The Power of Appearance in Ben Johnsons Plays Essay -- Physical Appea

The Power of Appearance in Ben Johnsons PlaysThe very notion of drama depends in part upon the idea that when people dress up in different clothes, it is easier to imagine them as different people. Jonson commonly utilizes this device within his plays for, when a character pretends to be someone else, he or she but puts on the other persons clothes. In Volpone, when Volpone puts on the garb of a commendatore, Mosca, a clarissimo, they are treated as such. When Volpone asks, Am I and so like him? Mosca replies O, sir, you are he no man can sever you (Jonson, Volpone, 5.5, l. 1-2). By putting on the other mans garment, Volpone essentially becomes the commendatore whose cover he has put on. Jonson is not suggesting that the audience actually believes that the actors have become their characters. However, he is making fun of this idea that because actors dress up in someone elses clothing, the audience can accept the illusion of a group of lower-class men playing women and king s. In The Devil Is an Ass, and The upstart Inn Jonson takes the power of appearances one step further. These plays accept as self-evident the idea that social class is defined by appearance. However, men like Fitzdottrel and perambulator who do not properly respect their rights to aristocratic dress, prove themselves less than aristocratic. Women like Prudence, who understand and respect the power of dress to mold appearances, are allowed to get into the role for which they have been costumed. Jonson seems to be suggesting that those characters who know that social class can actually be manipulated by appearance, and thus place the proper value on their appearances, are the true aristocrats whether they are born to the rank or not.... ... This reading of Jonsons exploration of the conditions upon nobility leads to an interesting conclusion concerning Jonsons own life. era Jonson sought to rise within the courtly world, he never achieved nobility. Under this inte rpretation, Jonsons failure would have been more satisfying to him than a token backup bestowed as a favor by King James or King Charles, for Jonson appears to have considered preserving the worth of nobility to be far more eventful than his own social station. If actually entering the world of aristocracy meant cheapening it in any way (and one can hardly fail to acknowledge that Jonsons character left something to be desired by way of a noble heart), then one could argue that Jonson would have preferred to stay forever and a day one step away from the aristocracy -- preserving its value both with his desire and with his failure.