The Beggar's Opera Essay

David Jephthah Jephthah 1

Dr. Williams Jones

English 105

2/4/2015

The stories of betrayal, cynical criminals, and corrupted beauty.

The more one critically looks at the play and it reception, the less convincing it is to take the play as just a piece of Opera. In John Gay’s 18th century theatrical story “The Beggar’s Opera”, the main characters such as Peachum, Mrs. Peachum, Macheath, Polly, Lucy, Matt of the mint and lockit are each seen respectively exhibiting ironic and cynical attitudes. Just before the beginning of the play, the Beggar and the Player tells the audience that the piece is a true opera; though it possesses no recitative which is not unnatural. The level of sophistication of this piece its words which are

Macheath has just been arrested and in no way wishes to be there. Jail is not a place Macheath would want to be welcomed to or choose as a place to lay his head. Although, if a prisoner has ample money, the prisoner may have a wonderful stay in prison, since the entire system is based on profit making. Lockit goes on to say, "when a gentleman uses me with civility, I always do the best I can to please him" ( ). In no way has courtesy and respect have anything to do with how a prisoner gets treated in prison but money does. However, Macheath bribes Lockit and in return Lockit hands him give a pair of handcuffs and says, "How genteelly they were made!" ( ). Lockit claims handcuffs are elegant and stylish. He also says of the handcuffs that, "the nicest man in England might not be ashamed to wear them" ( ). Never will a man of high morals wear handcuffs one claims it is, the act of wearing handcuffs is shameful. Criminals, such as Macheath, are what sustain Peachum and Lockit’s system of the business economy. Without this criminals there would be no one to steal from them, no one from whom to collect bribe money, no prisoners to release from jail so they could steal more, and no one to