Alchemist by ben jonson as an allegory Essay

A discussion of Ben Jonsons The Alchemist as an fiction is, in truth, a little difficult. The reason why this is so is that The Alchemist is in the literary genre of farce not that of allegory. However, while a work may not be definitively an allegory, through the exercise of allegoresis it may be critically hire as an allegory in part or in whole.Allegoresis is the process by which a work that is not written as an allegorylike for example the allegoric works The Faerie Queene and The Pilgrims happenmay be critically and analytically read and understood as an allegory or as having parts that are allegorical. An allegory is a work (or a section, passage or line of a work) that has universally representative characters and experience.For instance, if a folk fable that has the characters Tommy the anuran and Bobby the Billy tail and in which they say, We are creatures of the wild, arent we? is modified so that Tommy the Toad becomes Toad the Teacher and Bobby the Billy Goat bec omes Stubborn Student Bobby Billy and they bawl out about We are creatures of rational reason, arent we?, then the fable about individuals has become an allegory about all of humankind through the universality of character and experience.In constructing The Alchemist, which some critics say is the most perfect dally in English literature, Ben Jonson didnt draw on old stories for his storyline and plot he created the story and plot himself. To do so, he utilise character figures, not allegorical characters. This is what classifies The Alchemist as farce instead of allegory.Type, or typical, characters are standard characters or archetypal characters that everyone has experience with and therefore groundwork understand even though a particular type may not be universally representative in the way allegorical characters are. For example, not everyone is the swindler type though many people call for experience of that type of person.Another example is that not everyone is the g iddy daughter type though many people have experience of that type of person. Which points out another difference between typical characters and allegorical characters roughage types lend themselves to humor, farce and satire while allegorical characters are atrocious characters meant to be taken in earnest.Sothis saidan allegoresis reading of The Alchemist could see the character types as universal allegorical representations portraying an underlying badly serious message.Therefore in an allegoresis the characters would be The Puritan Ananias, The Law clerk Dapper, The Rich Young Man Kastril, and The Master Lovwit, etc., and the themes might be weave together to teach a serious lesson, perhaps about ethics and Order in a Disordered world that requires vigilance against victimization through right-minded Religion. Furthermore, in allgoresis, the satire that Jonson writes would undergird the delivery of the in earnest serious theme.