Volpone By Ben Jonson

 

Volpone, the protagonist of the play is passionately in love with gold. He elevates gold above the sun and gold becomes to him the centre of the universe. He compared gold to a dump god. To him gold is the source of virtue, fame, honour and all other things. He says;

Thou (gold) art virtue, fame

Honour, and all things else. Who can get thee

He shall be noble, valiant, honest, wise

Volpone emerges in the play as a cunning duper. He pretends to be sick and dying and thereby extracts money from the people who seek to inherit him after his death.

The three legacy hunters Voltore, Corbaccio, Corvino, are greedy. To acquire Volpone's wealth, Voltore brought a costly antique plate as a gift to please Volpone. He is so obsessed with money that he can plead against his Maker for a few pennies. Corbaccio agrees to disinherit his own innocent son, Bonario, to inherit Volpone's wealth. For the shake of Volpone's wealth, Corvino was ready to prostitute his beautiful wife Celia. For gold Lady Would-be offers her body.

Mosca is the parasite of Volpone. But he has a keen idea in his mind to obtain the property of Volpone. He has been duping the legacy hunters to please his master. But at the end of the play, Mosca appears in his true colours. Now he decides to cheat his own master and to set himself up as the rightful owner of the property.