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Themes
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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
Jonson dedicates his play “to the Lady most deserving her name and blood: Mary, Lady Wroth.” In biblical times, Jonson says, the “truth of religion” was not to be found in the value of the offerings, but in the dedication of the sacrificers. If not, what would some offerings be compared to 100 oxen? Jonson comes to this “altar” with a love for the “light,” seeking Lady Wroth’s approval, which, if his play is any good, is the only thing that matters. Jonson places his play “safe in [her] judgement (which is a Sidney’s).” Everyone else, Jonson says, is but “the ambitious Faces of the time, who, the more they paint, are the less themselves.”
Mary Wroth (which was also spelled Worth, making her “most deserving of her name and blood”) was an actor and a patron of the arts, as was her father, Robert Sidney, who was also a poet. As patrons of the arts, Mary Wroth and her father understand art, and Jonson trusts them to judge the quality of his play. Jonson immediately references religion and alludes to the Catholic belief that religious sacraments offer grace, regardless of the spirituality of the priest or worshipers. Jonson clearly disagrees with this notion, which firmly positions him as a Protestant. Presumably, Jonson’s mention of the “altar” and “light” are references to the stage and theater, which paints his play in a religious light. This passage also introduces the theme of deception. The “ambitious Faces of the time” harkens to Jonson’s main character, Face, a conman of many disguises, who, with each costume change, is less like himself. Jonson applies this concept to broader society and implies widespread deception.
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Jonson also addresses the reader. For those readers who truly understand art, Jonson trusts them with his play; however, it is the “pretenders” who must be warned. In poetry, and especially in plays, those who pretend are fair prey to be “cozened.” In this day, lustful dances and plots ignore “Nature,” the only “point of art” that pleases spectators. Jonson questions what art is when the critics have grown stubborn and ignorant. Critics celebrate writers like they do “fencers or wrestlers,” and those plays with the most violence receive the most attention. Jonson admits there are some such plays that are “good and great,” but such greatness is rare, and it doesn’t make up for the rest. In closing, Jonson again warns the reader that there is a big difference between plays that “utter all they can, however unfitly,” and those that are more selective.
Again, Jonson doesn’t seem to believe that just anybody can understand and appreciate great art, and those who pretend are at risk of being “cozened,” or tricked. Jonson implies that most plays are full of violence and vice, which “pretenders” are duped into believing is quality art. Jonson argues the opposite. Jonson’s play isn’t violent, but it has plenty of vice, which seems to be the “Nature”—in this case, human nature—that is the “point” of Jonson’s play and most pleasing to spectators. In opening his own play, Jonson takes the time to criticize those plays that are “unfit” or unworthy of artistic praise.
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