About Ben Johnson
Bircan Çağlar
I ve noticed a sentence which attracted my attention and I wanted to share it with you though I dont know whether you agree or not .It says ;In Marlowe we find innovation,in shakespeare consolidation and in Johnson deconstruction.
BEN JOHSON VOLPONE OR THE FOX:
The sources of Johnson 's comedies was his wide reading of medieval and classical literature .Although Volpone's comic style and didactic method were a significant innovation in Johnson's dramatic writing Volpone was not generically original.40 years ago Brian Gibbons included the play in the category which he named Jacobean City Comedy a genre which was very popular on the London stages in the first decade ıf the seventeenth century.The main characters were from merchant middle class and trickery and deception were important parts of the plot.Volpone complies with many of the conventions of this kind of comedy but daringly subverts this genre in several striking ways.
Volpone was written in the time when market capitalism gradually established its further dominane in London .Its aim is to educate ,by making audience think hard both about their delight in the play and about moral response to its characters and action.It seduces its audience into admiring outrageous fraudsters.In Volpone we see an author who is concerned with conveying an anatomy of the time's deformity throuh comedy .Opening scene reveals the aim of the play immediately when Volpone says Good morning to the day and next,my Gold.Ben Johson is showing his audiences money's effect on traditional values.These people are willing to give up their most sacred traditions and values in exchange for money .It mixes the charecteristics of satirical comedy with the moralizing of the morality play .By adopting some of the characteristics of the morality play Johnson hoped to imitate justice abd instruct.The harshness of the punishment at the end of the play fall more in line with the morality play than with the comical satire as normally in morality play one charecters takes up the scene and give a educating speech about the morals.In the Conventional play Volpone could have escaped just as he did at the end of act 4 .But instead of fitting the expectations of comical satire Johnson is determined to make this play one based on morals.
It is meshing together of the different forms by Johnson to present a comedy that is both satirical and moral.It deal with socail issues as well as moral issues .This comedy challenges the audience to look at their actions critically as well as laugh at the fate of others.
Volpone is also likened to beast fable ,usually a short story or poem in which animals talk, is a traditional form of allegorical writing.it is like the ancient fables of Aesop.
There has been much discussion of Volpone as a beast fable. This is because it uses animal names for its characters as well as its use of a moral ending. And yet it is not exactly the traditional fable. In the traditional fable we have a character that is similar to the witty character in a comic satire. But in Volpone this character is not as successful as the fable prototype.
In a popular beast fable there is a fox that outwits a vulture. He claims to love the singing of the vulture and is able to get the vulture to sing. By doing this the vulture drops the food that was in his mouth. Then the fox runs away with the food. Volpone is like this in that the fox is able to outwit "the birds of prey and finally entraps them by feigning death.".
By the way until I read this article I didnt know that characters took their name from the animals in italian .I checked the words but I couldnt find their equiavelents except Volpone maybe Dürrin Hoca can help ...
Voltore : Vulture ?
Corbaccio:Raven ?
Corvino : Crow ?