Wondrous Luck, Uncommonly Cruel Fate

One of the more interesting illustrations of chance and fate is found in Beatrice’s use of De Flores to dispatch of Alonzo. After hatching this plan, Beatrice exclaims, “Why, men of art make much of poison,/ Keep one to expel another; where was my art?” (II.ii.46-47). By referring to this apt proverb about one poison inoculating against another poison, (as explained in the gloss) Beatrice seems to bask in the convenience -or luck- of having a ready and eager dupe to do remove her irritating fiancé.

However, Beatrice’s luck is not as rosy as it first appears. After he kills Alonzo, De Flores comes to claim his payment, but he is not interested in the monetary reward Beatrice had in mind. Instead, De Flores uses this as an opportunity –or excuse- to fulfill his obsession with Beatrice by raping her at end of Act III. At the close of the act, Beatrice laments this dark turn of events, saying,

Vengeance begins,
Murder I see is followed by more sins.
Was my creation in the womb so cursed
It must engender with a viper first?
(III.iv.163-67)

With this pitiful outcry, Beatrice bemoans the foul turn in her fortune. This unforeseen turn from promising to horrifying follows her comments earlier in the play on judgment:

Our eyes are sentinels unto our judgements,
And should give certain judgement what they see;
But they are rash sometimes and tell us wonders
Of common things…
(I.i.73-76)

Just as she forewarned, Beatrice has fallen prey to a terrible error in judgment and is now suffering the sadistic side of fate.

Even though she believes that this fate is some sort of “vengeance” for orchestrating the murder of Alonzo, she does not fully acknowledge this as a consequence of her own decisions and actions. Rather, she calls herself “cursed” and casts these events in the light of predestination, believing not that she had control or a choice in the outcome, but instead that all these events were set in motion since she was born.