The Alchemist Research Paper

Is lying an inevitable part of life? As long as people live and have free will, it seems some people will always choose to be untruthful therefore causing havoc with their choices. The Alchemist by Ben Jonson is a play unlike others of its time period. However, even it does not escape the flaws of our world such as lying. In a time period as fragile as The Alchemist’s setting, one would think the characters would be a little more cautious than they are portrayed to be by the author. In this play nobody is safe from both emotional distress and physical misery. The physical trouble of the time was the plague. It would kill people literally within hours of infestation. Only the rich had enough wealth to protect them from this disease by running
away. As if the plague was not enough for the characters to endure, they also suffered mental tribulation from being deceived by one of the three conmen.
The conmen were even powerless to the see through one another’s selfishness. Jonson teaches his audience how easily trusting someone can be when consumed by the power of greed and lend them vulnerable to deceit.
In The Alchemist, there are three main conmen whom the play revolves around. The first of the three is Subtle, who despite his name is the most straightforward of the three. He is what some would call the brains behind the operation. His job is to perform the deceiving acts required to keep the clients from questioning in the conmen’s powers. The next is Face, who most appropriately, is indeed the face of the operation. His job is to reel in the customers and charm them in order to act out Subtle’s game plan. Face is also responsible
for sheltering the operation because he uses his master’s house, Lovewit, while he is away hiding from the plague. In the very opening scene of the play, the audience is thrown directly into the middle of an argument amongst Face and Subtle over who is truly in charge of the scam they are running. This is when the last conmen steps in to act as the peacemaker and keep the operation running smoothly. This last character is actually a woman named Dol Common who is for the common people meaning she is a prostitute. She then tries to point out just how childish they are being by asking “Will you be Your own destructions, gentlemen?” (Jonson Act 1 Scene 1). Just as the three are settling the argument, the first client comes to the door where the first con will begin. The first client’s name is Dapper, a lawyer’s clerk, who is looking to maximize his gambling profits on playing card games and betting on horse races. Subtle and Face tell him he must visit with the Fairy Queen in order to bring him good luck. Luckily, Subtle (who is now in disguise as a doctor), claims to be a relative of the Fairy Queen herself. None of this will come cheap to Dapper, as the two request an amount of his winnings for their service. Next, the two con the second client who is a tobacconist named Abel Drugger. He requests help in order to redesign his shop to earn a bigger profit. He would also like to know the best months to sell. Yet again, this will not come free to Drugger either, as they ask for a portion of his profits and some tobacco. Up next, we have Sir Epicure Mammon, who is accompanied by his friend Surely, he wishes to obtain the “Philosopher’s Stone”. In this particular con, Subtle changes disguises to become the alchemist, someone who has the power of turning something ordinary into something special. Mammon wants the power and sex that he thinks the stone will bring him. The conmen convince him that in order for the stone to be made, he must bring them his metal goods to be turned into gold. He lays eyes on Dol and is wooed by her and the fact that he believes she is a mad apprentice learning Alchemy from Subtle. The Anabaptists show up on the scene next, the conmen look to sell them the gold they made from Mammon’s metal goods for “charity”. After much arguing and disagreement between Subtle and the Anabaptists, the audience can tell these characters while being the most religious in turn are also the greediest con of the bunch. In the middle of the play, a little hiccup happens when all of the cons show up as once, yet the on the ball thinking of Face saves the entire operation. Around this time we also meet our last con, Drugger’s friend, Kastril and his widowed sister Dame Pliant. Kastril wants to learn how to quarrel and his sister is on the market for a new husband. He desires her to marry rich but little does he know Drugger wants her all to himself. This fact seems to be common because once Face and Subtle see her, they would both like to have her all to themselves as well. When all their cons clash again, they play one against another, such as Kastril fighting Surly. In a surprising twist, Lovewit returns home where he learns from his neighbors just what has been going on while he is gone. Face learns of this fact and informs Subtle and Dol running them off. He confronts his butler Jeremy (Face) on the subject and tells him “You know that I am an indulgent master, And therefore conceal nothing” (Jonson Act 5 Scene 3). Face fesses up telling him the truth of his plan and for that, Lovewit rewards him with forgiveness. In the end, Face is the ultimate winner of the three despite not getting the girl that he and Subtle both desired. Jonson uses several different literary and theatrical devices in his play to teach his audience about greed. The first being the three questions any theatre production should answer. The three questions are who wants what, what happens if they don’t get it, and why now. Going through each con he shows both what the clients want and what the conmen want in return for their service. The clients end the play with less than they started with, but Face (Jeremy) being the only conman left behind is rewarded with all the clients materials and riches. The circumstances of the plague made this the perfect opportunity for the conmen. The next device he uses is a heavy load of irony. This is especially apparent in the names of the cons, such as Subtle being explicit. No one is as they seem but the audience is able to see what is happening with the cons while the characters who are being conned do not. Jonson even picks apart at religion as one can see through his depiction of the Anabaptists. These characters seem to be the greediest of them all which no one would expect from church affiliated individuals. While talking to Face one of the two Anabaptist named Ananias, says “Casting of dollars is concluded lawful” explaining how they have decided it is okay to use the counterfeit money the conmen offer them (Jonson Act 4 Scene 7). Another device he uses is called metatheatre. This is when the playwright chooses to address the audience directly and is completely aware of their existence sometimes even referred to as breaking the “fourth wall”. The ultimate con is between the actors and the audience who have paid to watch such a show. They are fully aware of the fact that all of the play is fictional yet they still buy into it and waste time, they did not have to lose because of the plague. This makes the play that much more personal and relative to how even the audience is disobeying Jonson’s forewarning on deceitfulness. Do not let The Alchemist fool you, it was written for the common man unlike what many other opposing playwrights wrote.
As it was unsafe to be in close corridors while such a deadly disease broke out people were literally dying to see it. The rich flee from the problem and as natural selection proves they will continue to prosper as the common people suffer. However, no amount of money in the world can save you from the things Ben Jonson teaches his audience in The Alchemist. With most of the cons, the reward appeared to be money, yet there were times, like Drugger who brought them tobacco, where the cons demanded more out of greed. Jonson makes an example out of this using Subtle and Face. They were two-faced to each other in order to fill their personal desires which for both was winning the notorious widow’s heart. Jonson recognized just how deceitful a group of criminals can be behind closed doors, no matter how well one thinks they know them. Do net let selfishness get in the way of the decisions made on who and what to believe
in.