Volpone

Significance of the title play volpone

By ben jonson a drama

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Basically Volpone, the play's title character, is the play's protagonist

The title ‘Volpone’ surely has its significance in its own way. Animalization, that is, Jonson's representation of characters as their namesake animals, transforms ‘Volpone’ into a kind of fable. Arguably, the character ‘Volpone’ is not as one-dimensional as the name might suggest, but the name is significant, accurate, memorable, and, most importantly, descriptive. Jonson has used the animal name ‘Volpone’ as an instrument of satire as well as satiric interpretation of the events. The character ‘Volpone’ shows us the similar kind of behavior in the play as that of a fox, he is lustful, raffish, and greedy for pleasure, he is also as energetic as a fox. He is a creature of passion, continually looking to find and attain new forms of pleasure, whatever the consequences may be and has an unusual gift for rhetoric. He worships his money, all of which he has acquired through cons, the same quality of cleverness found in a fox. Volpone hates to make money through honest labour, he loves making it in clever, deceitful ways. This dynamic in his character shapes our reaction to him throughout the play. Thus as far as the requirement of the play is concerned Jonson has done justice to the play by giving ‘Volpone’ as the title to the play and also as the name of Jonson's character ‘Volpone’ can be considered as predictor of its actions, combined with the Argument, the Animalization theme reveals the motivation of the character. As a result, the audience can focus more readily on the underlying meaning of the play instead of the how and the what. Therefore we can say that the title of the play is significant in all its perspectives