Materialism and Domination in Ben Jonson's Volpone - Research Paper Example

Introduction Materialism has been defined in very many ways by different literature people, the English dictionary defines materialism as a belief that only material things such as money, possession and physical comforts exit. Marx’s opinion when he talked about materialism, he argued that “materialism is something that acts in one way or another upon our senses causing human beings to act, think and feel in specific ways. In his theory on how the society works and how history has evolved, especially when one analyses the capitalist nature, his views are of great importance when analyzing the materialistic and dominance in Ben Johnson’s play. The concept materialism is many times associated with political nature where, agents of politics are seen as materialist. Marxist provided us with knowledge of how the society works and thus, poets and philosophers can predict how the society will behave over time (Friedman, 1974). When you look at Marxist versus historical materialism the idea of a society developing from one stage to another can be seen although such transition is characterized by several conflicts that arise between social relations and productive forces. Marxist believed that a change in ideas could not change the society because dominant ideas that the reformers use to bring change to the society are embedded in material conditions. In the play “Volpone” various characters portray acts of materialism and dominance among and against each other. In this play, two characters by the name Volpone and Moscow play the servant master relationship, for an individual to employ a servant, he must possess some material things such as money, physical comforts which can be seen by the way a person spends his jewelry, his clothes and behavior around other people. Servants normally would be submissive to their master and follow their masters’ instructions to the letter. In Marx’s theory several ideas can be seen, for instance capitalism which is a system that he covers extensively in his work. Under capitalism, the resources in a society are owned by the elite in the society, they are the ones who make decisions on how to invest the resources. The idea under capitalist is that, since there are few individuals who own material wealth and natural resources they can be able to exploit the needy in the society. For example, in the capitalist exploitation of labor is a common phenomenon as portrayed by Marxist. In the play a similar behavior is seen in Volpone, he wants to exploit the likes of Voltore, Corbaccio and Corvino. Because he possesses a significant amount of vast wealth with no heir and he knows that several people would fall prey in his trap in the quest to be named the beneficiary of his wealth or at least be given a portion of the wealth. Volpone thinks that because he owns material wealth he can easily dominate over peoples thoughts. This is evident in the actions of the three characters, Voltore, Corbaccio and Corvino, who bring him gift after gift hoping their generosity to the sick man will be repaid in tenfold. It is so ironic that even though Volpone’s servant has no wealth he is able to manipulate him contrary to his expectation. Mosca plots a lot of schemes for his master and the other three individuals, Voltore, Corvino, and Corbaccio, portraying his desire to dominate above everyone. The desire for wealth is a common phenomenon in this play, Volpone, Mosca, Corvino Corbaccio and Voltore all desire wealth. In their pursuit to achieve this goal, they seek to outdo each other in the different plots they come up with. Volpone and Mosca seek to cheat the lawyer, the merchant and the old miser who is also on the verge of dying, on the other hand, Mosca is encouraging the three to continue bringing gifts to his master, he does this intentionally because he has a plan that will benefit him. Volpone has a great desire to accumulate as much gold as he can, he says to his servant “I long to have possession of my new present”, his servant uses this to introduce him to a beautiful lady, the wife of Corvano. In his attempts to persuade Volpone, Mosca describes Celia’s beauty as bright and lovely as his gold. By Mosca likening the beauty of Celia to his master’s gold, use of “his” signifies the possessive nature creating the impression that even Celia can be possessed. His desire for a new woman is aroused and he henceforth plans on how to win the lady. This is seen in the second Act of the play where Volpone disguises himself as a mountebank and goes to woe Celia by singing melodious songs for her despite the threats he receives from Corvino. Volpone hopes to get Celia and possess her just like any other material things that are in his possession. According to Ben, the word possessive indicates that something belongs to another. Since he is feigning sickness he requires his servant to deliver the message to Celia. The language used in the play also helps in reinforcing the materialistic nature of the characters and the desire to own more and more wealth with no limit. Looking at Corbaccio who’s on the verge of dying but still he is pursuing material wealth up to the end of the edge. The use of possessive pronouns in the play makes people as things that can be owned just like property. And ownership of things leads to control and domination of other individual (Howard, 1991). In the play Volpone uses a lot of