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Act 3, Scene 13
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
Ben Budge and Matt of the Mint visit Macheath in Newgate, where Macheath explains that he is going straight to the gallows. Macheath also points out that Jemmy Twitcher is testifying against him, which suggests that nobody can truly trust anyone else, including their friends. He warns Ben and Matt that they might be next and implores them to take down Peachum and Lockit as soon as they can. They agree. Then, the jailor enters and reports that Polly and Lucy want to speak with Macheath.
Ben and Matt’s visit brings the band of thieves’ plotline to a close. Jemmy Twitcher’s betrayal shows that, despite all the thieves’ empty talk about honor and loyalty, they are just as willing to undercut one another as Peachum and the sex workers. Of course, when Macheath pleads with Ben and Matt to help him enact vengeance on Peachum, he only adds an extra layer of dark irony to the scene: if he can’t expect loyalty from his friends, as he has already learned, then why would he expect Ben and Matt to actually help him? (After all, as Macheath himself pointed out in Act 2, their livelihood as thieves depends on working with Peachum.)
Themes
