Comparing Othello and Volpone Essay -- Comparison Compare Contrast Ess

Similarities in Othello and Volpone Upon reading Shakespeares l604 tragedy, Othello, the Moor of Venice and Jonsons l606 comedy, Volpone, or The Foxe, a reader will circular both similarities and differences. In both plays, we meet characters of rare ingenious knavery. Indeed, Iago, Volpone, and Mosca are uncommonly similar in nature. An elaborate con game is practiced in each play through intriguing dramatic inventiveness. However, the focus of Shakespeares tragedy is upon a noble and heroic figure the focus of Jonsons comedy is upon a addict of depravity, a genius in crime. Comparisons between these great plays continues to pale when Jonsons script is held up to scrutiny. Whereas Shakespeares seventeenth century work in comedy would turn continually toward soft edges, romance, and the pastoral, mixing both the serious and the humorous, Jonson gear uped a reputation as one of the major social satirists of the English dramatic tradition. In fact, Jonsons comedies establish the tradition of social comedy on the English stage. In Volpone, although the satire is ultimately moral, its immediate aim is mostly social or legal. The play unmasks the fake features of respectability, exposing vice and the manipulations of hypocrites. To his credit, Jonson did not altogether excuse the imperceptiveness of the victims in the play. Jonsons central characters are among the early models of anti-heroes, a term generally restricted to characters found in Dostoevski, Sartre, or Camus. The specimens dramatized in Volpone are not merely fools, but money-hungry, lustful, morally despicable knaves. Their names immediately suggest their depravity because they are identified with the world of beasts. Thus, the lawy... ... Now, though the Fox be punishd by the laws, / He yet doth hope, there is no suffring due, / For any fact which he hath done gainst you / If there be a excommunication him here he doubtful stands. / If not, fare jovially, and clap your hands. Works Cited and Consulted Barish, Jonas A. Ben Jonson A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice-Hall Inc. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1963. Campbell, Lily B. Shakespeares Tragic Heroes. New York Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1970. Dessen, Alan C. Jonsons Moral Comedy. northwesterly University. Press, 1971. Kermode, Frank. Othello, the Moor of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston, MA Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.