『볼포네』에 나타난 주인-하인의 역할놀이

Abstract

Ben Jonson is well-known as a playwright of the comical satires and powerfully influential on the younger wits who formed the Tribe of Ben in Elizabethan and Jacobean period. Jonson was a scholar and a classical antiquarian so he was on sound historical ground. Volpone is on the anti-acquisitive tradition inherited from the Middle Ages. In Volpone, we may find a philosophy of life that facilely divides the world into the knaves and their dupes, and identifying brains with roguery and innocence with folly. This paper discusses the relationship between master and servant in Volpone, through Volpone and Mosca, the main characters of this play. Volpone is an old magnifico of Venice who glories mere in the cunning purchase of his wealth than in the glad possessions. Volpone has no relative to whom to leave his fortune. This fact draws new clients with presents to his house daily. He is not motivated by greed in the beginning. He is much more of a gambler than a miser. But the development of mood is from an assured, self-satisfied cleverness at the beginning scene, through domination by the passions first of lust and then folly and then fear and then obsessive searching for amusement. Finally Volpone forfeits his complete identity, literally lose himself when he has himself pronounced dead. Mosca is a parasite of Volpone as gadfly. In the beginning, he was a true parasite. He always satisfy his master's order for amusement and to assist master's plan. After that he is like a theatrical producer and becomes infatuated with his own cleverness. Self-possession ruins Mosca, as it does Volpone. In relationship between Volpone and Mosca, the treachery and ambition of flattering parasite can bring about disaster and self-possession. Jonson indirectly satirizes the corruption, self-possession and self-seeking of London.