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Ben Jonson's Theme of Reality Vs Illusion with Special Reference To Electronic Research Journal of Literature, Volume 3 (2021) ISSN: 2708-3675 www.erjliterature.com Ben Jonson’s theme of reality vs illusion with special reference to The Alchemist Hazhar Ramadhan Ahmed Lecturer and PhD Researcher, University of Raparin College of Basic Education, Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq Email: [email protected] Abstract: The contrast between reality and illusion is a prominent theme in the Alchemist. People are not what they seem to be. They are not what they say they are. They are not able to maintain or sustain their true identities. They either mask their identities deliberately or are made to forget their identities by others. In short, there is a marked disparity between what is and what seems to be. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to critically analyze Jonson’s theme of reality in contrast to the illusion with special reference to his play Alchemist. Keywords: Ben Jonson, theme of The Alchemist, reality in The Alchemist, Illusion in The Alchemist, etc. Introduction: The contrast between reality and illusion is a prominent theme in the Alchemist. People are not what they seem to be. They are not what they say they are. They are not able to maintain or sustain their true identities. They either mask their identities deliberately or are made to forget their identities by others. In short, there is a marked disparity between what is and what seems to be. To begin with the conspirators, the chief villain among them is Subtle because without him the conspiracy would have no legs to stand upon. At the very outset, Dol addresses him as “sovereign”; and the audience is bound to feel impressed and even awed if he had not used the obscene word “far” in his first remark. In any case, the reality of this man is exposed almost immediately afterward by Face who reveals that Subtle had originally been starving and that he had been walking around food-shops, looking like the “father of hunger” (Amir and Ahmad, 2020a; 2020b). Face then also points out that Subtle, with all his alchemy, his algebra, his minerals, his vegetal, his animals, his conjuring, his cozening, and his dozen of trades did not even have a rag on his body (Amir and Aurangzeb, 2020). Face claims that it was he who had provided Subtle with all the apparatus, the materials, and the furnace to establish a sort of laboratory for his so-called alchemical process by means of which he could throw the dust into the eyes of his clients and thus rob them. Face now threatens to punish Subtle’s hollowness and his empty pretensions. Face goes on to say that he will advertise all Subtle’s impostures and would expose the falsity of his claims regarding the philosopher’s stone (Ouellette, 2005). Thus it is obvious that there is a big disparity between what Subtle claims to be and what he really is. 9 Electronic Research Journal of Literature, Volume 3 (2021) ISSN: 2708-3675 www.erjliterature.com The Case of Face and of Dol: If Dol addresses Subtle at the beginning as “sovereign,” she addresses Face as “general.” Later, Face’s reality is exposed at once by Subtle in the course of the quarrel between them. Subtle reveals that Face was originally a “livery-three-pound-thrum” and that later he was translated into a bogus soldier wearing a captain’s uniform. According to Subtle, Face used to live by selling his master’s provisions which were actually meant for distribution among the poor. Subtle claims that he had picked up Face out of the dung and that Face was then a poor, wretched man having no living creature as his companion except a spider. Subtle says that it was he who had “sublimed” Face, “exalted him, and raised him to the highest pitch of refinement.” It was he who had taught Face “how to swear, how to quarrel, and how to make money at horse-races, at the cock-pit, at cards, and at dice.” Subtle further says that, but for him, Face would still have been living in underground cellars in the midst of horse-dung or in an ale-house darker than a toilet which is out of order. But for subtle, this man would have been lost to all mankind except to washerwomen and barmen. These exposures of the two men by each other are then confirmed by the exchange of abusive words between them. “Cheater, bawd, cow-herd, conjurer, cut-purse, and witch;” such are the compliments which they pay to each other. Subtle says: “Away, you trencher-rascal;” while Face says to him: “Out, you dog-leech, the vomit of all prisons.” Later, the same Dol, who had previously addressed them as “sovereign” and as “general” respectively, comes out with the