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The Alchemist As a Comedy of Humors; Merits and Limitations

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The Alchemist As a Comedy of Humors; Merits and Limitations Electronic Research Journal of Literature, Volume 3 (2021) ISSN: 2708-3675 www.erjliterature.com The Alchemist as a Comedy of Humors; Merits and Limitations Muhammad Anwar Fellow of M Phil (English Literature), University of Karachi, Pakistan Email: [email protected] Fayyaz Ahmad1 Fellow of MS (Behavioural Sciences), NUST, Islamabad, Pakistan Email: [email protected] Abstract: In the prologue to The Alchemist, Jonson points out that the stage of the time is being fed by manners which have now come to be called humours. He mentions the whore, the bawd, the pimp, and the impostor as persons representing some of the humours. Jonson‟s comedies were written according to a prescription which has earned them the label, comedy of humours. The humours of which a man‟s body was supposedly compounded, according to their relative predominance, determined his disposition - choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic, or sanguine. The aim of this paper is to analyze the play as a comedy of humors and its merits and limitations as a comedy of humors. The paper concludes that the play has certain merits but it also has limitations the biggest of which is the lack of development in the characters. Keywords: Comedy of humors, Ben Jonson, character sketch, The Alchemist, etc. Introduction: In the prologue to The Alchemist, Jonson points out that the stage of the time is being fed by manners which have now come to be called humours. He mentions the whore, the bawd, the pimp, and the impostor as persons representing some of the humour. Jonson‟s comedies were written according to a prescription which has earned them the label, comedy of humour (Foley, 1949). The humour of which a man‟s body was supposedly compounded, according to their relative predominance, determined his disposition---choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic, or sanguine (Ahmed, 2021a). Jonson applied the term humour metaphorically to what is now called a man‟s obsession or his complex. He endowed each of his characters with some particular whim or affectation, some ludicrous exaggeration of manner, speech, or dress: and he pushed forward this single odd trait to such an extent that all others might be lost sight of (Arnold, 1965). Every Man in His Humours is a brisk comedy of character, designed to make “sport with human follies, not with crimes.” Each of the characters in this play is represented as under the influence of certain humour or peculiar habit, passion, or affectation, by which he is immediately distinguished from the rest. In other words, each character has his particular humour, his prevailing mood or rather his oddity, mental habit or fad (Arnold, 1965). Old Knowell in this play is excessively worried about his son‟s moral health and his activities: it is the father‟s humour thus to make himself miserable. There is a merchant, Kitely, whose humour it is to be a jealous husband. Two young, self-confident and foolish men of fashion exist only to be duped 1 Corresponding author 17 Electronic Research Journal of Literature, Volume 3 (2021) ISSN: 2708-3675 www.erjliterature.com (Amir and Ahmad, 2020a; 2020b). An honest, optimistic magistrate has unshakable faith in the virtues of a cup of wine. Bobadilla‟s humour is to brag about his military prowess and his military campaigns which, however, are purely imaginary. This device of representing humour was employed by Jonson not only in the above-namely play but also in his two great comedies, Volpone and The Alchemist. In Volpone, he studied, not a foible or whim, but a master passion, which is the passion of greed, as it affects a whole social group. In The Alchemist, he made an elaborate study of human gullibility, and the humour represented here is also the master-passion if greed which afflicts each of the dupes in the play. As Jonson points out in the prologue to The Alchemist, his purpose in representing such humour in his comedies was to make people realize their own shortcomings, follies, and absurdities and thus to try to cure themselves of these undesirable humour. His comedies were “fair correctives” which aimed at curing people of their follies and absurdities by making their victims laugh at them (Donaldson, 1997). In the prologue, Jonson declares the aim of his comic art as promoting human welfare human betterment. At the same time, he shows his awareness that the tendency towards folly and evil is so strong in human nature that comic laughter can succeed only to a limited extent in checking it. The audience would laugh at the follies and absurdities represented by the various characters, but very few in the audience would find those follies