While The Alchemist might appear as though it is a play chastising both tricksters, Face, Subtle, and Doll Common, and their naïve victims, Abel Drugger, Sir Epicure Mammon, and the like, Jonson mainly critiques those who scoff at the duped. During the prologue of the play, Jonson criticizes those who, “are esteemed the more learned and sufficient for this by the many, through their excellent vice of judgment” (1.To the Reader.13-14). Surly, the skeptic of the play, demonstrates this type of person most clearly. However, in order to fully “better, men,” (1.Proluge. 12), Jonson must create a character that his readers will empathize with. What better character to accomplish this goal with than Mammon, of whom Subtle once remarked, that, “If …show more content…
Not his desires are admirable and should be emulated. As the play progresses, Mammon exposes himself for having selfish motives. In complicating Mammon, Jonson asks the reader whether they too desire to cure the general populace of disease, or only that they, personally, might be free of it? Would they use gold to prolong life or to bribe everyone they encounter, and lavish luxuries on themselves, like Mammon intended? These questions help the reader to investigate their own motives and in turn make them more self-aware as Mammon has become. Jonson’s ultimate goal with Mammon’s journey is completed in two different lines in the play. Answering for his ulterior selfish motives, as he begins to grasp the failure of his efforts with alchemy, he notes, “Oh, my voluptuous mind! I am justly punished”(4.5.83). Here, Jonson shows the reader the pitfalls of self-centered motives yet instead of ending the saga of chasing the dream on a negative note, Jonson has Mammon’s last line respond to Lovewit’s comment that he has suffered much. “Not I; the commonwealth has” (5.5.76). He still hasn’t completely abandoned the idea of creating a type of utopia for the common good and neither should the
...In conclusion, we can say that after applying Joseph Campbell's theory of The Monomyth on The Alchemist; it is noticeable that despite The Alchemist being a postmodernism wok of literature, the author Coelho used all major patterns of the hero's journey of ancient myth in his novel and this developed Santiago's journey from an ordinary one into an archetypal one.
honest man to deceive Othello and other characters in the play. The perception of the public
An exploration of Shakespeare’s presentation of trickery and deception in his play ‘Much Ado about Nothing.’
In Antigone, character foils help the play by creating well-rounded characters. Many traits of Antigone and Creon, the two main characters, would be impossible to notice without the contrast of their character foils. Ismene and Haemon act as foils to Antigone and Creon, respectively. By juxtaposing these pairs against each other, we gain more insight on the play’s plot, themes, characters, and character relationships.
In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho an Andalusian boy named Santiago leaves Spain to travel to Egypt in order to achieve his Personal Legend. During his journey he meets four people, a Gypsy, a King named Melchizedek, an Englishman and an Alchemist, all of whom help Santiago along his journey towards his Personal Legend. However, only the King and the Alchemist teach Santiago lessons that he can learn from and use along his journey. The King teaches Santiago two lessons, to follow omens and that it is not always about the destination but that it is also about the journey. The Alchemist teaches Santiago to listen to his heart for guidance, what the Language of the World is and what the Soul of the World is. He eventually arrives in Egypt after
...t what could happen. They seek to explore it and supposedly put their unconscious into the darkness to further illuminate the alchemical experience. In reality, their own psychic background is projected and that is what is explained in the encounters. The alchemists were fooled into thinking they could actually change base metals into gold substances. The things the alchemists said and the symbols they used were really a part of the process called individuation. Jung called this “circumambulation of self” or a movement toward center or finding “self.” The road to individuation is shown as constant conflict of opposites which turns into psychic energy. In order to succeed individuation, you must bring the opposing forces into to union. This union in alchemy is called the coniunctio. The alchemical stage of nigreto or blackness correlates with depression in patients.
Will Santiago go after his dream? In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Santiago has had the same dream twice. He takes it upon himself to discover what this dream means and where the treasure in the dream is located. The people and challenges he faces along the way all present him with a sacrifice. When trying to achieve his goal, Santiago sacrifices his sheep, Fatima temporarily, gold, and time.