truth about them. She addresses them as “perpetual curs.” She describes Face as a “whoreson, an upstart, a fake captain,” adding that not “a Puritan in this locality would have trusted him for so much as a feather.” She also tells Subtle that he has no business “to claim primacy in this tripartite venture.” When Dol intervenes in the quarrel, Face contemptuously calls her “a bitch.” However, when the quarrel is made up, Subtle describes this woman as “royal Dol” who has “spoken like Claridiana,” while Face says that she would no longer be described as “Dol Common” but as “Dol proper” and as “Dol Singular”, who would sit in triumph at supper that night (Ouellette, 2005). False Roles Assumed by Subtle: All these facts about the three conspirators are brought out in the opening scene. In other words, it is revealed what they are actually and what they have been posing to be. Later, this contrast between reality and illusion takes another shape. Subtle is thought by all his clients to be the alchemist, the miracle-worker. When Mammon arrives in the company of Surly at Subtle’s establishment, Subtle and Face begin to talk to each other in detail about the alchemical process which is supposed to be going on in the laboratory inside. Face reports that the liquid on the furnace is changing its color, while Subtle gives him further instructions as to what is to be done (Ouellette, 2005). The men use alchemical jargon like specialists in their art to impress visitors. Subtle says that two of his inferior works are at fixation and that the third is in ascension. When Mammon, who also has picked up some of the technical vocabularies, asks when Subtle would make the projection. Subtle replies that there should be no haste in doing so because the longer the time he takes to do so, the more powerful and the more effective would the philosopher’s stone become. He then directs Mammon to send all his metallic goods to the laboratory for conversion into gold. The matter does not end here. In order to satisfy Surly, the alchemist propounds the theory of alchemy, providing a scientific basis for it. He says that gold did not originally exist as gold but that it existed as “prime matter” which, in the course of the ages, developed into gold after passing through many intermediate stages (Amir and Aurangzeb, 2020). However, Surly remains 10 Electronic Research Journal of Literature, Volume 3 (2021) ISSN: 2708-3675 www.erjliterature.com unconvinced and repudiates Subtle’s arguments. In this scene, Subtle, Face and Mammon are all on one side while Surly is on the opposite side, disputing the claims made by the others. Then comes Ananias as a representative of the Anabaptists at Amsterdam. The Anabaptists have already paid Subtle a certain amount of money for the production of the philosopher’s stone, and Ananias has now come to find out if the philosopher’s stone is ready. Once again Subtle, in an effort to impress his client, uses much technical jargon. In fact, he interrogates Face regarding the alchemical process, putting a long series of questions to him, with Face giving the correct answers. However, Ananias too remains unconvinced, as Surly did. Ananias describes all this jargon as “heathen language”. When Ananias refuses to pay any more money to Subtle, Subtle drives him away, with the threat that, if the Anabaptists do not send him the additional money, he would wreck the alchemist process which is expected to yield the philosopher’s stone. Thus here the disparity between reality and appearance is emphasized. Drugger also pays a second visit to obtain a sign of good luck; and Subtle gives him the required sign, while Face says that Drugger’s fortune is now made. Face’s praise of Subtle here is noteworthy. He tells Drugger that the doctor is the only man in Christendom who can teach Kastril the true art of quarrelling. Face says that Subtle has devised a table with mathematical demonstrations regarding the art of quarrelling. Subtle would give Kastril an instrument to quarrel by. Face then asks Drugger to bring both Kastril and Kastril’s sister to the doctor, directing him also to bring a new damask suit for the doctor. Mammon’s high praise of Subtle as the alchemist and Face’s equally high praise of that man, combined with Subtle’s exposition of the theory of alchemy, (Amir and Aurangzeb, 2020) build up a really exalted image of Subtle; but this image is impressive only in the eyes of Subtle’s clients. So far as the audience are concerned, they would side with Surly and, like Surly, they are aware of the reality of the man. Subsequently, this alchemist appears in the guise of a priest of the Queen of Fairies.
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