Volpone

Description

A Level English Literature (Volpone) Mind Map on Volpone, created by moonishthefirst on 05/12/2014.
moonishthefirst
Mind Map by moonishthefirst, updated more than 1 year ago
moonishthefirst
Created by moonishthefirst over 10 years ago
43
1

Resource summary

Volpone
  1. Themes
    1. Money & Wealth

      Annotations:

      • The theme of money and wealth in Volpone plays a paradoxical part in the play. Volpone sees his wealth as on par with the glory of religion: "open my shrine that I may see my saint." (A1,S1) while money and wealth usually embody greed and opulence.  'He (Volpone) frequently refers to his riches as god... exhibiting a blasphemous worship of material goods.'(Volpone Comprehensive Guide, ZigZa Education 2012) 
      • Consider the 'Golden Age' mentions 
      1. Religion

        Annotations:

        • The theme of religion is a large one in the play. 
        1. Vice v.s Virtue

          Annotations:

          • Vice and virtue also are a key theme to the play. Our main characters, Volpone and Mosca very usually always succumb to their vices rather than pursue their virtue. There are characters like Celia and Bonario on the other hand, who are more often than not seen as angelic and virtuous. In Elizabeth Freestones version of Volpone, Celia is seen wearing white, usually being light haired: a very angelic image of her character is painted.  And as for Bonario, in the scene where he is placed above Cobaccio and Mosca as they talk about Bonario being disinherited: shows his moral superiority above thw two lecherous characters. Also, he comes down to rescue Celia from Volpone as if an angel coming down to save her virtue. 
          • Covinio ever willing to sacrifice the virtue of his wife, Celia in order for his vices to prosper. See 'hyperbole' in language for more.
          1. Mortality

            Annotations:

            • Throughout the play, there is always the thought of Volpone dying. It tackles the concept of mortality. Human worth is cheaper than human wealth, as the three  birds of the play constantly wish for Volpone's death as to acquire wealth. However, this is not the case for Volpone, who takes more joy in manipulation rather than material wealth. "I glory/ More in the cunning purchase of my wealth/ Than the glad possession"(A1.S1)
          2. Decandence

            Annotations:

            • Venetian decedence. Consider Renaissance. 
            1. Disorder
              1. Self-deception
                1. Fairytale

                  Annotations:

                  • Volpone and Mosca are the mischevious villians, but we find ourselves liking them. It turns the idea of a fairytale on its head because our protagonists are also our antagonists. (WoB link)
                2. Language
                  1. Hyperbole

                    Annotations:

                    • Celia is "A beauty ripe as harvest!/ whose skin is whiter than a swan, all over!/Than silver, snow, or lilies!"(A1.S5) deliberate overexageration of her beauty used for dramatic effect. It is an objectifying description to imply that Celia is another gift to give to Volpone as one may give a harvest, a swan, and Volpone's favourite object, silver.
                    1. Verbal Irony

                      Annotations:

                      • "Go to, show yourself/ Obedient, and a wife"(A3.S7) Used as humour. By being obedient she has to sleep with Volpone, so would not be a wife. 
                      • Wife of Bath Link: "God bad for us to wexe and multiplye.."(line 29)
                      1. Litotes

                        Annotations:

                        • A deliberate understatement. Corvino tries to convince Celia that sleeping with Volpone would be "A pious work, mere charity, for physic"(A3.S7) When truly, it would be a breech of Celia's virtue- something that she holds more dearly than her own life.  
                        1. Imagery
                          1. Decay/Sickness
                            1. Animal

                              Annotations:

                              • V V IMPORTANT.  Animal imagery is huge in this play. Not unusual for a writer in the Jacobean period to do this. Shakespeare used a lot of animal imagery in his plays and it usually held strong links to the Great Chain of Being, a concept in the Medieval times which believed that all living and non living things belonged in a hierachy. God being at the top, angels below, man below them, animals below man and so on. So, to be called or referenced as something to do with animals to a Jacobean audience was very degrading. For Jonson to name 5 of the main characters in his play after animals, he already sets up the characters as being swine, morally questionable and villianous. "I shall have instantly my vulture, crow, / Raven, come flying hither on the news/ To peck for carrion..."(A5.S2)
                              • Volpone:  Fox in Italian.  "The Fox shall here uncase."(A5.S12)  'The animal association indicates this character's dominant traits: he is cunning and sly, he uses trickery to guile others.' (Volpone Comprehensive Guide, ZigZag Education 2012) 
                              • Mosca:  He is Volpone's parasite. He displays an excellent tendency for manipulation and manages to outwit the main trickster of the play. Mosca also plays puppeteer in the play; he encourages the other characters to underestimate him, allowing him the final advantage.  Mosca realises his conniving and cunning traits through his asides and soliloquies. Much like a Machiavellian Prince, he does not display a guilty conscience.. "Almost all the wise world is little else, in nature, but parasites or sub-parasites?"(A3.S1)
                              • Voltore: The Vulture  Not flattering animal imagery for this character.  Implies that he picks away at dead/ dying things. Many of the other characters are depicted in this way, too.
                              • Corbaccio: The Raven
                              • Covino: The Carrion Crow
                              • Sir Politic Would-Be Turtle "To shrink my poor head in my politic shell."(A5.S6) Humorous purpose
                              1. Religion
                              2. Asides

                                Annotations:

                                • Mosca: "I hear him coming." Corvinio: "She shall do it: 'Tis done" Asides to show the characters way of manipulation to the audience. It makes Mosca appear even more conniving because the characters reveal themselves in asides.  
                              3. Form/Structure
                                1. Rhyming Couplets

                                  Annotations:

                                  • Passionate rhyming couplet used here in Mosca's description of Celia: "As flesh that meleth in the touch to blood!/ Bright as your gold and lovely as your gold!"(A1.S5.) Can display both the beauty of Celia and the passionate Italian views of a beautiful woman. 
                                Show full summary Hide full summary

                                Similar

                                An Inspector Calls Revision Notes
                                Noor Sohail
                                The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team
                                Summer Pearce
                                Hamlet - Character Analysis
                                Jess Watts
                                Sheila Birling Quotes
                                Joe Blockley
                                The Duchess of Malfi Critics Quotes
                                Biha Saeed
                                The Merchant of Venice - Act 1 - Plot
                                bill fingleton
                                The Merchant of Venice Relationships
                                Antonia Blankenberg
                                Macbeth Act One - scene summaries
                                Ashleigh Huddart
                                Relationships in Pride and Prejudice
                                Antonia Blankenberg
                                A Taste of Honey - Characters
                                Evan Barton
                                Romeo and Juliet plot
                                Jadey Gemini