The Beggar's Opera
Study Questions

1. The dominant satiric image of The Beggar's Opera is surely the reversal of social classes: criminals function according to the values of the upper classes because the upper classes operate according to the values of criminals. What are the implications of this inverted equation as it is acted out by the various characters of the play? What are we, as members of the audience supposed to do with the equation? Do we see ourselves as criminals, or do we blame someone else? Can we escape/

2. The high class = low class equation works with particular force when whores comport themselves as if the were fine ladies. (The scene of Macheath and the whores is almost never successful on stage, as modern actresses seem not to know how to portray either whores or fine ladies, and hence not one behaving as the other.) Is this version of the equation merely funny, or does it carry a sharper satiric sting?

3. Peachum asks Polly, "Do you think your mother and I should have lived so comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married?" The Peachums argue that the only reason for a woman to get married is to get control of her husband's money; Polly insists that she has married for love. Macheath has married Polly but impregnated Lucy, and only circumstance prevents him from marrying twice (unless, as is sometimes suggested, he has married several times already). Among the alternatives of money, love, and sex, does the play imply a consistent position regarding marriage?

4. "Those cursed play-books she reads have been her ruin," Mrs. Peachum exclaims at Polly's confession that not only has she married Macheath but she loves him. Polly tells Macheath that the romances he has lent her have shown that heroes are always faithful. To what degree is reading a problem in The Beggar's Opera? Does Gay echo Cervantes in his treatment of the illusions deriving from literacy? Is there a connection between the illusions of reading and the larger hypocrisies of society?

5. Peachum is strongly of the opinion that, whatever other claims people may make, money is the driving force of society. Does Gay share this view? (Peachum, after all, may not be a very reliable character.) Does Gay agree with Marx that the cash nexus replaces other human relationships? What is the evidence provided by the play for the extent of money's power?

6. Despite the importance of money, the fault that traps Macheath is sexuality and his lust. What does Gay imply about the force of male sexuality, and how seriously does he (and do we) take that implication? What is the relationship between Gay's treatment of male sexuality and his depiction of women? Does the play suggest a consistent view of gender roles?

7. Lockit's lockup (clearly modeled on Newgate Prison) provides a view of prison conditions in the eighteenth century. What are they? What is the relation between prison and court (on one hand) and prison and the world of informers and criminals represented by Peachum? What is the alliance between Peachum and Lockit? The prison scenes in Act II come in the middle of the play. In what senses can prison be seen as a center of the world represented in the play?

8. Filch tells Mrs Peachum that he will not violate his honor by betraying anyone, and then betrays Polly anyway. Macheath insists, until the end of the play, that honor exists among thieves but nowhere else. Gentlemen and those who claim that status refer to themselves as "men of honor." What is honor, and why does it seem so fallacious in The Beggar's Opera?

9. One of the sources of the play's huge popularity when it was first performed was its striking and specific political satire. Beyond the specific references, what is the essence of Gay's complaint against Robert Walpole and his associates? To what degree does this political satire extend beyond the boundaries of the play? Is it relevant today?

10. The Beggar's Opera was, of course, designed to be performed with music-mostly popular and folk music, but with occasional borrowings from Purcell and Handel. (We will listen to some of the music in class.) Several questions naturally follow from the status of The Beggar's Opera as the first musical comedy. What is the effect of the music? Does it sharpen or soften character and the play's satire? Does it create tensions, ironic or otherwise, with the text itself? How important, both in the eighteenth century and now, is the parody of opera in The Beggar's Opera? How is the satire of opera related to the other satiric themes and targets of the play?

11. Although none of Gay's melodies are original, all of his lyrics are? Is Gay an effective lyricist? Consider in particular the tone established by the texts (as distinct from the tone established by the melodies) and the force of Gay's figurative language. What is relation of simplicity to complexity in the lyrics? A parallel question can be asked about Gay as a dramatist. Does the play have a characteristic style in addition to the style of particular characters?

12. One of the most obvious structural devices of The Beggar's Opera is its deployment of characters: Peachum against Lockit, Polly against Lucy, the gang of thieves against the gaggle of whores, the prison against the counting house. What are the important similarities and differences in these (and other) pairings? Is the world of the play one of simple binary relationships, or does it really seek to question those relationships?

13. Most productions of The Beggar's Opera, in my experience, are unsatisfactory. What seem to you the principle problems that have to be faced in presenting it on the modern stage, and how would respond to them? More specifically, should the main characters be played as low-life types, with cockney accents and crude manners, or as high-class sophisticated people (or as people aspiring to imitate those in the upper class)? Should the play be given a modern setting in, for example, Los Vegas?

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