Komery later understands that this is the main theme of the play. This implies that appearances can be deceiving. What appears to be good can be bad, and this ...
In his first voyage in 1492, when Christopher Columbus set out to search for Asia, he ended up landing in America on a small island in the Caribbean Sea, which he confidently thought was Asia. He then made several other voyages to the New World in search for riches, thinking that he was exploring an already explored land, but he had found the greatest riches of them all, undiscovered land, America. This shows that when one sets out on a mission, they face different challenges on the journey but in the end, achieve more than what they planned on achieving. The novel The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, and the novel Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, both describe two journeys where the characters achieve more when they learn about life, survival and patience, by understanding religion, tackling their fears, associating with nature, and encountering other characters from whom they learn something. The former is about a young shepherd named Santiago, who has a recurring dream of a treasure in Egypt, for which he makes a journey to achieve his “Personal Legend” by the help of a man who claims to be...
“ Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart”(159). This is what the alchemist said to the main character. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, tells a story of a boy named Santiago, who goes on a long journey to discover his personal legend. As Santiago goes on his journey to pursue his personal legend, he is faced with many challenges, as well as left to make difficult decisions that change him forever. As Santiago travels the world, he becomes a hero. In The Alchemist, Santiago shows characteristics, as well as archetypal characteristics that make him a hero. Santiago displays kindness, bravery and wisdom; also he is considered a hero because he displays many characteristics of an archetypal hero. He displays archetypal characteristics such as: receiving supernatural help, proving himself many times and receiving an apotheosis.
In conclusion, the two characters in The Alchemist and Kon-Tiki share similarities in their stages of human development, encountering troubles, and getting help from other source. These supporting details illustrate the universality of the characteristics of mythic heroes.
Fear is an emotion that negatively influences people to shy away from their plans. Throughout the novel, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, many characters are overcome with fear and more specifically, the fear of loss and fear of the future. Coelho repeatedly shows that by conquering these fears, people are freed from the bounds of fear and therefore willing to take action on their dreams.
...goal of the Antitheatrical movement in the Renaissance, was both supported and denounced by Jonson in various ways. However, the general perception is that Jonson (unlike Shakespeare) fueled the fires of degradation- implicating women with the weakness, lack of intelligence, and reason they were believed to exude. In the annals of theatrical history, Jonson's metadrama could be said to perpetuate this social stereotype. Nevertheless, Jonson's crossing of the gender line and sexual scenes like Volpone's "flashing" of Celia were enough to have religious, moral, and social commentators screaming blood murder. Two issues demand prominence in the play. While outwardly a play driven by blatant genderless controversy, the inward thematic, character-driven nature of Volpone suggests a conformity and adherence to the intellectual and theological moralism of the time.
Upon reading Shakespeare's l604 tragedy, Othello, the Moor of Venice and Jonson's l606 comedy, Volpone, or The Foxe, a reader will notice both similarities and differences. In both plays, we meet characters of "rare ingenious knavery." Indeed, Iago, Volpone, and Mosca are uncommonly similar in nature. An elaborate "con game" is practiced in each play through intriguing dramatic inventiveness. However, the focus of Shakespeare's tragedy is upon a noble and heroic figure; the focus of Jonson's comedy is upon a monster of depravity, a genius in crime.
We are encouraged to laugh with Volpone and Mosca at the pretensions and hypocrisies of Lady Would-Be and the other ever-hopeful "heirs"; but ultimately Jonson chooses to punish the deceivers and asks us to side, however reluctantly, with the Venetian Senate in condemning them. Voltore, Corvino, and the others may richly deserve to be tricked, but Volpone and Mosca are not agents of justice, and we must not confuse them with such truly virtuous characters as Celia and Bonario. Nevertheless, Jonson gives Volpone the last word in the play's Epilogue, where Volpone asks our forgiveness, and we find ourselves in complicity with him once again. We are invited in the end to revel in the delightfulness of deception, and of language, and to suspend, if only briefly, our moral judgments.