Analysis
The Alchemist is a play that depicts Ben Jonson’s encyclopedic sense of observation and conception of successful dramatic action. In the text, events of varied nature follow one another in quick succession, without any noticeable delay or sense of any character overstaying his or her welcome. Actions are sweeping and abundance, and the raciness of their occurrence eliminates the idea of dull moment in the text.
In The Alchemist, Ben Jonson concocts a bewildering satire on vanities and follies in every human society, for greed for power, wealth and sex are as troubling now as they were during Jonson’s Elizabethan period.
The picture is that of a Machiavellian world where each one seeks to take undue advantage of the other, Jonson’s attack is against uncontempletive push for miraculous cure for all manner of human problems and desires.
He uses the subject of alchemy, which is an obsession of his time to reveal the moral slackness of man and vividly demonstrates that avarice and lust for power, wealth and sex can be self-deluding by causing those who long and gloat over their intractable vision as well as those who think that they are secure in the affectations, to become victims of their shifty dreams. Not one of those who delude and being deluded ever gets his or her dream realised. Dol Common and Subtle are discarded empty-handed, while Mammon, the saints, Drugger and Dapper all forfeited their money and goods to Lovewits.
Jonson studies “humanity through deeply and sharply – etched characters” (Vargas 1960). Subtle is a symbol of sham alchemy and world of falsehood. He combines the belief in alchemy and fortune – telling to keep all his costumers ever longing for their desire. He is never at loss of what to tell customers. Because of the gullibility of his victims, he uses all sorts of style to keep them confounded and water their emotions. This is aided by the technique of prevarication, which he is the master of, but which he asks his customers to beware. Bewildering estoric jargons used to mystify the customers are everywhere scattered in the text. When Drugger is captured, Subtle tells him:
Write Mathlai, Tarmiel, and Baraborat;
Upon the north part, Rael, Velel, Thiel.
They are the names of those Mercurial sprits
That do fright flies from boxes (Act I Scene I).
To hoodwink Mammon, Subtle and Face talk in mystifying tongue:
Subtle. Ulen Spiegel!
Face. (within) Anon Sir!
Subtle. Look well to the register.
And let your heat lessen by degrees, to the aludels.
Face (within). Yes, sir.
Subtle. Did you look?
O’the bolt’s head yet?
Face (within). Which? On D, Sir?
Subtle. Ay!
What’s the complexion?
Face (within). Whitish.
Subtle. Infuse vinegar
To draw his volatile substance and his tincture.
And let the water in glass be filtered,
And put into the gripe’s egg.
Lute him well.
And leave him close in balneo.
(Act the Second Scene I).
Also Face is asked by Subtle, “have you set the oil of luna in kemia?” The esoteric jargon is to make the victims think that the con-artists are deeply into the practice of alchemy. When Mammon tells Subtle that his companion – Surly, distrusts their language, Subtle puts up a strong defence:
Was not all the knowledge of Egypt
Writ in mystic symbol?
Speak not the scripture oft in parables?
Are not the choicest fable of the poets,
That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom,
Wrapped in perplexed allegories?(Act II Scene I).
The technique of prevarication is used to sustain suspense and to keep the victims to keep coming. When in Act II Scene I, Subtle takes more gold to put finishing touches to the charm he is preparing for Mammon and the victim demands when the projection will be made, he keeps him off, telling him:
Son, be not hasty, I exult our medicine by hanging him in Balneo vaporosoo
and giving him solution; then congeal him;
and then dissolve him; then again congeal him;
for look, how oft I iterate the work.
so many times I add unto his virtue… get you your stuff here against afternoon, your brass, your pewter and your andirons. (Act II Scene I).
The same technique is used to dribble Drugger, Dapper, and the saints of Armsterdan.
In The Alchemist, all the segments of the society are made the butts of the satire – the rich and the poor, the doctor, lawyer, prostitute and the religions. Through role – switching, Face assumes the roles of multiple characters – the captain, the servant to the doctor as well as Lovewits varlet. The prostitute, Dol Common plays the Doctor’s mad sister as well as an aristocratic lady. Subtle is the master alchemist and a seer. These different narrative stratagems indicate that the problems treated in the play are not peculiar to any one class of people, but disturbing issues that affect both the spiritual and the temporal of all shades.
CONCLUSION
Ben Jonson is a notable Elizabethan playwright, poet and scholar. He is an influential member of the age both in terms of his theatrical activities and the thought he provokes. He conceives drama as a moral and social force and tries to use it to record his observation about the nature of existence in his time. He produces tragedies, comedies and masques, but his reputation as playwright rests firmly on his comic writings.
This article examines the life and dramaturgy of Ben Jonson. It explains the nature of his personality, his relationship with his colleagues, as well as his temper and qualities of his dramaturgy. Finally the Alchemist is analysed as an example of his dramatic output at his best.
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