Young Elizabeth Concept Art
*SPOILER WARNING* Everything in this blog contains spoilers for Bioshock: Infinite. Do not read this blog until you have completed the game.
Constance Field is a young girl who was the voice behind two different voxaphones. The first was titled “Pen Pal”, addressed to Elizabeth and dated July 20th, 1902…
“This is for the Miracle Child. Hello! I’m sorry your mother, Lady Comstock, is dead. (I think she is altogether better than mine.) Since you live there, can you tell me why the tower has been closed? People say it’s poor weather, then the pox, then a haunting. If it is a secret, I promise not to tell a soul. — Your pen friend, Constance”
The second one was titled “For I Am Lonely, Too”, was addressed to Rosalind Lutece and dated August 1st, 1902…
“Madame Lutece– I have read all of your books on the sciences. Mama says, ‘it’s not a fit occupation for a lady,’ but I think she’s jealous of our cleverness. Is it true that only you are allowed to visit the girl in the tower? If the Lamb is lonely, too, I should like to meet her, as we would have much in common. –Warmest regards, Constance”
In addition to these two voxaphones, we see a picture of young Constance on a desk at the Bank of the Prophet, though outside of indicating that her father or mother worked at the bank, it doesn’t tell us much else.
Constance Field may very well be nothing a piece of scenery that is representative of the awe and reverence that Columbia’s citizens held for Elizabeth. But there may be more to Constance than just that. One theory that I have seen posted a few times [link] [link] is that Constance Field may have become Songbird. Let’s look at what evidence we have to support this theory…
From a voxaphone titled ‘A Child Needs a Protector’ from Jeremiah Fink on October 4th, 1895…
“These holes have shown me yet another wonder, though I’ve yet to see the application for it. They illuminate a merger of machine and man that is somehow the lesser, yet the greater, of both parties. The process seems to be irreversible. Perhaps, though, Comstock will have some need of this kind of thing to keep watch in that tower of his.”
And from a voxaphone titled ‘God’s Blueprint’ from Hattie Gerst on April 19th, 1908…
” Samuel always thought that the pew on Sunday went hand in hand with the desk on Monday. “Science is the slow revelation of God’s blueprint.” After two years in the Lamb’s tower on the Monument Island, he took ill with cancer of the stomach. I prayed to the Prophet, and the Prophet delivered unto us a miracle through his servant. Fink. I do not know if I will ever get used to a husband bound in a skeleton of metal, but…better a Handyman than a dead one.”
Through a tear, Jeremiah Fink discovered a technology that merges man and machine. Based on our visit to Rapture later in the game, it is a safe assumption that he was observing Big Daddies. Fink indicated in his voxaphone that this technology could be useful in creating a guardian for Comstock’s tower. The Songbird.
Hattie’s voxaphone tells us that the ability to apply this technology to merge man and machine was successful, at least to some degree, for her husband Samuel is now a Handyman.
We have to assume that the Songbird is a combination of man and machine because we are given nothing to suggest otherwise. The Songbird is not a straight robot like the Patriot Automatons that we see in the game. The Songbird has and expresses emotion when it is around Elizabeth which comes from the human part of its essence.
When we find the first voxaphone for Constance Field it is next to a stuffed animal version of The Songbird. It may be a bit of a leap, but perhaps the developers were hinting about the connection between the girl and the Songbird.
It is safe to assume that Elizabeth never received Constance’s voxaphone message considering how important sheltering from the outside world was to Comstock and the Luteces. So both Constance’s message to Elizabeth and the one to Rosalind would have been received and heard by Rosalind and probably Comstock.
So the theory is that, in order to provide both a companion and a guardian to Elizabeth, Fink’s technology was used to create the Songbird using the essence of Constance Field. This explains how Elizabeth was able to relate and see the Songbird as a friend and companion when she was younger. The part of the Songbird that was Constance truly cared for and loved Elizabeth. This is why the Songbird expresses childlike behavior when interacting with Elizabeth in the game.
