Volpone

One of the most profound and disturbing scenes in Volpone is that attemted seduction/rape scene with Celia after Volpone sings her that really creepy song and tries to buy her off with teasures. Around this time, in scene 3.7 lines 133-138, Celia cries out about how shameful it is that a man could trade and use his wife for greed. This scene shows that love which is usually argued to be the most important thing in the world is now worth less than money and therefore now it has made the men in this play dishonorable. This is of course after the scene where Corvino threatens Celia to do what he says or he will "grow violent" and she still refuses him. So this is when the reader feels very much sympathy towards poor Celia because she is threatened by two different men in as little as two pages.

Vol-pwn-ed

Volpone, by Ben Jonson, is a comedy about a Venetian gentleman who pwns the crap out of Voltore, Corbaccio, and Corvino, the seekers of his fortune. He's all like "BOOM HEADSHOT!" and Voltore and Co. are all like "wtf n00b hax0rz," since Volpone makes them believe that each one is named in his will while getting Corbaccio to disinherit his son in favor of Volpone. Volpone's 1337 skillz lead him to disguising himself in order to see Celia, the very beautiful wife of Corvino. Mosca, Volpone's assistant guy dude man, tells Corvino that Volpone needs to pwn Celia in order to revive himself, and Corvino, for some reason, agrees. "Why, yes you may have foreign relations with my wife, pip pip, what?" he says. Volpone tries to seduce Celia with flowery rhetoric and the promise of luxury, but when she knocks him back, Volpone tries to rape her. Heavy stuff for a comedy, right? This is interesting as it shows that Volpone, for all his supposed cunning, has no real power over others other than money. But, as he finds out, not everyone can be easily bought off. Volpone is accused of attempted rape by Bonario, who was lurking in the shadows watching Volpone, and who stops Volpone from pwning Celia. Volpone and Mosca, however, get off at least initially, and are only brought down when they turn on each other and begin team-killing, which makes Volpone rage quit from the play. The interesting thing about the conclusion is that there is no real sense of justice. Bonario gets and inheritence that he doesnt want, Corvino is sentenced to public humiliation, Celia is sent back as a tainted object to her father...the suffering is almost equal on all sides. But I suppose this is more based in reality than not. Fairy tale endings dont always happen in real life, and many times justice is not served as it is supposed to.

Johnson's Volpone

I think one of my favorite things about Volpone was the fact that almost none of the characters were likable. There was no happy ending in the traditional sense and everyone was out to screw everybody else. I thought that although Johnson was probably trying to make a point about society and people, his rotten losers made the play so outrageous that it was hilarious. I loved that after suspending disbelief, we could watch Volpone and Mosca yank everyone into his schemes, make enormous fools of everybody, and then drop the whole pile of garbage upon themselves in a splendid shower. I liked that the play did not really try to play with my emotions and make me feel self-conscious, unlike some of the articles that I read said of Twelfth Night. The kind of comedy that just stands on its own and makes the audience without getting itself involved in little old me is nice. That is not to say that there is no value in having attention drawn to oneself, but this play both offered a bold message and a huge laugh at the same time, thus having little need for me but to watch.

Volpone

The character Volpone raises interesting questions about greed and arrogance. He and Mosca deceive the other characters in the play into giving him lavish gifts and sweet talking him. Though they get great entertainment out of it, it is alarming just how ridiculous Volpone loves every moment of it, and it no doubt sharpens his ego. His pride and his greed become more and more excessive with every person he tricks. It actually raises the question of how aggressive and demanding Volpone would have been while trying to seduce Celia, had his ego not been enlarged. The scene where he is almost raping Celia proves how pathetic a man Volpone actually is, ironically though the play's namesake, he is one of the weakest more despicable characters in the play.