possessive nouns such as “my”; in the opening scene he identifies his household as “my dwarf, my eunuch and my fool”. Although Volpone and Mosca are united in criminal activities the venetian social hierarchy does not allow them to be true friends, as much as he relies on him Volpone still sees Mosca as his servant whose there to please him. Volpone cannot imagine Mosca being anything else other than his servant, but later in the play we see Mosca emerge as a skillful manipulator of possession and people even to the point the he beats his master in his own game. He does not own any material property but his wits. He is engaged in providing service to all men but secretly he is no man’s, but his own. He is successful at creating the illusion that he is just a servant to serve the master, but he his is own master. Mosca is using Celia to gain control of Volpone and his wealth. Corvino is held high in the social ladder because of his money and he fears to lose anything making his servants to work tirelessly. He also believes that anything can be bought with money; though he is stingy he can offer money to get whatever he wants. Corvino also displays an act of desire when he agrees to let his wife to sleep with Volpone, his desire for material wealth is stronger than the jealousy he feels. He portrays some acts of dominance towards his wife, he commands his wife to do something against her will with the excuse that they will gain material wealth from Volpone; he is more concerned with financial gain than the faithfulness of his wife. He believes Mosca who tells him that he will be made the sole heir if he lets his wife sleep with Volpone in order for his health to be restored. After Celia arrives at Volpone house, he attempts to rape her when she does not give to his pleas. The society in which he plays takes place is a male dominated society that is why when Celia is asked to do something against her will she does so in order to avoid losing her place as a woman. Mosca saves his master by blaming the incident on poor Bonario. It is clear that material wealth can lead to an individual dominating others as in the play when Volpone succeeds in proving that Celia and Bonario are lovers and hence, acquainting himself when in fact he should be paying for the evil he had done. The climax of deception is seen in the fifth scene where we see Volpone faking his demise and send his servant to go and tell the likes of Corvino, and Corbaccio to come and claim their inheritance whereas he has named his servant as the heir to his wealth. He later taunts them further by following them disguised as a police officer. Ben’s play end with everyone paying for the crimes he has committed, Volpone is deprived of his wealth, Bonario remains to be his father’s heir and Mosca the lying villain is sentenced to the galleys. The characters in the play portray act opportunism where individuals would rather live off the wealth of others than do honest work. Mosca has realized that he can inherit his master’s wealth and hence be regarded as an important person in the society regardless of where he acquired his wealth from. Marxist believed in a society free of exploitation and dominance, he advocated for socialism that would see to the end of dominion of private property (Howard, 1991). Although he did not give the structure to be followed to create a socialist society in his definition for socialism he includes things like a just society, collective ownership of the means of production meaning that there will be no single or a few people who are capitalist that would be encouraged to dominate over the others who do not have material wealth. Taking a look at the anti-capitalist politics that took place in the 20th century was influenced by most of the ideas and activism of Marxist. Class Conflict One basic determinant of classifying class in a society is one's relationship to the means of production, where the means of production refer to things like capital, labor, factories and mines (Trainer, 2010). The play is set in Venice which is well known for its wealth and power. According to Marxist throughout any historical period dominant classes can be identified, by observing the inequality in wealth and power that created classes in the society, for example in a capitalist society two classes existed those who own the means of production, the capitalist and those who own labor, the workers. The factor that determines what happens in a society is the drive to accumulate capital that is the ceaseless quest to make profits which are then re-invested, to make more profit (Trainer, 2010). There is a constant struggle of domination over classes that is depicted in the play, Mosca a servant want to own his master’s wealth. When he is named Volpone’s heir, when his master fakes his death, it shows how badly Mosca wanted that wealth and when he finally was in possession he did not want give it back even to the rightful owner. Volpone shows the desire to dominate Celia physically, he wants to take her by force against her will. The virtue of a young woman is compromised by men who seek to increase their own fortune. On the other hand, lady would-be visit Volpone, she uses her words to dominate over Volpone mentally; the words that she speaks to her nearly talk Volpone to death. Volpone and Mosca are constantly swindling people out of their money, making them believe that they will be the sole heir of Volpone’s vast wealth when he