Kendra Mullison - John Brown University

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Mullison 2John Gay‟s treatment of class boundaries in The Beggar’s Opera was shockinglyprogressive at the time of its publication, and its impact upon the public‟s understanding of itselfwas nothing short of revolutionary. While one might argue that many of the distinctions whichThe Beggar’s Opera establishes had already been in place—albeit unnamed—for some time,there is no doubt that the play served to accelerate the evolution of social stereotypes. Gay‟sOpera was instrumental in the development of one of comic drama‟s primary obsessions: thenature of class boundaries and the consequences of their inevitable disintegration.In his Opera, Gay deliberately turns stereotypical eighteenth-century treatments ofeconomic and gender-based class structures upside-down. Gay‟s middle-class background andinsignificant social rank ensure his empathy with the struggles and values of the common folk,and in The Beggar’s Opera, he pays homage to his origins. His is in, as Dianne Dugaw writes,“the ironically self-aware, yet evasive and vulnerable position of the onlooking outsider” (53),and his dissociation from the political body allows him the distance necessary for a trulyobjective analysis of its mechanics. His unique perspective empowers him to recognize thestrengths and weaknesses of both the lower and upper classes, and to develop “what we call„cultural forms‟ […] to express and mark stratifying categories in a socioeconomic system ofstriving individuals. These forms include not only what is now designated as class identity, butalso race, gender, and sexual orientation” (Dugaw 21). Highwaymen become gentlemen, andgentlemen become thieves; aristocrats and beggars alike become equal in vice, and womenbecome dynamic, emancipated decision-makers.Despite Gay‟s initial fears, The Beggar’s Opera was an unexpected—and raging—success with its audience. Nevertheless, the play received mixed reviews and accusations ofsedition, and the government officially suppressed its successor, Polly. Gay did, after all, make
Mullison 3implicit comparisons between the vices of his characters and those of key political figures, andeven Prime Minister Robert Walpole not excluded. The Opera‟s tone is harsh, and as such itdiverges greatly from its far more gentle predecessors. Gay disregards specific political jargon:the terms Whig and Tory remain noticeably absent since he wishes to appeal to neither party.The Beggar’s Opera was not, as Samuel Johnson and others have claimed, “plainly written onlyto divert, without any moral purpose” (qtd. in Winton 107). It does not lack a moral; Gay‟s aimis not to target a specific social group, but rather to appeal to all. Rather, Gay‟s message is astarkly Christian one, and meant to be universally applied: humanity is depraved, rich and pooralike. He conveys this message through pointed satire and an unparalleled use of lyric verse.According to John Adrian, “The Beggar’s Opera […] though delightful to audiences,[was] more satirical than anything Gay had written” previously (47). In addition, the Opera isextraordinarily experimental: even in its very structure and form, Gay‟s integration of ballad,folk tradition, and elegant diction is groundbreaking. Yet, if critics were unsure how to accept itsunforgiving social commentary and extensive artistic liberties at the time, The Beggar’s Operawas in good company. In point of fact, the play is just one part of a much larger movement ofliterature characterized by “social satire, political satire, and literary burlesque” (Winton 91).This movement is born out of and driven by a deep concern over the state of the nation and thecorruption of its governing body. Gay published The Beggar’s Opera just as his friend andfellow-writer “[Alexander] Pope was combining the same ingredients […] in the first version ofThe Dunciad, and as Swift had recently done in Gulliver’s Travels” (91). Gay‟s Opera is uniqueamong its reformatory contemporaries, however, in its prevailing depiction of the degenerativeeffect of social vice, a vice which Gay considers the common disease of all classes.
Page 1: Mullison 1The Common Folk: The Demo
Page 5 and 6: Mullison 5Gay spares no class; his
Page 7 and 8: Mullison 7dignify the characters”
Page 9: Mullison 9which Gay seeks to transc

Kendra Mullison - John Brown University

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