What are the themes of the play Volpone?
Volpone Themes
- Theatre and Appearance vs Reality. Like other Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights, Jonson explores the relationship between appearance and reality, of seeming versus being—which, of course, evokes the theatre itself.
- Money and Commerce.
- Greed and Corruption.
- Gender Roles and Women.
- Language.
What was the moral of the play Volpone?
Volpone is a powerful moral study of human greed, foxy cunning, and goatish lust. It is not the traditional form of comedy. It is a play that takes on the form of a comical satire as well as a morality play. It also adapts the features of a fable, and in that it strives to teach a moral.
Why does Volpone fake sick?
At first glance, disease might appear only to be used as a tool for trickery and humor in the play. Volpone’s main scam is pretending that he is rife with disease in order to get money out of hopeful heirs to his fortune.
What led to the downfall of Volpone?
Volpone is greedy for money, but his downfall is ultimately caused by excessive greed for pleasure, showing that greed comes in many forms and that, in excess, it is all consuming. This fake death then provides opportunity for Mosca to succumb to greed and turn on Volpone.
Is Volpone a tragedy?
No, Ben Jonson’s play Volpone is not a revenge tragedy. Volpone is an incisive, satirical comedy. There is no real revenge.
Who is Peregrine in Volpone?
Peregrine is a young English traveler who meets and befriends Sir Politic Would- be upon arriving in Venice. Peregrine is amused by the gullible Would-be, but is also easily offended, as demonstrated by his adverse reaction to Lady Politic Would-be’s suggestive comments.
Is Volpone a tragicomedy?
It is also known as black comedy, black humor, morbid humor, or dark humor. It is a play having elements of comedy and tragedy, often involving gloom or morbid satire. Volpone deals with the unpleasant side of human life.
What is the central theme of Volpone elaborate?
The overriding theme of Volpone is the power of greed. Greed is shown in the play as a corrupting force that corrodes the soul and makes people do things they ought not to do.
What is the ending of Volpone?
Volpone ends up being sent to prison, while Mosca is consigned to a slave galley. Voltore is disbarred, Corbaccio is stripped of his property (which is given to his son Bonario), and Corvino is publicly humiliated, forced to wear donkey’s ears while being rowed around the canals of Venice.
What are the themes in the book Volpone?
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Volpone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. In addition to having a reputation for commerce, Venice (and Italy in general) was stereotypically known for greed and corruption, both moral and political.
What is the subplot of corruption in Volpone?
Volpone ’s subplot involves fear of spying, but the play’s primary interest in corruption is of a different kind; more than political corruption, Volpone explores the ways in which people can become morally corrupted. The Italian men in the play are all corrupted by avarice, which means greed or excessive desire.
Who is the object of the lesson in Volpone?
Volpone himself starts out as an instrument of this lesson—he dupes the Corvino, Corbaccio and Voltore into parting with their goods in the hope of inheriting his—but ends up an object of the lesson as well, for succumbing to his greedy want for sensual pleasure.
Why are the characters so greedy in Volpone?
Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino are obsessed with becoming Volpone ’s heir because they hope to inherit his fortune. Their greed is so strong that they have no regard for Volpone’s life; Corbaccio even overtly expresses glee when Mosca lists Volpone’s fake symptoms and diseases.