He occupies the central role in the subplot,
"
which centers on the relationship between
himself and Peregrine, another English traveler
much less gullible than the good knight.
THEMES
Greed: Volpone's satire is directed against
"avarice," which can be thought of as greed that
extends not just to money but also to all objects
of human desire.
The power of stagecraft: there is a tension
between the play itself and what goes on in the
play, in which the devices of stagecraft that are
a source of deceit, confusion, and moral
corruption.
Parasitism: Because everyone tries to live off
of the wealth or livelihood of others, without
doing any "honest toil" of their own.
SYMBOLS
Venice: As the seat of greed, corruption, and
decadence, at least according to the prevailing
prejudices.
Animalization: The characters have animal
names .
The sacred and the propane: In several speech
there is mixes religious language and profane
subject matter to a startling poetic effect.
Disguise, Deception, and Truth: Disguise
sometimes serves simply to conceal, . But
sometimes it reveals inner truths that a person's
normal attire may conceal.
Gulling: means "making someone into a fool.
It’s a method characters have for asserting
power over one another and the way Jonson
gives his moral message.
General information
• Full Title • Volpone, or the Fox: A Comedy UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE TRUJILLO
• Author • Ben Jonson FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND MEDIA STUDIES
• Type Of Work • Play Academic Department of Foreign Languages and
• Genre • Comedy (with tragic undertones)
Linguistics
• Language • English
• Time And Place Written • February and March
1606; London, England
• Date Of First Publication • 1607, in quarto
form
• Publisher • William Stansby
• Narrator • The play has no narrator
• Climax • Act V, scene xii, when Volpone
“VOLPONE”
reveals himself to the Avocatori
• Protagonist • Volpone (though he disappears PROFESSOR:
in Act IV) Mr. Calderon, Carlos
• Setting (Time) • The time of the play's writing,
1606 CLASS:
• Setting (Place) • Venice, Italy English Literature
• Point Of View • No narrator, no point of view STUDENTS:
• Falling Action • Scene V.xii: the judges
sentence Volpone, Corvino, Corbaccio, and Peña Agurto, Luz María
Voltore to various punishments. Pereda Graos, Sandra
• Foreshadowing • Mosca's soliloquy in III.i
Silva Acuña, Lesly
• Tone • Satirical, ironic in the main plot; in the
subplot, varying between satirical and farcical
• Themes • Greed; the power of stagecraft; TRUJILLO – PERU
parasitism 2019
• Motifs • Disguise, deception and reality;
"gulling"; the sacred and the profane
• Symbols • Venice; animalia
 VOLPONE
It is a comedy/satire about avarice and lust.,
drawing on elements of city comedy and beast
fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it
remains.
1. Ben Jonson
He was an Elizabethan English poet, dramatist
and actor. He established a reputation as one of
the major social satirists of the English dramatic
tradition. He popularised the genre of dramatic
comedy, a style that focuses on characters with
traits that dominate their personality, desires
and conduct. he is best known for his poems
and satirical plays, of which the 1606 ‘Volpone’
is considered to be one of his best examples.
2. Volpone
2.1. Plot summary
The play opens at the home of a nobleman from
the city – Volpone (the ‘fox’). He tries to trick
his alleged friends – Voltore (the ‘vulture’),
Corbaccio (the ‘raven’) and Corvino (the
‘crow’) – into believing that each is Volpone’s
heir and that he is actually on his deathbed.
Corbaccio is talked into disinheriting his son
Bonario while Corvino and his wife, Celia,
whom he guards closely; however his reed lead
him to proffer her to Volpone to take to his bed
and to be a comfort to him as he lies dying.
Volpone loves the chaos that he has caused and
so decides staging his own death. Mosca,
volpone's servant, is elevated from his lowly
position to a man of wealth, an eligible
bachelor. When the truth is learned, the judges
take away all of Volpone’s wealth and give it to
charity. The lawyer Voltore is barred from court,
all of Corbaccio’s fortune is given to his son.
Corvino is paraded through Venice and
derided.Celia is returned to her family taking
with her three times the amount of dowry that
she took to her husband. Mosca is sentenced to
a life in the galleys for masquerading as a man
of substance.
Volpone’s argument
In the Argument, Jonson provides a brief
summary of the play's plot in the form of an
acrostic on Volpone's name. The prologue then
introduces the play to the viewing audience,
informing them that "with a little luck," it will
be a hit; Jonson ends by promising that the
audience's cheeks will turn red from laughter
after viewing his work.
First, in the banal sense; the Argument, as
Jonson terms it, provides in brief encapsulated
form the premise of the play, a premise that will
be fully introduced in the first scene.
The Dedication, however, gives us a clue as to
Jonson's intentions in writing Volpone.First of
all, he is intent on writing a "moral" play. His
play will make a moral statement. And it will do
so in line with the traditions of drama followed
by classical dramatists, that is, the dramatists of
ancient Greece. This connection to the past
further indicates that the play we are about to
read (or see) is a work of serious intellectual
and moral weight.
The characters.
Volpone: Volpone is the protagonist of the play.
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 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 theone
he plays on Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino.
Mosca: Mosca is Volpone's parasite, a
combination of his slave, his servant and his
lackey. He isthe person who continually
executes Volpone's ideas and the one who
comes up with thenecessary lie whenever
needed.
Corvino: A greedy, rich merchant and an
extremely cruel and dishonorable character,
Corvino is Celia's jealous husband. He
frequently threatens to do disgusting acts of
physical violence to her and her family in
order to gain control over her.
Bonario: Bonario is an upright youth who
remains loyal to his father even when his
father perjures against him in court. His
honesty and his desire to do right make him
one of the more righteous characters in the
play.
Celia: Celia is the wife of Corvino, who is
extremely beautiful, enough to drive both
Volpone and Corvino to distraction. She is
absolutely committed to her husband, even
though he treats her horribly, and has a faith in
God and sense of honour.
Sir Politic: An English knight who resides in
Venice. Sir Politic represents the danger of
moral corruption that English travelers face
when they go abroad to the continent,
especially to Italy.