Volpone” is a dark comedy that explores themes of greed, deception, and the corrupting
influence of wealth. Through its witty dialogue, intricate plot, and memorable
characters, Jonson satirises the vices and follies of human nature, particularly the
insatiable desire for money and power.
Volpone or The Fox is a very famous play written by Ben Jonson. This play is a comedy
and is often called Ben Jonson’s darkest comedy. The emerging capitalism in the
Jacobian England of James I could be seen as the playwright’s immediate focus, directing
merciless moral scrutiny on the values and customs of contemporary English society.
Jonson’s choice of the Venetian setting is also not without significance since
Renaissance Italy was the centre of trade in Europe with all the attendant problems of
an acquisitive society with moral degradation. After you finish reading this unit, you will
note that the subject of Volpone is money or greed for money, and the corruption it
breeds in man. The unit thus seeks to analyse this great play in terms of its theme,
dramatic structure, characterisation and style.
Jonson as a dramatist of comedy of humours always exposes the bitter reality of the
human follies at the end. He always leaves his play by giving justice. When Volpone
played a final prank with the three legacy hunters and to make a mockery of them,
Corbaccio could not believe it and they were asked to be present at the court. In the
court, Volpone was tricked by Mosca himself and realising that the property belonged to
Mosca, Volpone reveals his disguise self and tells everyone the bitter truth and reality.
Volpone was send to prison and Mosca to slave galley whereas Corvino was shamed
publicly for making his wife turn a prostitute.
Volpone is a classic example and attitude to comedy of humour. In the play, Volpone’s
humour or dominant fluid is blood making him sanguine and optimistic. He thinks that
the three legacy hunters will give him free gifts and other stuff if he continues to fake
his sickness till they inherit his property. Mosca on the other hand also shows the
dominant blood fluid who is optimistic and believes that he will be the one to inherit the
property of Volpone. As the comedy of humour is concerned, when the dominant bodily
fluid in a person or the character becomes imbalanced, it gives the person or individual
their characterization. In the play, Volpone’s continuous faking sickness to the people
institutes his character as a greedy character which also institutes Mosca’s greedy
character.
PLOT / CRITICAL ANALYSIS
“Volpone” has a main plot and a subplot, which was very typical for plays of
that time. The main plot reveals the characters obsessed with greed, and the
, subplot “attacks” another vice – that of vanity. It bears the typical
characteristics of Jonson’s drama. The action takes place over the course of one
day (in seventeenth century Venice). Jonson was an Italophile, though back
then, Venice was considered to be the centre of sin and corruption. Characters are
historically bound to their place and time and each one of them represents a
human trait or eccentricity.
Volpone, whose name means fox, is a rich man who makes “good” use of his
leisure time. He is not married and childless which makes him a perfect target
for legacy hunters. He pretends to be sick and on the verge of dying, so as to
delude people and make them wish for becoming his heirs. Volpone is the
epitome of greed and hedonism – he enjoys pleasure in all of its manifestations
and indulges in the way he deceives three gullible men, all of them bearing the
names of predatory birds – Voltore (from Italian – meaning vulture), Corbaccio
(raven) and Corvino (crow). Thus greed is presented as “a characteristic of the
society as a whole”. But the difference between Volpone and his would-be heirs
is that Volpone is greedy not only for wealth, but for “gaining more power over
his victims”. The protagonist is very much contented that he receives gifts, but
what gives him real satisfaction is the fact that his plans for manipulating people
into giving him presents work very well:
Yet I glory
More in the cunning purchase of my wealth,
Than in the glad possession…
“Volpone” is reminiscent of Thomas Kyd’s Spanish tragedy as it is another
“play within the play”. In Jonson’s play the protagonist and his “parasite” –
Mosca, are the main actors and the rest are just puppets in their hands.
In the rest of Volpone’s speech, Jonson indirectly makes an allusion to another
cardinal sin – sloth:
.... since I gain
No common way; I use no trade, no venture;
I wound no earth with plough-shares; fat no beasts,
To feed the shambles; have no mills for iron,
Oil, corn, or men, to grind them into powder:
I blow no subtle glass; expose no ships
To threatenings of the furrow-faced sea;
With the use of irony, the author indirectly accuses the audience of being idle
because many people preferred using tricks instead of working as a way to get
money. It was a common practice among upper classes to find an heirless
“magnifico” who is expected to die soon. Then one starts ingratiating with him
in hope of becoming their heir. But in “Volpone” the author presents the idea of
“the thief who becomes the victim of thieving” – each of the three men tries to
get Volpone’s riches, but are actually robbed of their own. Since the three
competitors for Volpone’s inheritance are so desperately trying to earn his
favour, the protagonist is certainly no worse than them. He is just taking
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