PL v Volpone Critics

Question 1

Hiscock

Jonson

Answer 1

‘Jonson attempts to generate moral impulses in his audience by dramatizing a world which has lost all ability to do so’

Question 2

Carey

Milton

Answer 2

‘Milton’s effort to encapsulate evil in Satan was not successful’

Question 3

Knapp

Volpone

Answer 3

‘Volpone is a satanic challenger to God’s order and society’s’

Question 4

Dr Johnson

Milton

Answer 4

‘Milton appears to have ‘a Turkish contempt of females, as subordinate and inferior beings’

Question 5

Stanley Fish

Small language effects

Answer 5

‘Small language effects can trick the reader into heretic thinking’

Question 6

William Blake

Milton

Answer 6

‘Milton was of the devil’s party without knowing it’

Question 7

Weston

Eve

Answer 7

‘Passion as a result of flattery rules her reason’

Question 8

Niell

Volpone

Answer 8

argues Volpone is a ‘gigantic satire on acting itself’

Question 9

Clare Brennan

Volpone

Answer 9

‘Volpone’s vices sparkle so brightly they almost mask the darkness of his depravity’

Question 10

Campbell

Both V and PL

Answer 10

both ‘Volpone’ and ‘Paradise Lost’ ‘induce a sympathetic understanding of villainy without sentimentalising the villain’

Question 11

McAvoy

Celia

Answer 11

Celia’s ‘desire to be a mayor to chastity comes across as a masochistic response to voyeuristic sadism’

Question 12

Tyrone Guthrie’s 1964 production

Animal costumes

Audience

Answer 12

Used animal costumes - brings the story of the beast fable to life

Audience famously applauded the rape scene