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Act 3, 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
Back at Newgate, Lucy is torn apart by “Jealousy, Rage, Love and Fear.” In song, she compares herself to a boat abandoned in the ocean with no anchor or rudder—all while Polly is “sporting on Seas of Delight” (Air 47). Lucy has hatched a plan: she will pour rat poison in Polly’s gin and kill her. She doesn’t even mind if she gets hanged for the crime. Then, Filch comes in and announces that Polly has arrived.
In another characteristic example of dramatic irony, the audience knows that Macheath manipulated Lucy into helping him escape all on his own, but Lucy still blames Polly for it—and hatches a nefarious plan to murder her. Clearly, Lucy and Polly don’t want to admit that Macheath is deceiving them—they would rather blame one another for his misdeeds.
Themes
Literary Devices