and absurdities as existent in themselves (Amir and Ahmad, 2020a; 2020b). One Particular Humour, Emphasized in “Volpone” and in “The Alchemist:” In Every Man in His Humour, Jonson deals with a variety of humour; but in his greatest plays, Volpone and The Alchemist, he concentrates on one humour which is avarice, or greed for money and gain. This is the passion which dominates all the characters. This is not surprising because the period during which Jonson lived and wrote his comedies was one rapid social change, when London was beginning to become the commercial capital of Europe, and when enormous fortunes were being made and lost in trade and commercial enterprise. It is no accident that the world of the period for financial speculation was one which appears often in the play in the context of alchemy, that word is “projection” (Ahmed, 2021a) Nor is it an accident that Subtle, Face and Dol repeatedly refer to themselves as a business enterprise, the “venture tripartite,” for which there exists a formal agreement among the three of them (Ahmed, 2021a). The Humour of Avarice or Greed in the Various Characters: Dapper: An obsessive desire for easy money is common to all Subtle‟s clients. The clients are so varied as to show in cross-section a society led by greed to folly and loss. The nobleman, the countryman, the little clerk, the churchman, the small shopkeeper: Jonson‟s net is cast widely enough over society to include all these. What might have been a parade of miscellaneous vices, gains unity and purpose from the motive which is common to all of them: an obsession with money (Ahmed, 2021b). In this way, the play depicts a whole society, ruthlessly individualistic and acquisitive, and ultimately deluded and impoverished by its own false values (Dykeman, 1988). The first client who appears in the play is Dapper who is, by profession, a lawyer‟s clerk but who is more interested in making money through gambling. Indeed, he wishes to give up his real profession and become a whole-time gambler (Akhtar, 2019). He has come to the alchemist to be provided with a “familiar” or an attendant spirit who would enable him to win money at horse-races, at card-parties, and at dice-parties. Subtle 18 Electronic Research Journal of Literature, Volume 3 (2021) ISSN: 2708-3675 www.erjliterature.com promises to provide him with the required familiar who would make Dapper win all the money at gambling-parties so that all the other contestants would be reduced to bankruptcy. He then tells Dapper that Dapper is a nephew of the Queen of Fairies who would surly bless Dapper with prosperity (Amir and Aurangzeb, 2020). When Face asks Subtle if Dapper would win at cards, Subtle replies that Dapper would win so much money that people would think that the spirits of the dead alchemists, Holland and Isaac, had begun to live once more in Dapper. Dapper feels convinced by Subtle‟s and Face‟s assurances and goes home in order to sharpen his senses with the use of vinegar, as directed. Then he comes back, and this time he allows himself to be blindfolded, gagged and stowed away in the toilet in the hope that he would be granted a personal interview with the Queen of Fairies. Ultimately an interview between Dapper and the Queen of Fairies2 is certainly arranged. In the process Dapper is robbed of whatever he had got: and in the end, he finds that he has gained nothing at all (Akhtar, 2019). The humour of Avarice in Drugger: The second client is Drugger who, by profession, is a tobacconist. He wants commercial prosperity, and he wants to expand his business. He too is given a formula for attaining success in his commercial enterprises, and he is also provided with a “thriving sign” because Subtle pretends not only to be an alchemist but also a palmist, an astrologer, and a physiognomist. Drugger too is convinced of the efficacy of the methods proposed by Subtle to ensure Drugger‟s prosperity. Drugger not only gives money to Subtle but also brings a certain quantity of his best tobacco and costly damask suit. The Humour of Avarice in the Anabaptists: Then there are the Anabaptists, Ananias and Tribulation. Ananias is certainly skeptical about Subtle‟s powers to produce the philosopher‟s stone, but the brethren at Amsterdam are fully convinced of Subtle‟s capacity to provide the philosopher‟s stone to them. Tribulation fully represents those brethren, and he tries to convince his colleague, Ananias, also of the miraculous powers of Subtle (Akhtar, 2019). The two Anabaptists then agree to pay some additional money to Subtle for providing them with the philosopher‟s stone which would place so much wealth at the disposal of the brethren at Amsterdam that they would be able to buy countries, to enlist armies to fight against their enemies, and extend the influence of their sect over large areas.
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