Author Archives: melissacarbuccia

The featured characters in this play all have one specific shared interest: Money. In this play, we witness how disgusting and inhumane money makes people behave. Mostly everyone in this play is driven by the desire to obtain more money, by any means necessary. Volpone fakes an extreme illness in order to attract money-hungry people like himself to give him gifts in hopes of being named in his will. He also impersonates Scoto the Mountebank in an attempt to sell a “magic oil” that supposedly cures any illness. Volpone is already a wealthy man, but having money only makes one lust for more of it. He spends much of the play pretending to be someone he’s not, making it very difficult to judge his character.

In exchange for money, characters like Corvino and Corbaccio are willing to give up important people in their lives. Corvino doesn’t think twice about giving his wife up to Volpone in hopes of winning him over and becoming his heir(It’s not even a sure thing). Corbaccio takes his son out of his will, and puts Volpone in his place. These characters are more concerned with their wealth than their family. To make matters worse, both of these characters are already wealthy and have an impressive income. Their greed blinds them and makes it easy for them to get fooled by Mosca. Money controls behavior and exposes some of mankind’s worst qualities.

The play starts off with us knowing Doctor Faustus is a very talented and brilliant scientist who has mastered just about everything a person can know. He has become bored because he knows all there is to know, and now is left with nothing else to study (Except for the supernatural). Faustus’ need to know more than he’s allowed is what leads to his demise, perhaps because there is a thing as “too much knowledge.” We do find out that his pact with the devil wasn’t only for the sake of learning new things, but also a lust for power, control and self indulgence. An excess of anything is bad and can turn a respectable and brilliant doctor into a foolish, power-hungry person. Faustus becomes so fixated on the idea of having control over everything, that he makes a very hasty decision of eternally damning his soul even after Mephistopheles and the good angel try to convince him otherwise.

We observe similar situations of wanting to know things, and having it lead to darkness (ie. Eve’s temptation). Marlow is hinting at a common human mistake that is often repeated through time. Instead of remaining humble and being content with your current  state (whether it’s wealth or knowledge), humanity has a tendency to always want more and overreach. The need for more of something is always associated with evil, and non trivial ways of obtaining “more” because it’s not naturally allowed. We also learn that intelligence doesn’t necessarily reflect morality. Robin, a child living in poverty, was faced with a similar situation and quickly rejected the idea of exchanging his freedom for a few years of power. Having a pure heart and morals can’t be acquired through studying or research.