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Introduction
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
Sitting at home with his account book, the thief-catcher and crime kingpin Peachum sings an aria (or air) about how everyone cheats everyone else to get ahead, including lawyers, priests, and statesmen (Air 1). Like a lawyer, Peachum declares, he is scoundrels’ foe and friend at the same time. After all, his livelihood depends on them.
Gay introduces his opera’s protagonist, Peachum, and highlights his moral depravity—which he views as just the cost of doing business. While Peachum’s complaints about other people’s immorality are a flimsy excuse for his own, they are also a serious critique of English politics. Indeed, this opening song sets up the extended metaphor at the heart of this opera: Peachum’s band of criminals also represent England’s ruling elite, who were just as corrupt and immoral as common criminals. Like all the 69 songs in The Beggar’s Opera, which are labeled and numbered in this guide, Peachum’s opening aria is an adaptation of a common folk song that most audience members would have recognized.
Themes
Literary Devices
