Page 220 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

British Drama

Notes In a nutshell, the plot is that the conspirators try to deceive Volpone, but he’s really deceiving them,
until his agent (Mosca) deceives him (and them) and they bring him to the court, which they all try
to deceive, until they are unmasked.
Jonson uses all the characters as an instrument of satire of one kind or the other in his play. He
compared all the characters to some animals as using their character. This unit elaborates the Jonson’s
satire for each character. More emphasis is given on the detailed analysis of its protagonist, the
Volpone. The conspiratory to decieve and to be deceived is also beatifully ordinated in the play and
has been analysed in detail below.

17.1 Characterization of the Play—Character List

Volpone, the Fox, a venetian magnifico is the main character of the play. Delighting in foxlike trickery,
Volpone scorns the easy gain of cheating widows and orphans and the hard gain of labor. He chooses
for his victims Venice’s leading crooked advocate, its most greedy and dishonest merchant, and its
most hardened miser. The joy of the chase of gold and jewels belonging to others is keener to him
than the possession. Jonson uses the characters to make them instrument of his satire of greed and
dishonesty.

17.1.1 Volpone
Volpone is the protagonist of the play. His name means “The Fox” in Italian. Jonson used him as an
instrument of satire of money-obsessed society, and he seems to share in Jonson’s satiric interpretation
of the events. He is lustful, raffish, and greedy for pleasure. He is a creature of passion, continually
looking to find and attain new forms of pleasure, whatever the consequences may be. He is also
energetic and has an unusual gift for rhetoric. He worships his money, all of which he has acquired
through cons, such as the one he plays on Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino. Volpone has no children,
but he has something of a family: his parasite, Mosca, his dwarf, Nano, his eunuch, Castrone, and
his hermaphrodite, Androgyno. Mosca is his only true confidante. Volpone hates to make money
through honest labour or cold, he loves making it in clever, deceitful ways. This dynamic in his
character shapes our reaction to him throughout the play. At times, this hedonism seems fun,
engaging, entertaining, and even morally valuable, such as when he is engaged in the con on his
fortune hunters. But his attempted seduction of Celia reveals a darker side to his hedonism when it
becomes an attempted rape. The incident makes him, in the moral universe of the play, a worthy
target of satire. Through the play, we learn that he is the one who makes the satire but the satire
eventually turns back on him, when he becomes a victim of Mosca’s “Fox-trap.” The reason he is
ensnared by Mosca is that he cannot resist one final gloat at his dupes, oblivious to the fact that in
doing so, he hands over his entire estate to Mosca. This lack of rational forethought and commitment
to his own sensual impulses is characteristic of Volpone. Therefore, he has three weaknesses that
might make his ‘plots’ fail: the first is his lust for Celia, the second is his overconfident behavior,
and the last is his complete trust in Mosca.

17.1.2 Mosca

Mosca is Volpone’s parasite, a combination of his slave, his servant and his lackey. He is the person
who continually executes Volpone’s ideas and the one who comes up with the necessary lie whenever
needed. In the opening acts, Mosca appears to be exactly what he is described as: a clinging, servile
parasite, who only exists for Volpone and through Volpone. In other words, he exists to serve
Volpone, and all that Volpone wants he wants. But in Act Three, we have the beginning of his
assertion of self-identity, when he begins to grow confident in his abilities. But then this confidence
again is left unvoiced, and Mosca seems to go back to being Volpone’s faithful servant, helping him
get out of the troublesome situation with Bonario and Celia. Mosca himself is possessed by greed,
and he attempts to move out of his role as parasite to the role of great beast himself. But his attempt

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