English 110 – Literature as Social Criticism
             A Fool's World: The Alchemist Subverts The Status Quo
             Overrun by gullible souls piously intent on social elevation, Ben Jonson's The Alchemist is a comedic exposé in which the fabric of society is inextricably linked to the status-quo and its ravenous desire for wealth and power. Through the characters in the play, Jonson presents an allusive manifestation of Elizabethan society, and a clairvoyant analysis of human vices. On the surface, it is a story that makes use of the alchemical powers of fiction to put a bleakly humorous spin on foolish people and those who greedily exploit them. However, through deeper inference it is obvious that what Jonson is proposing is not merely a portrait of the status-quo in his own society, but of the maleficent faults apparent in human nature. These conditions are deeply rooted and historically enduring. Ultimately, Ben Jonson's critique of the Elizabethan status-quo is relevant to our own society in which wealth, power, and the desire for status casts a shadow over a dismal human reality in desperate need of reform.
             The characters of the play are all spellbound with greed and in pursuit of some form of wealth or power. Despite their efforts, each character is finally left with less than they initially had. This irony is exemplified in the 'knight', Sir Epicure Mammon, whose very name denotes the rapacious influence of wealth. Mammon exhibits the most considerable greed of all the gulls. Though he plays up the notion that his intentions are noble, promising to "fright the plague/ out o' the kingdom, in three months" (Jonson, The Alchemist, 2.1.68-69), he longs only for the philosopher's stone promised by Subtle and Face. Once it is in his possession, he believes no desire will smolder and no wish will go unanswered. His ambition is to use the stone to fashion himself into an omnipotent para...