Characters and Audiences in Jonson’s Volpone

Abstract

Critics have often expressed hesitation and confusion when they attempt to classify Jonson’s Volpone into conventional literary categories. This paper thinks that we need to see drama as a configuration of changing relationships between character and audience, with irony the controlling element. The literary hybrids in Volpone which arise from the blending of comedy and tragedy often function as satire. Despite the disdain and skepticism towards society, the satiric effects in the work - alternately titillating and repelling us with his protagonist’s vitality and perversion - demonstrate Jonson’s shared belief in the power of art and his faith in the conscious and aware decision of an individual. Forcing the audience into the dual perspective of juror and critic, Jonson illustrates the problematic nature of judgment based on generalized precepts and untrustworthy value systems; therefore, one must turn to himself or herself to consciously discover a moral center. We cannot judge the success of Jonson’s drama based on the traditional literary categories, for this play goes far beyond those guidelines to express the relationship between the audience and a work of art. To develop that relationship, Jonson creates a bleak world where even the justice system is totally ineffective. Because of the double role we have maintained throughout the play as juror and critic, we are simultaneously able to understand the necessity for Volpone’s punishment and to appreciate the object of the satire, which is not external to us, but within ourselves. When we cannot rely on societal precepts to distinguish between right and wrong, we must turn within ourselves to discover a moral standard to measure, as Mosca says early in the play, “By your own scale.” That we cannot simply condemn Volpone does not allow us to sit back smugly in complacent judgment. Instead, by evoking a complex response from his audience and reminding us that all has been a play, Jonson causes us to acknowledge the power of art. As a catalyst, art can help us make conscious decisions based on what we have witnessed and at the end of Volpone, we “fare jovially, and clap hands.”