Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Beggar’s Opera, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Moral Corruption and Hypocrisy
Gender, Love, and Marriage
Class, Capitalism, and Inequality
Opera, High Art, and Performance
Summary
Analysis
Upon hearing Bob Booty’s name, Mrs. Peachum cuts Peachum off in protest: Bob is “a favourite Customer.” But Peachum says he wants to turn Bob in before one of Bob’s many lady-friends does. Mrs. Peachum responds that women are too fickle to make life-and-death decisions. She sings about how, just as Venus’s mythical girdle can make any woman attractive, a noose can do the same for men (Air 3).
“Bob Booty” is a clear allusion to Robert Walpole, England’s first prime minister, who was famously corrupt. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peachum’s line about her “favourite Customer” is intentionally ambiguous: it’s unclear whether she is working as a prostitute on the side or whether she is just referring to Bob selling her and Peachum the goods he steals. And her song about criminals’ attractiveness foreshadows the rest of the opera, which focuses on Polly Peachum’s love for the condemned highwayman Macheath.
Themes
Mrs. Peachum declares that Peachum’s current crew is unusually fine: nobody has murdered anyone else in seven months! But Peachum insists that murder isn’t always bad—it’s sometimes necessary for business. Mrs. Peachum apologizes for her “over-scrupulous Conscience,” and Peachum calls murder the most “fashionable” crime.
John Gay uses Mrs. Peachum’s comments about Peachum’s crew, like her comments about women's fickleness, for a kind of sexist reverse psychology. His characters claim that women are inferior to men because they are not capable of ruthlessness, but the play is designed to show how ruthlessness degrades society. Thus, Gay is really suggesting that women often maintain the moral and emotional integrity that men lose in a competitive market society. While the characters of Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit support this interpretation, the opera’s sex worker characters will show that women can be just as ruthless as men.
Themes
Peachum asks Mrs. Peachum if Captain Macheath has stopped by to pick up his stolen checks. She says yes—the bank cancelled the checks, but Macheath is still graceful and charming. Tonight, Mrs. Peachum will play cards with him, Bob Booty, and her and Peachum’s daughter Polly. She asks Peachum if Macheath is wealthy, but Peachum replies that he lost his money gambling.
Gay introduces the opera’s other two central figures: Polly Peachum and “Captain” Macheath (who is not really a captain at all). Mrs. Peachum’s feelings about Macheath are contradictory: she admires and respects him, but also recognizes that he is irresponsible and wants to profit from his gambling addiction. Later in the opera, it becomes clear that this is a trend: everyone praises and admires Macheath, even though he is not admirable at all, even by the depraved standards of London’s criminals.
Themes
Mrs. Peachum says that she feels sorry for Polly, who is in love with Macheath. But Peachum says that they shouldn’t marry: gamblers and thieves may be “very good to” their sex workers and mistresses, but they are “Devils to their Wives.” Worried about Polly, Mrs. Peachum sings a song comparing her to a moth dancing around the flame of love (Air 4). Peachum declares that “a handsome Wench” like Polly can make a lot of money if she stays single. But if she marries, her husband will treat her like property and have power over the whole family. Peachum will “terrify” Polly away from marriage and asks Mrs. Peachum to warn her, too.
The Peachums’ feelings about their daughter are hypocritical and contradictory. On the one hand, they are clearly right to worry about Macheath’s morals. On the other, their own morals are no better. (Of course, they are also a couple of married gamblers and thieves—although they later clarify that their marriage is just common-law and not legally valid.) Indeed, they appear to care less about Polly’s wellbeing than about her pocketbook. So while their critique of marriage is legitimate—in the 18th century, women literally did become their husbands’ property—their motivations for making this critique are questionable at best.
Themes
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