The Great Fox

Volpone by Jonson, even though a lengthier reading assignment, was one of my favorite weeks during this class. I thought the style of writing and the sarcasm within the play was intriguing to read and different from what we had been assigned to in the past. While reading the play, I kept imagining how it would appear on stage. Having taken a theatre class that required attending various productions, I thought about the different parts of the play we had discussed and how the words on the page could translate into actors in front of my eyes. Skimming through the play the first time around, I found the plot and characters more difficult to follow than anticipated. Not until I had read through the play several times [once when it was assigned and once before writing this rumination] did I truly understand all of what had been going on. Personally, I think Volpone is far too diffcult to follow or truly appreciate on paper. Much of the sarcasm that is implied throughout the play is lost on the reader. I did not find the play to be particularly humorous until the middle of events, where Sir Politic is allowing Peregrine to read his diary. It implies that Sir Politic writes down every part of his day in the diary, even when he "urinated on St. Marks cathedral." This is the first time, throughout the entire reading, that I stopped to laugh. I then realized if this were presented in front of me, I would have most likely laughed at alot more throughout the course of the play. The events that take place throughout each scene is extremely comical and the theatrics that could be included on stage would have the audience laughing "until their face was red" - which was in fact Jonson's mission.

Other than the humor and satire throughout the play, I focused mostly on the names of the characters. At first this was hard for me to follow, much like the plot line. To make things more clear, I started to focus on the translations of each character's name and see how the translation related to their personality. The first, and most obvious, was Volpone, meaning "the great fox." Naturally, Volpone is a con and owns up to this fairly early on in the play. A fox, often seen as a mischievious animal, is the perfect description for the main character. Throughout the entire play, Volpone is pulling the biggest con of his entire life. He has three men fighting for his inheritance while attempting to steal a man's wife. He even fakes his own death. What had me wondering was, where did Volpone attain all of this power? Mosca, his parasite, follows Volpone around for most of his life. It is not until all of these events take place that Mosca realizes he holds more power than Volpone. Why has Mosca chosen to live his life in Volpone's shadow up until now?

Mosca was, to me, the most interesting character throughout the entire play because he had the biggest transition. At the beginning of the play, I almost felt bad for Mosca [his name meaning "fly"] since I saw him as a person in Volpone's life that was taken advantage of. Volpone bossed him around and made it seem as though he was insignificant, much like an insect is considered. Throughout the play he evolves into somewhat of an enemey to Volpone. Volpone for so long as been pulling the wall over people's eyes that he did not see Mosca's scheme coming. This is where the nickname "parasite" begins to make sense. Mosca, who had for so long obeyed Volpone, was now going to take everything away from him, the same way a parasite sucks the blood from its victim. I found this shift in Mosca to set the tone of the play since all of the other characters trusted his word. Once Mosca betrayed them, is when pure chaos insued.