dies. In a capitalist society those who own and control the means of production benefit most creating a disproportionate society in wealth and power the case in the venetians society ( Trainer, 2010). In a capitalist society, Marxist postulates that capitalists have to constantly seek more profit and compete with each other failure to do so, some of the capitalist will overthrow. In the play, various characters have to be involved in mischievous plots as they pursue their desire for wealth. Mosca is turning Bonario against his father by telling him of the intentions of his father to disinherit him by making Volpone the sole heir hoping he will do so too. One of the side effects of capitalism is that it alienated workers in performing particular activities and routine operations. Workers were not engaged in decision making, they never got the opportunity to see the finished product, they have no say in the planning and organization of work, their work is to do what they are told and no room to exercise their initiative. This is what is seen in the play with masters acting like capitalist and slaves symbolize workers. The master expects the slave to follow instructions and be available for them when need be, their interest is to keep the master happy. Another effect of capitalism is that it turns everything into a commodity that can be purchased, in the play; Volpone believes that his material wealth can get him anything he wants including Celia, the wife of Corvino. Capitalism tends to destroy non-economic values of a society such that anything valuable is measured in terms of money (Trainer, 2010). For instance, before capitalism whether or not one would work another depended on many important moral, religious and traditional values and not on the prospects of personal economic gain. The play shows how the society’s moral virtues have been replaced by vices brought about by capitalism, vices such as greed, adoration of material wealth, cheating, jealousy, lack of respect for human dignity and lying are the new norms in the society. Volpone feigns sickness in order to deceive the likes of Voltore into believing that they will receive the inheritance, he further tries to sexually abuse the wife of Corvino but he does not succeed. Voltore, Corvino and Corbaccio are greedy such that they want to obtain Vopone’s inheritance by all means possible including disinheriting one’s son just to please Volpone who does not return the favor. Due to the existence of such vices, what was once a society that is bonded is disentangled, with instances of family breakdown, selfishness and a lot of crimes. Dominated and exploited classes do not understand the situation they are in or what their interests are, they do not realize how their situation is unjust, this is usually due to the acceptance of ideas leading to people believing (Trainer, 2010). In a society where there are classes, ideologies will be made up of ideas that suit the dominant class of the people. Marxist argues that the state exists in order to serve the dominant class in the society, in a capitalist society the rule of the state is primarily in the interest of the wealthy class that dominates over the others (Howard, 1991). For example, when the state wants to improve the economic activities the immediate beneficiaries are the elite in the society while the poor’s quality of life continues to fall at the expense of the wealthy. Marxist pictured a society that had no class; hence it needed no state, in order for this to happen a revolution must take place. But Marxist theory, that a society free of capitalist is free from materialism and domination has received a lot of critics since even after getting rid of capitalist such vices would still be there. In Marxist theory of historical materialism he postulates that, the economic structure of society is the key factor that creates a barrier to historical transformation. He also identifies conflicts between classes as a propellant for historical change; most conflicts in a society arise between the owners of a property and the property-less as in the play, the circumstances that lead Volpone, Mosca, Corvino, Corbaccio and Voltore to be judged in court in their desire to inherit the material possession of Volpone. Conclusion Venice, where the play is set, was a wealthy city during the time of the Renaissance; the citizens in the city were full of materialism and showed their extravagance publicly. The characters in the play provide an overview of the situation in Venice. In the play various classes can be seen, the rich, average and the poor. The poor in the society are slaves who provide services to the wealthy masters. There is a struggle by various individuals to fit into various classes as seen in Lady would-be who wants to associate herself with the classy prostitutes on order to get the latest gossip and fashion trends in town. In the play, various actors portray acts of dominance against each other, engaging in deceitful plots to take advantage of the fortune of the other. Work Cited Johnathan Friedman. Marxism’s Structuralism and vulgar materialism. 1974. Vol. 9. Pg. 444-469 Howard Marchitell. Desire and Domination in “Volpone". 1991. Warrington, Ronnie and Douzinas, Costas (1986) Domination, exploitation and suffering: Marxism and the opening of closed systems. Volpone’s Possessives. The Ben Jonson Journal. 2011. Vol. 18 Issue 1. Pg. 113–125 Ted Trainer. Marxist theory. 2010. Read More