The Beggar's Opera

And on to week two...

Plays, poetry, drama, operas, etc are not really my thing, but I did find The Beggar's Opera especially amusing, and will admit that I actually liked it. I found Peachum and Mrs Peachum hilarious, especially when it came to justifying why their daughter should not get married. They would have rather seen their daughter as a tramp than see her get married. They saw her as being better off as a single woman than in marriage because she would lose the very few rights she had and simply become another man's property rather than being able to be a self-sustaining woman.

John Gay seems to use this situation found throughout the opera to say something about marriage. He consistently refers to the confining nature of marriage for both men and women. Women ruin men in marriage and men only take women as property. It is hard to discern if Gay is just pointing out the ridiculousness of marriage customs in the 18th century, making fun of dowries and marrying into families to preserve wealth, if he is only pointing out the crippling effect of marriage on women and how it stripped them of all their rights (tis better to be a widow moment on 61), or if he sees marriage as problematic altogether (92). It also seems like he is playing on the typical story of boy meets girl and girls parents don't like boy and keeps the boy away from their daughter at all costs and making fun of it (94). Overall, he tends to view marriage as just another problematic part of a corrupt society, from its lowest people to its highest people.

It seems to me that he is really poking fun of the traditions of Britain's high society, especially when it came to arranging marriages based on worthy wealth. Gay sees marriages as a financial transaction that if done properly can result in good things for both parties involved, just like a good business deal. A bad marriage, such as one with somebody who was considered unsuitable, would result in a loss of assets or wealth just like a bad business deal. "Money well timed, and properly applied, will do any thing" (89). In this quote, Gay is not only speaking about marriages, but other corruption throughout the aristocrocy where money can virtually buy anything from a marriage to government positions to immunity in a crime. Gay is obviously disgusted by this and outwardly depicts this throughout.

I am curious as to how to look at the marriage examples and see whay Gay is saying about gender roles in marriage. He switches from pointing out the degredation of women in marrige to the ways in which women ruin men. Is he trying to speak out against the oppresive roles of the domestic sphere (which I noticed DOES NOT exist in The Beggar's Opera and may be something else that Gay is bringing to our attention) and laws against women in England at the time? But then how do you account for him saying that women ruin men?

Regardless, Gay is bitter and he is letting everyone know it....and I think its hillarious. There is nothing better than some guy ranting and raving about the injustices of sociey in an opera...makes me chuckle just thinking about it....