To complement today's video representation of John Gay's prostitute characters, here's a "real" C18 prostitute: the renowned Kitty Fisher.
Question: Is Beggar's Opera profoundly misogynistic, or are the various slurs against women just one dimension of Gay's equal-opportunity disparagement of just about everyone?
Cite some text to support your claims.
Deadline: Start of class Friday (10/30).
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8 comments:
I think that the text suggests that it is not entirely misogynistic. Though Polly and Lucy are presented as rather "slutty," so to speak, the male characters are not exactly presented as moral saints either. MacHeath is a womanizer, and though this is generally more glorified (even in modern day America) it is still suggested that he is just plain dirty. The one scene in Act 2, scene 4 shows his cavorting off with women in a superficial manner. Peachum is also presented as corrupt as well in his occupation as he cheats people. So though Polly and Lucy are presented as morally stained, so are the men in the play. I think that John Gay simply pokes fun at all of the characters and the various endeavors that they are involved in, making in overall comment on the aristocratic life.
I agree with Whitney. I think the humorous aspect of the play is that while the women are perpetually branded as "sluts" and "wenches" simply because they are in naive pursuit of love, the men are nonetheless routinely lauded despite their corrupt aspects. John Gay is simply utilizing this open disparagement of women to emphasize his mockery of the hypocritical aristocratic class for censuring the lifestyle of these "deplorable" women without any examination of their own debasing ways.
I agree with both comments that have been made and think Xiu and Whitney have brought up good arguments. I also believe the play isn't supposed to be misogynistic rather bring all characters to their low-level habits as seen in the meaning of their names (see footnote on the list of characters). Men and women are engaging in activities that don't warrant the most respect. John Gay uses repetition to enforce the idea of equal-opportunity disparagement as well as an element of satire. If Mr. and Mrs. Peachum say "hussy" over and over to their daughter, it is still a slur against women but it becomes funnier when it is over the top.
If anything Gay is making a point about how society views women and criminal men to the point that the audience can laugh because they realize their own faults.
Yeah I like the mocking the "hypocritical aristocratic class..." from Xiu's post. The way in which 'Beggar's' lowly male characters abuse the slang to the point of self-ridicule (the best one is probably in the final scene: "I take Polly for mine. And for life, you slut, for we were really married" (2764)) is the same way the upper classes might perceive the type of characters in the play.
The thieves and thieve-catchers repeat the slurs to keep on reestablishing their superiority to the prostitutes, yet they are the ones who are more corrupted by their selfish ambitions while the only sincere characters in the play (Polly, Lucy) are the ones who get the most slurs directed at them. Gay implicates that the upper classes do the same with those living in these slummy conditions, and that the distance between their ways and the ways of those in the slums is far less than they might hope.
I absolutely agree with all of the comments thus far. I believe that Gay is not trying to be misogynistic. Instead, he is using irony. He depicts the women as sluts and the men as thieves. They are supposed to want to be "better", want to marry, want their children to marry. But Gay shows most of the characters as despising marriage and love. Which shows the irony in this play. He is proving that men and women aren't held to the same standards. Gay uses the language about the women to really hammer in this idea: "You baggage! You hussy! You inconsiderate jade!" (p. 2727). This was said to Polly by her own mother, because Polly had married Macheath. This show how ironic this play is because most mothers would encourage love and marriage, but not Mrs. Peachum, instead she scorns these ideas.
Those are all good points and haven't left much for me to say.
But... I'll take a crack at it.
"Through all the employments of life
Each neighbor abuses his brother,
whore and rogue they call husband and wife
all professions be-rogue another
The priest calls the lawyer a cheat,
The lawyer be-knaves the divine;
And the statesman, because he's so great,
Thinks his trade as honest as mine."
So it seems like Gay takes a shot at everybody, saying that anybody from a priest to a thief abuses one another."
There is somewhat of a parallelism relating men to the upper class and women to the lower class. The Women are like the "rogues," that being that though they act in the same manner as men (priest) they are hung (called "You baggage! You hussy! You inconsiderate jade!")
I think that in a weird twisted kind of way, Gay does show an equality between both upper and lower class as well as the sexes.
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