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
Macheath meets Ben Budge and Matt of the Mint at a gambling den. He gives them money, then sings about the difference between true friends who really care about each other and fake friends who use one another for personal gain (Air 44). Ben laments that noble, generous Macheath is struggling and surrounded by lowlifes. Matt complains that the worst criminals get away with their crimes, while lesser ones, like Macheath, get punished.
Every line in this Scene 1s dripping with irony, as the characters’ actions obviously contradict all the principles they claim to believe. Macheath’s song about true friendship is ironic because he’s exactly the kind of opportunistic fake friend that he criticizes. This indicates that Macheath knows the difference between moral and immoral behavior but doesn’t care about actually acting morally. Instead, he just talks about this difference when it happens to benefit him. Similarly, Ben’s speech is ironic because he is one of the lowlifes surrounding Macheath, while Macheath isn’t struggling: he keeps getting off without punishment. And Matt’s speech is ironic for the same reason: Macheath isn’t actually getting punished for his crimes. Audiences would be right to wonder whether the characters lack the self-awareness to understand that they don’t live up to their values, or whether they’re just joking when they talk about these values in the first place.
Themes
Macheath explains that their plan for the evening is to rob the gamblers on their way home. Matt proposes targeting the man with a gold-lined brown coat, but Macheath says that this man is “one of us.” Instead, Macheath proposes robbing gold coins from the moneylenders. Besides, one of them owes him money.
This last exchange reveals even more ironic holes in Macheath’s worldview: somehow, it’s fair game to rob moneylenders, but not “one of us” (presumably, a fellow thief). Even more absurdly, Macheath claims to have lent money to a moneylender (although this is probably a lie). Again, Gay’s comedy depends on constantly turning things into their opposites. He also uses this technique to emphasize his characters’ immorality.
Themes
