The Beggar’s Opera 481family whose father died during the strike, he seeks
employment from Thornton’s mill. As a union orga-
nizer, he is “persona non grata” at any of the mills,
and he knows that Thornton is a hard man to bar-
gain with. After some prompting, Thornton hears
about Higgins’s situation, follows him to where he
lives in order to verify the story, and calls him to
his office to apologize for misjudging his character.
Higgins’s ability to place others first overcomes any
reticence or aloofness that pride sets up.
Once Higgins begins employment, he and
Thornton devise a “lunchroom” scheme to provide
workers and their families with employment and a
means to have healthy food. The willingness to see
beyond one’s prejudgments, and Higgins’s ability to
act out of humility and concern for others’ needs,
leads to deeper understanding of shared humanity,
and levels of cooperation and friendship that bring
social and economic barriers down.
Anthony Grasso
gay, joHn The Beggar’s Opera (1712)
John Gay’s operatic play dramatizes the story of
Peachum and his partners in crime, whose lives
become complicated when Macheath falls in love
with Polly, Peachum’s daughter. The play begins
with the Peachums extolling the virtues of single
women to Polly, who responds that she has already
married Macheath. Distraught over Polly’s mar-
riage, Peachum laments the loss of his daughter’s
contributions to his gang’s coffers, then seeks retali-
ation against Macheath. Peachum attempts to ruin
Macheath by having him imprisoned, but interces-
sions by Polly and Lucy (Macheath’s other wife)
ensure that Macheath escapes hanging. The play
then concludes with the Player and Beggar deter-
mining that Macheath may avoid the gallows “to
comply with the taste of the town.”
Gay satirizes the exploits of the aristocracy
through the shenanigans of Macheath and the other
criminals in The Beggar’s Opera much as he satirizes
foreign opera via the play’s numerous ballads: by
sarcasm juxtaposed with action. Lockit the jailor,
for instance, demands a cash bribe before granting
Macheath light manacles, and Macheath while in
prison sings an aria that blames women—not his
life of crime—for his incarceration. Polly, likewise,
sings an aria that accuses Lucy of “ruining” their
marriage to Macheath, but Polly’s tone—like that of
the other characters—is serious, though her words
jest. The satiric action coupled with the humorous
depiction of married life in the early 18th century
leaves modern audiences with little wonder as to
why The Beggar’s Opera has maintained its popular-
ity over the years.
James N. Ortego IIindividual and Society in The Beggar’s Opera
The one character who emerges as a solitary figure
in Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera is known simply as
“Macheath,” a degenerate gambler and polygamist
who escapes punishment from the law at the play’s
end. Macheath is a part of the criminal element sati-
rized by Gay, but is constantly at odds with his fel-
low law-breakers. In a society filled with prostitutes,
thieves, and all sorts of other criminals, Macheath
manages to excel at the art of law-breaking, yet the
society that suffers from his crimes refuses to punish
him. Gay’s dramatic satire consequently laments not
London’s criminal types such as Macheath, but the
society that allows the Macheaths of the world to
prey on its citizens.
Macheath is introduced early in the play as a
“gamester and highwayman,” which interestingly
enough is acceptable to the Peachums, until Mr.
Peachum learns that his daughter Polly thinks
Macheath “a very pretty man.” But Mr. Peachum’s
subsequent denunciation of Macheath centers on
married couples and spousal abuse; Peachum is
not concerned with Macheath’s harsh character, his
gambling problem, or his life as a thief, but with
Polly’s regulation to secondary status once she mar-
ries Macheath. As the play’s primary representative
of the criminal underworld, Peachum holds much
influence over those around him; when he approves
of Macheath’s lifestyle but denounces Polly’s desire
to marry, spectators typically laugh, but the joke is
centered squarely on a society that allows criminals
such as Macheath to prosper, not necessarily on
Peachum’s marital views.
The opening scenes that feature the Peachums
discussing Polly and Macheath’s future as a married
couple establish Macheath as an outsider who breaks