Volpone

When reading this play, it is hard not to question Ben Johnsons’s motives. What on earth was he thinking before creating this? Don’t get me wrong; the overall idea surrounding the play is utterly hilarious. I found Johnson to be extremely clever with each character resembling an animal. Each animal encompasses what the characters motives and position in the play. Volpone and Mosca have a somewhat sick relationship consisting of greed and disloyalty. This is apparent just from the mere fact that Mosca’s animal character is a fly. I didn’t find the ending to be shocking at all, it was very obvious that Mosca and Volpone’s secret ponzi scheme would have to meet it’s demise. Of course not without one of them thinking their master plan had worked. Towards the end Mosca had the keys in his possession and all the money. He essentially stole everything right from under Volpone. The play obviously can’t end this way. Therefore, Bonario to the rescue! Bonario is in turn given the inheritance, which doesn’t mean a whole lot to him and Volpone is sent away to a syphilis hospital while Mosca is put in the galleys.

Volpone - Well, this one is just filled with rainbows and sunshine!

I like Jonson. He appeals to my cynical tendencies. Volpone is one of those works where everybody just gets screwed over. Mosca's condemned to life as a galley slave, Volpone is sent to prison, Voltore is disbarred, Corbaccio's property is seized, Corvino is publically humiliated, and Celia...well, good luck, Hon. I like this because it's honest. Volpone is a friendly little reminder that reality does not entail a hero's happy ending, a villain's comeuppance, or a lesson learned. It is human nature to be selfish, to be greedy, to look after one's self. It's humanity's base, primitive origin. Only a nearly negligible percentage of individuals have sought to adopt pristine motives in life and they are almost always abused/taken advantage of by the less than pristine crowd. Jonson knows we know this; thus, he's not going to bullsh*t us with a happy ending. I appreciate honesty, even in the literature I read...especially in the literature I read.

As far as my opinion of the individual characters, I found myself favoring Volpone, not because he is of any higher moral standing than any of the other characters, but because of the way he played with the other characters. Not that I condone that type of behavior, but I believe that between immoral and cunning or immoral and thick, immoral and cunning is the lesser of the two evils. Besides, if you're going to abandon logic for the sake of money, then you deserve whatever comes your way. While I do commend his toying with greedy fools, I feel I must stress my disdain for Volpone. He is, no doubt, a weasel. It becomes unmistakably clear just how sniveling a coward he is in the scene between him and Celia. Had Bonario not burst out from behind the curtain to save her, I still seriously doubt Volpone would have had it in him to rape Celia. He spends so much time trying to convince her to sleep with him because he knows that he has a much higher chance of manipulating her mentally than he does of manipulating her physically.

And just a side note: that song was one of the creepiest passages I have ever read! I pictured the whole thing and it was so disturbing and pathetic and lecherous all at once. That's all I have to say about that.

Volpone

For this play I don't see how anyone could sympathize with any of the characters. At first I just thought that Mosca and Volpone were the only ones to blame since they were the ones doing all of the conning but looking back at it, everyone deserves a little bit of the blame. All of the possibly heirs are only in it for the money so they deserve everything they got, especially Corvino. It is disgusting how he would just put forth his wife against her wishes just for the money even though it would mean that Volpone lives. The only way he would have even gotten the money is if Volpone died. 

I do feel as though Volpone wasn't as good as Mosca was at conning people. Volpone seemed to be the one coming up with the initial cons, but Mosca made sure that they went according to plan. Volpone would be the one sitting in bed pretending to be sick while Mosca was the on running around telling all of the lies. Without Mosca, Volpone would have nothing. I think in the end, Mosca realizes this so cons Volpone into giving him the house.

The only person in this whole play that you can somewhat sympathize with is Bonario. He truly gets duped by Mosca into believing that his father is going to take away his inheritance. This could be something believable except for the fact that Mosca tells Bonario that he tells lies all the time. Bonario tries to be the savior and saves Celia and then in the end winds up being accused of being her lover and lying about the whole thing. In the end though, the truth does come out. This play shows just about everything that people will do for greed and money.