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
Alone, Macheath muses that Polly is a fool for falling blindly in love with him. Perhaps he’s capable of loving just one woman, but he’s used to dividing his time among many “free-hearted Ladies.” He sings about how women make men’s worries disappear through kisses, caresses, and more (Air 21). He asks the drawer (barman) where the women are; the drawer says they’re on their way.
Macheath shows his true colors: he was manipulating Polly all along and would have never stayed loyal to her. Ironically, this means that the Peachums are right to worry about his true motives and try to stop him. Just like Peachum, he views relationships as a mutually self-interested transaction—although one key difference is that he is largely motivated by lust, while Peachum only cares about money and power.
Themes
