Upon first impression, Ben Jonson’s Volpone has the most authority out of all the characters in the play. Indeed Volpone’s initial high social rank provides him the privilege to morph into various identities without tangible social consequences. On the contrary, Mosca’s rank confines him to the role of Volpone’s parasite. He constantly aids Volpone in transformation, but he can never partake in transformation himself. However, when Volpone finally falls, the parasite usurps Volpone’s master identity and seemingly gains the benefits of his rank. His new habit as a clarissimo affords him greater respect, “Here comes the gentleman; make him way” (V.xii. 48). Yet after Mosca receives the license to transform, he displays a dire need for fixity. Mosca must solidify his transformation by grounding his status in reality. As long as Volpone lives, Volpone maintains some agency of his former identity and he can unmask himself and the con. This places Mosca in a vulnerable, liminal role between parasite and host with the threat of social reorder looming over him. The comedy’s first scene indicates Volpone’s high status has afforded him identity flexibility. Jonson presents Volpone as a nobleman whose status exempts him from securing his fortune in a less than “noble, valiant, honest…way” (I.i. 27). In particular, Volpone makes a direct connection between class and money by commenting on how others must labor for their wealth, but his status permits him to “glory/More in the cunning purchase of my wealth/Than in the glad possession” (I.i. 30-31). Through this line, Jonson implies that Volpone’s high social rank relieves him of financial anxiety and enables him to engage in elaborate disguises and immoral schemes. Jonson further disp... ... middle of paper ... ...." Project MUSE - "Monstrous Manner": Style and the Early Modern Theater. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2014. "common, n.1." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2014. Web. 5 May 2014. Hyland, Peter. Disguise on the Early Modern English Stage. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub. Co., 2011. Print. Jonson, Ben, and Richard Harp. Ben Jonson's plays and masques: authoritative texts of Volpone, Epicoene, The alchemist, The masque of blackness, Mercury vindicated from the alchemists at court, Pleasure reconciled to virtue : contexts, backgrounds and sources, criticism.. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. Print. Maltby, Robert. "Classical Receptions in Drama and Poetry in English from c.1970 to the Present." Classical Receptions. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 1 May 2014.
Castle, Terry. Masquerade and Civilization:.The Carnivalesque in Eighteenth-Century English Culture and Fiction. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1996.
Principally, Vega portrays the commodification of the peasant women of Fuenteovejuna. Throughout the playa, the Commander treats the peasant women as his property. During their first conversation in the play, the Commander forcefully asks Pascuala “don’t you belong to me?” after she rejects his sexual advances (Vega 37). Within the same conversation, he takes verbal possession of her by calling her “my wild beauty” (Vega 37). The possessive pronoun “my” demonstrates how the Commander perceives Pascuala as his property rather than as a person. He continues to equate the peasant women with property by declaring to Pascuala and Laurencia “you’re also here as presents/just like the rest!” (Vega 39). By paralleling the women to the food he takes from the villagers, the Commander objectifies them, portraying them as property. In a Marxist staging of the play, this equation would be enriched by the important role property plays in the conflict between the Commander and the peasants. The Commander’s objectification of the peasant women is not only insulting; it represents his further exploitation of the property of the working class. Indeed, Vega parallels the women with food, the property the Commander exploits from the villagers. When Laurencia asks the Commander’s
"Elizabethan Theatre Audiences." Elizabethan Theatre Audiences. Strayer University, 16 May 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
...elm. Criticism on Shakespeare s Tragedies . A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.
Feste, the fool character in Twelfth Night, in many ways represents a playwright figure, and embodies the reach and tools of the theater. He criticizes, manipulates and entertains the other characters while causing them to reflect on their life situations, which is similar to the way a playwright such as Shakespeare interacts with his audience. Furthermore, more so than the other characters in the play he accomplishes this in a highly performative way, involving song and clever wordplay that must be decoded, and is thus particularly reflective of the mechanisms at the command of the playwright. Feste is a representation of the medieval fool figure, who is empowered by his low status and able to speak the truth of the kingdom. A playwright speaks the truth by using actors and fictional characters, who are in a parallel low status in comparison to the audience, as they lack the dimensionality of real people. Thus, the role Feste plays in the lives of the characters in the play resembles the role the play itself plays in the lives of the audience watching the performance. This essay will explore this comparison first by analyzing similarities between the way in which Feste interacts with other characters and the way the playwright interact with the audience, and then focus on the similarities between the aims and content of these interactions.
Dobson, Michael. “Twelfth Night” in The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Ide, Richard S. "On the Uses of Elizabethan Drama: The Revaluation of Epic in Paradise Lost." Milton Studies 17 (1983): 121-37.
The protagonists, The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, consider it their life’s ambition to sadistically control and dominate those around them through sexual intrigue. These two villains are indeed locked in psychological combat to see who can actually ‘out-do’ the other in stalking, capturing and destroying the souls of others. Taking absolute pleasure in ripping any virtue from the hearts of their prey, Merteuil and Valmont wave their accomplishments in front of each other like spoils of war. The less the chance of surrender, the more relentless is the pursuit.
The typical alchemist's laboratory in Renaissance Europe was a dark, cluttered place that stank of smoke and mysterious chemicals. Many alchemists worked at home, in order to save money and avoid outside interference. Some settled in the kitchen, to take advantage of the cooking fire. Others chose the attic or cellar, where late-night activity was less likely to be noticed by inquisitive neighbors. These small, makeshift laboratories were often filled with a grimy jumble of instruments, manuscripts, skulls, animal specimens, and assorted mystical objects.
The perfect lives that make up the routine of the Illyrian citizens portrays a society in which enjoyment, and personal gain are held in utmost priority. Shakespeares mocks the passivity of the Illyrian lifestyle to explain to the audience that excess of such festivity has negative side effects such as ego and lack of true love. He expresses that the pursuit of expression and truth in itself invokes enjoyment. Sir Aguecheek mirrors the uncertainty of a person through lack of self-confidence and the desire to openly reveal his true self when lamenting “Is it a world to hide virtues in?” (1.3.131).
Logan, Thad Jenkins. "Twelfth Night: The Limits of Festivity." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 Spring 1982: 223-238. Print.
Scott, Mark W. Shakespearean Criticism: Volume 8, Excerpts from the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1987. Print.
Volpone is all about morals, greed and the depths people will sink to get what they want, despite its consequences on themselves and others. The Jacobean audiences were familiar with its setting in Venice and they thought Italy 'was the land of sensational evil-doing. Among Italian cities Venice ... stood in the front rank for this sinister repute.' (Barish, 1972: 65) So the choice of setting was deliberate, he wanted t...
Shakespeare’s use of disguise has left the audience in suspense. The audience is left waiting to