The Bedlam symbolises chaos and the plague. On page 40 at the beginning of Act 2 there are 3 graves but the Bedlam says that he can see many graves ‘all in a line.’ He goes on to say that he can see ‘ black buds on all the trees’ and ‘a forest of crosses’. Here he is foretelling the death of the villagers of Eyam. Crosses on graves were made of wood and ‘forest’ and ‘black buds’ are from ‘nature.’ He is saying that this is a plague from nature – from God. When Mompesson leaves the scene the Bedlam adds ‘No one listens to the mad boy.’ This shows that he knows what the villagers think of him and he is more aware than the villagers give him credit for.
One of the most significant speeches that the Bedlam makes is in Act 2 on page 56. Here he talks about building a snowman for Christmas with the stature of Marshall Howe but with other features such as Unwins’ clay pipe. The snowman represents the strong people of Eyam so we can see that even the strongest will melt or be destroyed in the heat of the plague. He says that the snowman will be all right in winter whilst it is cold but in spring and summer, when the heat rises, it will go black and it will get dirty spots on its face. This mirrors and symbolises the symptoms of the plague as victims of the plague get black boils on their face and other places on their bodies. The Bedlam goes on to say ‘and when the sun comes out, I’ll watch him melt away into a little pool of dirty water.’ Here he refers to the infected person dying of the disease. It is interesting that the Bedlam does not consider the possibility that he will die in the plague. This may be because he sees himself as part of the plague itself that will endure longer than the villagers. It may also be because he feels he is part of nature and therefore he will survive along with the rest of nature that surrounds him.
The Bedlam isn’t troubled by all the death and disease around him and he refers to the coffins holding dead victims of the plague as ‘Boxes’ and he thinks it is amusing that the people put the victims inside them.
Later on in the play the Bedlam forms a relationship with Marshall Howe. These two inhabitants of Eyam do all the dirty work, carrying people to their graves and burying them. Sometimes their conversations consist of total irrelevancies and, in the Bedlam’s case, what appears to be nonsense. Neither really listens nor understands what the other is saying. However, gradually Marshall Howe seems to feel pity for the Bedlam and sees him in a different perspective to all the other villagers of Eyam. I think this is because he is beginning to understand how the Bedlam thinks, perhaps because of the trauma that he is suffering from his wife having contracted the plague.
On page 107 the Bedlam says ‘The fields are winning’ and that there is a lawn growing on the high street. By this he means that the plague is winning and filling the fields with bodies, taking many lives from the villagers of Eyam.
The friendship between the Bedlam and Marshall Howe develops and and on page 108 they seem to be almost on similar wavelengths. On page 117 the Bedlam says that he thinks that everyone will die, bar him. He talks of seeing the Black Death, or plague, in a physical form and he refers to it as ‘him’. Although Marshall Howe dismisses this apparition as only being a bird in a tree, the passage is significant in the play as it shows that the Bedlam can see what is happening. Whilst the Bedlam believes that he can foretell the future, he doesn’t see this as any special talent.
After the plague has ended the Bedlam and Marshall Howe talk on the last page (page 137) about the Bedlam not being worth burying and his bones being deformed but the two still appear to maintain their relationship. The hardship has established a firm bond between them. This last scene is significant because it ends with him and he symbolises the plague and the plague is over. However there is the thought that the plague could return.
Howe: ‘The digging’s finished now’.
Bedlam: ‘What shall we do, then?’
Howe: ‘Live again. Begin to admire it , as we did before. With eyes that know its value, because they have seen death’s land’.
In this play the Bedlam symbolises the plague but at the same time the plague symbolises all that is wrong with mankind. The Bedlam’s survival shows that life and nature will continue but that there will always be wrong in the world as well as sickness and death. The Bedlam says it will always be that way and that he will last forever too.
‘My dancing goes on forever, and never gets tired’ (page 14).
