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Act 2, Scene 6
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
The jailor Lockit welcomes the “Noble Captain” Macheath back to the Newgate prison after a year and a half and asks for “Garnish” (a bribe). Lockit removes Macheath’s shackles, and Macheath asks for lighter ones, but Lockit says that will depend on the Garnish money. Macheath pays him and complains that nobody can afford to die with dignity anymore. Lockit gives Macheath new shackles, which he boasts are the finest ones in all of England.
Lockit is more interested in using his position of power for his own benefit than in actually rehabilitating criminals. In this sense, he is no better than Peachum. In fact, his behavior suggests that the law in general is just as corrupt as the criminals it catches. And Gay’s depiction of him was historically accurate: Newgate prison was run on a system of semi-organized bribery, in which prisoners could buy any privilege imaginable (and those without money were left to die of starvation).
Themes
