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Unit 16: Volpone: Satire and all its Detailed Analysis and Comedy

16.4.6 Scene VI Notes

Mosca and Bonario enter. Mosca tells Bonario to hide so that he can watch his father disinherit his
son and make Volpone his heir. Bonario agrees but, after Mosca leaves, says that he still can’t believe
that what Mosca says is true.

16.4.7 Scene VII

Mosca, Corvino, and Celia enter. Mosca tells Bonario that Corbaccio will soon arrive. Celia begs not
to be forced to sleep with Volpone. Corvino tells her that his decision is final, and that he does not
want any protest in terms of “honour”; “honour”, according to Corvino, does not exist in reality,
and the loss of it cannot harm anyone. Mosca informs Volpone that the pair has arrived; Volpone
professes himself past the point of no return but thanks Corvino greatly, implying that Corvino will
be his heir. Celia begs a final time to be spared having to sleep with Volpone, but Corvino insists,
and threatens to drag her through the streets and—ironically—proclaim her a whore if she does not
comply. The act, he says, is not important, since Volpone is old, and will not take much advantage
of her; in any case and it will benefit him greatly in financial terms. As soon as Volpone and Celia
are alone, Volpone leaps off of his bed, and begins his seduction. He tells Celia that she is heavenly
to him, and that he is a far more worthy lover than is Corvino. He details all the sensuous pleasures
she will have if she becomes his lover. But Celia is unmoved; she refuses his advances, asking him
to stop, offering to never speak of what happened. Volpone is enraged by her refusal, and tells her
that if she won’t make love to him willingly, then he will take her by force. She cries out to God;
Volpone tells her she does it in vain, but just at that moment, Bonario jumps out from behind his
hiding place and rescues Celia, spiriting her away. Volpone laments that his con has been exposed.

Analysis to Scenes VI and VII
Throughout the play up to this point, Volpone has seemed both a likeable and sympathetic
protagonist and a sociopath. He exposes moral folly, but his glee in doing so can at times seem
malicious. And he also makes no pretensions that morality is his main motivation. Instead, the
money he gains from his con is a means to an end, and the end is the satisfaction of his appetites and
desires. This section of the play emphasizes that Volpone will satisfy these desires at any cost, even
if it hurts innocent people, such as Bonario and Celia. These scenes, especially Act III Scene VII,
thus form a turning point in the main plot’s storyline and in our perception of Volpone. Alone with
Celia for the first time, his “seduction speech” firmly unites the contradictory parts of his character
through his description of his love for her.

Volpone satisfy his appetites and desires of gaining money from his cons at any cost,
even if it hurts innocent people. Justify this statement.
In this passage, Volpone articulates what amounts to an alternate conception of morality and
sacredness hinted at earlier in the play, a conception where the highest form of spiritual fulfillment
is attained through the satisfaction of every conceivable desire for pleasure. The imagery Volpone
employs in his seduction speech is rich in both hyperbole and religious imagery; Celia’s love is
compared to “heaven,” “a plot of paradise.” But Volpone’s picture of paradise is sensual; he offers
to Celia a catalogue of an extravagant feast, from pearls dissolved in wine to “the heads of parrots”
and “the tongues of nightingales.” It is also a bath in flowers, “unicorn milk,” “panther’s breath”
and “Cretan wines.” He also emphasizes the disposability of this paradise; pearls are dissolved,
and jewels lost, without a second thought. It seems that as soon as one pleasure is expended, the
next one is pursued.

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