The Beggar’s Opera
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Introduction Act 1, Scene 1 Act 1, Scene 2 Act 1, Scene 3 Act 1, Scene 4 Act 1, Scene 5 Act 1, Scene 6 Act 1, Scene 7 Act 1, Scene 8 Act 1, Scene 9 Act 1, Scene 10 Act 1, Scene 11 Act 1, Scene 12 Act 1, Scene 13 Act 2, Scene 1 Act 2, Scene 2 Act 2, Scene 3 Act 2, Scene 4 Act 2, Scene 5 Act 2, Scene 6 Act 2, Scene 7 Act 2, Scene 8 Act 2, Scene 9 Act 2, Scene 10 Act 2, Scene 11 Act 2, Scene 12 Act 2, Scene 13 Act 2, Scene 14 Act 2, Scene 15 Act 3, Scene 1 Act 3, Scene 2 Act 3, Scene 3 Act 3, Scene 4 Act 3, Scene 5 Act 3, Scene 6 Act 3, Scene 7 Act 3, Scene 8 Act 3, Scene 9 Act 3, Scene 10 Act 3, Scene 11 Act 3, Scene 12  Act 3, Scene 13 Act 3, Scene 14 Act 3, Scene 15 Act 3, Scene 16 Act 3, Scene 17
Themes
All Themes Moral Corruption and Hypocrisy Gender, Love, and Marriage Class, Capitalism, and Inequality Opera, High Art, and Performance
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Polly Peachum Peachum Lucy Lockit Lockit Macheath Mrs. Peachum The Beggar The Player Mrs. Coaxer Filch Robin of Bagshot (“Bob Booty”) Mrs. Diana Trapes
Terms
All Terms Cordial Newgate Prison Transportation
Symbols
All Symbols Account Book
Literary Devices
All Literary Devices Allusions Foil Frame Story Genre Hyperbole Idioms Imagery Irony Metaphors Mood Motifs Paradox Pathos Satire Setting Similes Situational Irony Style Tone
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The Beggar’s Opera

by

John Gay

The Beggar’s Opera: Act 1, Scene 12 Summary & Analysis

Moral Corruption and Hypocrisy Theme Icon
Gender, Love, and Marriage Theme Icon
Class, Capitalism, and Inequality Theme Icon
Opera, High Art, and Performance Theme Icon
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 Theme Icon
Moral Corruption and Hypocrisy
Gender, Love, and Marriage Theme Icon
Gender, Love, and Marriage
Class, Capitalism, and Inequality Theme Icon
Class, Capitalism, and Inequality
Opera, High Art, and Performance Theme Icon
Opera, High Art, and Performance
Summary
Analysis
Alone and distraught, Polly laments her fate. She imagines Macheath going to the gallows as everyone weeps for him. But she realizes that she can still help him escape. Even if she couldn’t see him, this would give her time to change her parents’ mind. So she goes to let him out from her room, where he’s hiding.
Polly’s heartbroken soliloquy sets up the conflict in the next section of the play, as she tries to save Macheath from her parents’ wrath. It also would have given 18th-century operagoers the drama and romance they were expecting. After all, Gay’s opera was so influential in part because he incorporated these high-minded romantic tropes while also mocking them by making the rest of his characters shamelessly corrupt.
Themes
Gender, Love, and Marriage Theme Icon
Opera, High Art, and Performance Theme Icon
Literary Devices
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