The Alchemist (Jonson) Lesson Plan

If all of the elements of this lesson plan are employed, students will develop the following powers, skills, and understanding:

1. 1

   Students will examine and analyze the play's primary characters, particularly through the lens of their many changing personae throughout.

2. 2

   Students will explore themes of deception, illusion, greed, and the gullibility of human nature.

3. 3

   Students will place the play within a larger historical and cultural context of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.

4. 4

   Students will delve into the theatrical and meta-theatrical aspects of the play.