"Volpone" by Ben Jonson

by Michael Stout

One of a series of books offering close textual analysis of the major works of English literature. The book contains a summary and commentary together with an analysis of a specimen passage for style, a discussion of themes and critical features and a section on the writer's life.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Eliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volpone by Ben Jonson was a very very interesting text to me. I really enjoyed reading it. The beginning of the text right away grabbed my attention and had me reading until the end. It made me laugh a little too. For example, how Volpone or the "great fox" already has treasures, and he has been able to collect treasures by deceiving individuals. He asks Mosca, his partner in crime/parasite that has been helping him gain these treasures, to show him what he has gained over time. Then after viewing his precious treasures, he begins his new plan on how he will be deceiving more individuals and therefore obtain more treasures and money. It is funny but at the same time wrong for Volpone to act as if he was sick. He has planned to make it known he is sick, and because he has no family to heir his fortune to, he will chose one lucky individual to heir his treasures to once his last day comes. Three individuals appear separately to place in their application for receivership. It makes me think how one wrong person influences many other wrong people. Not only his parasite but also the three individuals who appear which are: 1)a lawyer names Voltore, 2) Corvino a husband, and 3)Corbaccio. The text is very long, but at the same time, you cannot stop reading it. How Volpone and his parasite are so focused on how deceiving people in order to gain more treasures is astonishing to me. It makes me think about other individuals that are the same way. The text gives so many events about Volpone and Mosca's journey on lying to everyone. It is very sad to me how this text may be funny in a way, but at the same time, people like these two actually exist today. We can also see that even individuals with careers that require you to be ethical such as Voltore cannot be ethical in many situations. [330]