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Act 5, Scene 4
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
Lovewit enters wearing Hieronimo’s cloak, and Mammon beats on the door. He tells Lovewit that the police have a warrant and will break down the door. Face enters and asks Lovewit if he has successfully married Dame Pliant. Lovewit says he has, and Face tells him to take off the cloak. Lovewit takes off the disguise and opens the door. Mammon enters with Surly, Kestrel, Ananias, Tribulation Wholesome, and the police. Everyone begins talking at once about “Captain Face” and the “chemical cozener.” Kestrel asks where his sister is, and Lovewit assures them all he has just returned to town and knows nothing of their complaints.
Lovewit is wearing Hieronimo’s cloak—a character from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy—to dupe Dame Pliant into believing he is Spanish so she would agree to marry him. Like the other characters, Lovewit, too, undergoes a deceitful transformation, and he also does so to satisfy his lust and greed. Lovewit is also deceiving Face and Subtle’s victims—Lovewit knows all about Face’s scams, but he lies because Face “gave” him Dame Pliant.
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Lovewit tells the police they may go in and search, but they will find no criminals. Kestrel again asks where Dame Pliant is and threatens to “thump her” when he finds her. Lovewit tells Kestrel that his sister was supposed to marry a Spaniard, but he neglected her, so Lovewit married her instead. Kestrel is furious, but Mammon interrupts. Captain Face and the doctor are gone, he says, but Mammon’s metal belongings are still in the basement. Lovewit tells Mammon he will only allow him to take the metal by court order. Mammon protests and tells Lovewit the metal already belongs to him, but Lovewit says he has no proof of that. If Mammon wants his things back, Lovewit says, he will have to petition the judge. Mammon says he has no intention of admitting to a judge he was scammed and leaves with Surly.
Kestrel is again violent and threatens to beat Dame Pliant (he’s going to “thump her”) when he finds her. Lovewit is greedy and lustful in his marriage to Dame Pliant, and he is also greedy in refusing to give Mammon’s metal back. He knows the metal belongs to Mammon—Lovewit at least knows that the metal isn’t his own or Face’s—yet he still refuses to hand it over. It is only Mammon’s pride that allows Lovewit to keep the metal and, presumably, make even more money by selling it.
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Ananias and Tribulation Wholesome claim they were promised Mammon’s metal, but Lovewit threatens to beat them, so Ananias and Tribulation exit. Dame Pliant enters, and Kestrel says he will kill her for marrying without his permission. Lovewit draws his sword and dagger and challenges Kestrel to a quarrel, but Kestrel immediately backs down. Lovewit orders Face to pack a pipe of tobacco, and tells Kestrel to go enjoy a smoke with his sister. Kestrel and Dame Pliant exit, and Lovewit addresses the audience. He is very happy, Lovewit says, with his new wife and wealth. Face addresses the audience as well. “I am clean / Got off, from Subtle, Surly, Mammon, Doll, / Hot Ananias, Dapper, Drugger, all,” he says, and asks for the audience to be his jury. “[I]f you do quit me,” Face says, “rests / To feast you often, and invite new guests.” Face and Lovewit exit.
Not only are Tribulation and Ananias portrayed as immoral religious fanatics, they are also portrayed as cowards, which further paints Anabaptists in a negative light. Clearly, Kestrel’s lessons in quarreling and wits did him little good, as he immediately backs down from Lovewit and is forced to accept Lovewit and Dame Pliant’s marriage. In Face’s closing soliloquy, he admits he “got off” “clean” after all his scams. He wants the audience to be his jury, and if they “quit [him],” or acquit him, he will be free to spend his money, eat good food, and “invite new guests.” Face has learned nothing and will go on conning people, which again underscores the deceptive nature of broader society and serves as a warning to the public not to be “cozened” by crooked alchemists or anyone else.
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