she spreads and mounts then like arithmetic--/one, ten, a hundred, a thousand, then thousand," that she would go to bed with him (Act 2, scene 2, lines 61-63). She gives him hope that she will be willing to "mount" him as well.

Thus, we are left with the question: what is the chance and what is the choice of this play, of this scene? In all reality, this question does not have a direct answer, but rather a concordance between the two. For without his stalkish and obsessive behavior, De Flores might never have stumbled upon the lovers' interlude; yet, without the chance encounter, he might never have murdered for her or had the power to force her to bed with him. As such, I would venture to say that the relationship between the agency of the characters, especially De Flores, and the idea of being in the right place at the right time is one of interdependency. One cannot exist without the other. The play could not procede without both.