Convention and Contravention in Ben Jonson’s Three Comedies : Volpone, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair

Abstract

Convention and Contravention in Ben Jonson’s Three Comedies: Volpone, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair is a book about Jonson’s convention of comedy that is a disguise for the realities of life. The book aims to show the importance of the truths that are generally away from the human eye in Jonson’s time through scrutiny of Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. Selected plays are in a dialogue with Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Measure for Measure, and Twelfth Night, and close analysis of the texts of the plays offers the reader a detailed study of the upside down world of the comedic, carnivalesque period that enables characters free themselves of their responsibilities. The plays end in harmony, taking all scattered parts of the disarray of the carnival time back to its normal. Madness, lack of morality, deceitfulness, confusion, misunderstandings, and disguise are common elements in all the plays discussed in the book. Ben Jonson takes the opportunity and presents a critical viewpoint about the Elizabethan and Jacobean laxity and leniency, making the carnivalesque spirit central to his criticism. This book intends to immerse into ways in which characters create chaos within themselves in the selected plays. Shakespeare’s selected plays are supplementary texts that richly add layers, branches, and offices to the reading of Jonson’s society rather than just enriching the comedic impact of the performances.