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Act 2, Scene 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Alchemist, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Alchemy and Transformation
Religion
Sex and Greed
Deception and Gullibility
Summary
Analysis
Face enters with Drugger, explaining that Subtle “is busy with his spirits.” They interrupt Subtle, who angrily asks them what they want. Face tells Drugger that he told him Subtle would be angry. He tells Drugger that they must “appease” Subtle, and then he asks Drugger for “a piece of gold to look on.” Subtle says he was just looking into Drugger’s future, which is very lucky. Drugger will be known and adored by all, Subtle claims. Drugger thanks Subtle and gives him a pipe of tobacco, and he tells Subtle about a rich young widow named Dame Pliant. The Dame would like her fortune read, too, Drugger says.
Drugger believes that Subtle is an expert in necromancy; hence, Face claims Subtle is “busy with his spirits,” meaning he is busy communing with the dead to tell Drugger’s fortune. Subtle isn’t communing with spirits, and he isn’t really angry at the interruption—he simply acts this way so Drugger will “appease” him with more “gold to look on.” Subtle is conning Drugger, since Drugger is gullible, he believes him.
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Face tells Drugger to bring Dame Pliant to them at once, and Subtle will tell her fortune, but Drugger says she is worried her visit will be found out by the public and hurt her chances at remarriage. Face promises Drugger that it will be better for the Dame to know her fortune, and, Face adds, he is sure it is a great one. She will have her pick of suitors, Face says, but Drugger claims the Dame’s brother, Kestrel, has said she must marry an aristocrat. Drugger says Kestrel is young and rich, and he has come to the city to “learn to quarrel, and to live by his wits.”
Basically, Kestrel wants to intimidate people and be independently wealthy, presumably by bullying people out of money or cheating at cards. Kestrel sees his young, available sister as another way to make money and intends to marry her off to someone rich to increase his own wealth and status. While alchemy was seen as legitimate science, the mystic side of the practice was not, and Dame Pliant is worried she will gain a reputation for believing nonsense if she seen visiting a mystic alchemist.
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Face tells Drugger that Kestrel is in luck, because Subtle is the wittiest man in London. Subtle has a table of “mathematical demonstrations” concerning quarrels, and if Drugger brings both Kestrel and Dame Pliant, Subtle will teach Kestrel all about wit and quarreling. Drugger promises to try and convince them, and Subtle comments on the quality of his tobacco. As Face shows Drugger to the door, he suggests Drugger bring Subtle an entire pound of the tobacco. After Drugger exits, Face and Subtle argue over who will marry Dame Pliant. They agree to draw straws and promise not to tell Doll a thing, and Subtle tells Face to hurry down and meet Surly so he doesn’t become suspicious.
Face basically tells Drugger that Subtle has witty fighting down to a science, or in this case, a “mathematical demonstration.” Face and Subtle’s immediate desire to marry Dame Pliant without even knowing her are obviously rooted in sex and money. She is young and rich, and in their greed, they fight over her, just as they do in the play’s first scene. They even resort to drawing straws again to settle their dispute, as they do earlier over Doll. They don’t tell Doll about Dame Pliant, which again points to the constant deception underpinning the action. What sort of relationship Doll has with Subtle and Face is never known; however, they are careful not to make her jealous, so they lie to her.
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