With all that said, it is the timeline of these events that call this into question…
- Fink discovers this technology in 1895 and proposes the idea of creating the Songbird
- Constance Field is still fully human in 1902 when she records her voxaphones
- Elizabeth would have been about 9 years old in 1902
It isn’t unreasonable to believe that Fink spent 8 years developing the Songbird. Such a creation wouldn’t happen quickly. Still it is a very long time between idea and result. And when exactly does Elizabeth meet the Songbird? Was she already around 9 years old?
Elizabeth did not spend her entire life in the tower. As an infant up to an undetermined age she lived outside of the tower or at least outside of the captivity of the tower. It wasn’t until she demonstrated her ability to open tears that the tower as a prison, the siphon and ultimately Songbird were put into place.
So while the theory isn’t disproven by the timeline, it does make it more of a stretch to believe based on the large gaps of time. I still think it is a good theory, but I don’t we can say for sure at this point.
EDIT: After some discussion on reddit, another problem with this theory was pointed out. Look at this image…
Drawings of Songbird
Are those the drawings of a 9 year old? Possibly the drawings on the left are because of the amount of detail, but the others look like drawings of a younger child. If you reference the chart in the tower showing her growth in power we see a spike at 5 years old. This could have been the event that prompoted her imprisonment in the tower and the construction of the Songbird. If this is true then the Songbird existed while Constance Field was still alive.
Well what do you think? Do we have enough to prove or disprove this theory at this point?
Bioshock Infinite Mysteries 
just want to mention a possible link for you on deciding when the tower captivity would have begun, and how it fits your timeline. In the labs of the tower, when going to rescue Anna, the charts and chalkboards show that at the age of 13, she has her first period and has a huge surge in ability. Fits pretty nicely with your fan theory. that would have left 4 years for possibility.
I was trying to find a screenshot of the chart that details her power spikes. I did find this one…
http://www.slimgamer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2.bmp
It clearly shows she has been studied since shortly after she first entered Columbia though it doesn’t necessarily indicate being trapped in the tower.
The chart showing her power growth is a good one and shows when the tower closed its doors to the public and I’d imagine most employees. If the Songbird was created in response to this power spike at puberty then it would be it around 1906 which would be after Constance’s voxaphones.
But Elizabeth talks about Songbird as if she has been with him since childhood, before her teens…
Since Rosalind Lutece also has limited “tear” capability, the time frame may not be important, if SongBird was made later in one reality and then sent back in time thru a tear into the other. However, I have another explanation that might make this work easier.
It’s also possible Constance and Elizabeth met as younglings, became friends, then Constance’s health took a turn for the worse. This knowledge could have been kept from Elizabeth to spare her the pain. She could have been told Constance had to go away to a school or something, and over time she forgot about her.
In this variant possibility of the story, the beginnings of SongBird were more well-intentioned than we currently assume. Fink, Lutece, and Comstock would have put Constance’s frail dying body into a machine to keep her alive, and then built “improvements” of what eventually became SongBird around Constance, at first for her own mobility and delight, and then later the needs of the adults, rationalized as a way to protect both girls and the community from the darker sides of what each girl was becoming. Use of Constance/SongBird as a protector for Elizabeth may have evolved out of necessity. In this variant, Elizabeth knows who Constance is and who SongBird is but may have never put two and two together.
Oooh I’d love to see a story like that in a DLC. Great idea!
I’d like to thank for the efforts you’ve put in writing this
website. I’m looking to see otherweb site post from you in the future. please also excuse my bad english as it’s
not my first language.
Who is the woman who calls Elizabeth “Anna” in the beginning of the game, and Elizabeth is confused? She says something like “Anna, is that you?” Could that be Constance?
That lady was someone who was just making sure Booker and Elizabeth were who they all thought they were, so they didn’t accidently end up attacking the wrong people