Throughout the play the characters often experience deep ambivalence and rapidly shifting fortunes. In the first scene Chimène speaks of her joy at the prospect of being united to Rodrigo, yet she has a premonition that things will go wrong: “in this great happiness I fear a great reverse” (5). The Infanta also feels a mixture of joy and sorrow, knowing that losing Rodrigo to Chimène will release her from her dilemma: “My sweetest hope is to lose hope” (7). Rodrigo, too, experiences the emotional highs and lows of military glory combined with the loss of Chimène. Chimène, for her part, reflects that seeing Rodrigo’s victories painfully reminds her of what she has lost (33).

Diego, in his monologue in Act III, Scene 5, reflects on the idea that “never do we experience perfect joy. Our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness” (29). Corneille’s calling his play a “tragicomedy” might be seen to epitomize the emotional complexity that the characters experience.

A sword appears several times as a symbol of the violence that afflicts the characters and, particularly, of the death of the Count at the hands of Rodrigo.