Critical Analysis of The Alchemist by Ben Johnson

[alert-success] The Alchemist by Ben Johnson [/alert-success]

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[alert-primary] Satire on Society [/alert-primary]

    For hundreds of years, the plague was a very real threat to the people of London. But some people were more worried about moral dangers like prostitution, alcoholism, drug addiction, and gambling that came with city life. In The Alchemist, Ben Jonson brings up the interesting idea that both the plague and vice thrive in a city with a lot of people. Since there have always been more poor people in cities than in the country, people may associate the city with wanting money. As Jonson shows with his plot and characters, this greed makes people do things that are wrong. 

        The Alchemist takes place in London in 1610, which is also when the play was first put on, so it became a comment on the social scene at the time. Lovewit leaves the city for the countryside to get away from the spread of the plague. When he leaves, he tells his butler, Face, to take care of the house. Face uses this chance to call his friends, Subtle and Dol Common, and asks them to help him take advantage of people's greed with their money-making cons. The three characters convince many other characters that they can make money from Subtle's philosopher's stone, which can turn metal into gold, or from his astrological visions. These characters range from a gambler who wants to use Subtle's vision to win more money to two Puritans who want to bring money to their congregation. 

        In fact, Jonson gives a wide range of immoral characters on purpose so that he can make fun of them. For example, he says,

"No clime breeds better matter

 (than London) for your whore/Bawd,

 squire, impostor, (and) many persons more." (prologue, 7-8).  

      Jonson seems to think that a wide range of bad people lived in London, which is why he shows this range. Eventually, Lovewit goes back home to stop the cons from making money off of all of these different characters. Once Lovewit forgives Face for setting up his engagement to Dame Pliant, order is finally restored. 

        The plot and characters of the play made it popular when it was first put on, but audiences lost interest in it over time, and it is rarely seen on modern stages. Most likely, this early success is because people were interested in the play's immediate social relevance, especially since it makes fun of the Puritan characters so much. Ananias and Tribulation, two Puritan characters, want to raise money for their church. Subtle and Face tell them that the only way to make more money is to use the philosopher's stone to make gold. So, even though Ananias calls himself a "faithful brother" (2:5:7), he is thinking about making fake money and going against the law. 

        These two characters show what Jonson thinks of religious fanatics who don't care about man's laws or morals and only care about God's. In fact, Jonson makes fun of the Puritans even more when he creates Tribulation Wholesome, Ananias's "very zealous pastor" (2:5:10), who is the complete opposite of his "wholesome" name. 

        Even though Ananias at least initially denies the philosopher's stone, which offends God because "it is a work of darkness/and with philosophy, blinds the eyes of man" (3:1:9–10), Tribulation immediately rejects his objections because he believes they "must bend unto all means/that may further the holy cause" (3:1:11-12). Tribulation is willing to do anything, even if it is wrong, to help his congregation. So, he is willing to do something wrong if it will help his life, which he thinks is moral. The hypocrisy of these two characters shows the main reason Jonson and his contemporaries didn't like his plays. Puritans didn't like his plays because they thought they were immoral, but something could be immoral as long as it helped God. In one of Jonson's later works, this dislike of hypocrisy and the bad way Puritans are shown becomes an even stronger theme. 

        Even though this play is different from some of Jonson's earlier works, it has a lot in common with Bartholomew's Fair, which he wrote just four years later. This play shows how human indulgence and exploitation are linked. It is also a clever and crafty play. People who go to the fair and people who work at the fair both have a lot of want and greed. In the same way, Subtle, Face, and Dol are really hurt by their own greed. So, just like the people who work at the fair, Face and his friends can take advantage of and make money off of other people because they want money too much. 

        Jonson's growing dislike of Puritanism and how it was shown in the literature of the time is an interesting example of a cultural revolution, since the Puritans' colonisation of America was caused by more public displays of intolerance, such as in literature and plays. So, Jonson's The Alchemist and his other works give historians a window into society through which they can see what led to the start of a religious reformation. 

        The Alchemist is a satire of society that goes beyond the time of Jacobean London and into our own time. It is a type of all people who commit fraud. The hero and his friends represent the scientific charlatan, the solemn knave, and his indispensable sidekick, who will keep getting rich as long as nature is mysterious and people are gullible. Spiritualists, clairvoyants, theosophists, and people who can read your thoughts are all good examples of greed in our time. 

        The play shows both familiar situations and a world that has been turned upside down. It shows a society that is driven by stupidity and greed. Like the Jero plays by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, there is a wide range of characters that show almost every level of stupidity and trust.

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