Tag Archives: loyalty

In class we discussed the differences between Volpone and Mosca, and Carol A. Carr’s article, “Volpone and Mosca: the two styles of roguery”  argues that although there are similarities between the two, Volpone is the more intriguing, charismatic and less typical rogue/ villain.

While that may be true, I still find myself preferring Mosca to Volpone. One of the reasons for that is for all their seemingly innate roguishness / villainny there is still one essential difference between them: Volpone is the ‘gentleman’ and Mosca is his servant, his ‘parasite.’  That means that Mosca is dependent on Volpone for his livelihood and for his very survival. However weird their relationship seems in the beginning of the play, however untypical for the usual master / servant relationships, at the end of the day they all, from the vultures: Castrone, Voltore, Carbaccio, to the rest of the world, including Volpone, still view Mosca as someone below them, there to do their bidding.  Despite the hints of admiration Volpone shows for Mosca’s ability to turn cons, there is still no admiration or respect for Mosca’s skill, as Volpone says in act 5.7.1-3, “Outstripped thus by a parasite? A slave/Would run on errands, and make legs for crumbs? …”  ( And even further proved by the severity of Mosca’s punishment compared to the Volpone’s sentence.)

The article talks about how both Volpone and Mosca are intelligent and creative in their cons, and how although they are both detached from the money, they are detatched for difference reasons.  But the issue with that is that while the cons are primarily entertainment (not profit) for Volpone, they are part of Mosca’s job and his way of life in order to survive.

Mosca is much more pragmatic and realistic because that is the reality of his station in life. The article mentions that while Volpone has static disguises he takes on,  Mosca’s disguise is constant but at the same time fluid, as he adapts his manner to the person with whom he is interacting.  But despite that fact, there is much less pretense to Mosca, no rose- colored cover or pretty words to present the type of person that he is or his motivation in a better light.

In class we also spoke about loyalty and how it seems that Mosca betrays Volpone. But Volpone’s loyalty is to the con, not to Mosca or his bastard children – so why did Mosca have to show him more loyalty than was shown to him?! Mosca says, “ I’ll bury him or gain by him. I am his heir / And so will keep me till he share at least” (5.5.13-15).  Mosca wants part of the profit; he wants financial security and independence, which can be understandable because Volpone has no care or caution about anyone beside himself.  In a play where every character (except two) is rotten to the core, at least Mosca doesn’t pretend to be better than he is, but the same cannot be said for the others.