Baldick, Chris The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) [ISBN 9780199208272].
Section A of the examination asks you to place a specific passage in the context of the play from which it derives and to comment on its use of language, themes, dramatic interaction and its specific relation to the play as a whole. Contextualising extracts requires you to be able to read a selected passage very closely, paying particular attention to the language of the piece, its tropes, metaphors and other rhetorical devices, and how the language reflects broader aspects of the play as a whole. Contextualising extracts is also known as ‘close reading’, a practice that, as its name suggests, requires detailed scrutiny of the words on the page before you introduce any of the other material you may choose to use.
The first thing you must do when contextualising extracts is locate the passage within the play it belongs. Once you have done this, apply yourself closely to the language of the piece and make note of the kind of ideas it uses, the manner in which it expresses those ideas, and the general tone of the passage. After you have dealt with these issues, you can consider how they relate to the themes of the play as a whole.
It is vital to remember that contextualising extracts is not simply about describing the scene or speech you are given, or about providing a synopsis of the play. Rather, it is about close analysis of language and discussion of how it operates in relation to the play as a whole.
Read the following passage from the beginning of Volpone and think about how you might write an account of it in relation to its context. Remember to think of the piece as an exercise working outwards from the close reading of specific words and phrases to bigger thematic concepts, dramatic interaction and even the social and historical context of the play.
VOLPONE
Good morning to the day; and next, my gold!
Open the shrine, that I may see my saint.
Hail the world’s soul, and mine! more glad than is
The teeming earth to see the longed-for sun,
Peep through the horns of the celestial ram,
Am I, to view thy splendour darkening his;
Show’st like a flame by night, or like the day
Struck out of chaos, when all darkness fled
Unto the centre. O thou son of Sol,
But brighter than thy father, let me kiss,
With adoration, thee, and every relic
Of sacred treasure in this blessE9d room.
Well did wise poets, by thy glorious name,
Title that age which they would have the best;
Thou being the best of things, and far transcending
All style of joy, in children, parents, friends,
Or any other waking dream on earth.
Thy looks when they to Venus did ascribe,
They should have given her twenty thousand Cupids;
Such are thy beauties and our loves! Dear saint,
Riches, dumb god, that givest all men tongues,
That canst do naught, and yet mak’st men do all things;
The price of souls; even hell, with thee to boot,
Is made worth heaven. Thou art virtue, fame,
Honour and all things else. Who can get thee,
He shall be noble, valiant, honest, wise (1.1.1–27)
The most important place to begin an analysis of the passage is with an assessment of its form and any linguistic and rhetorical devices that are being used. You must always begin an exercise in close reading by identifying the form of the passage. In early-modern drama, the extracts provided will always be in blank verse, known as iambic pentameter, which has 10 syllables in every line; or prose, ordinary non-metrical speech that is not subordinate to syllabic rhythm. As a general rule of thumb, you should be aware that blank verse predominates in early-modern drama, whereas prose is usually reserved for lower-class characters and lewd comedians. As such, the use of either verse or prose tells us something of the status and tone of the characters and themes portrayed.
Similarly, you should be able to identify the common literary and rhetorical devices that are at work in the passage. Familiarise yourself with terms such as:
Be ready to comment on them as they appear. Also, it will be very useful to have some sense of the importance of allusion in early-modern drama. Both Shakespeare and Jonson refer continually to the gods, myths and heroes of ancient Greece and Rome as well as other legends from folklore. Of course, although you will not be expected to be an expert in this field, it will be helpful to have some sense of where and why they use classical references. You will find a reference work such as Chris Baldick’s The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms extremely useful.
Activity
Look at the passage and, with reference to the rhetorical terms listed above, see which ones are being used, and what their effect is.
Having analysed and dealt with the rhetorical language of the passage, you may now move on to a discussion of how it relates to the broader themes of the play. This passage begins with Volpone greeting his gold. Volpone’s attitude towards his wealth is clearly delineated in the opening lines of the passage, describing the room as a ‘shrine’, the gold as his ‘saint’ and the gold as both the soul of the world and himself. From these early indications, it is easy to see how this covetous language informs the rest of the play, obsessed as it is with personal pecuniary gain and the unhealthy centrality of money to each character’s idea of their own identity and ethics.
Activity
By using words such as ‘shrine’, ‘saint’ and ‘soul’, what ideas have money replaced in Volpone’s imagination?
The question of ethics is central to the city comedy form, most notably their absence, distortion or disregard for selfish purposes. Jonson’s comedy is characterised by its satirical and vehement insistence that the early-modern world he observed was populated by a mass of people motivated entirely by their own self-interest to the almost total detriment of human relationships, sentiment or religious principles. Volpone is a play in which characters appear to have little spirituality. Shakespearean comedy has its woods and villas to convey a sense of benign supernatural forces at work to restore harmony to society. Jonson’s comedy, on the other hand, seems to be expressing an almost total absence of the divine in the lives of the people he dramatises.
Activity
What is the status of religion in Volpone’s Venice? Is there any sense of it being an issue at all? How might the setting of the play reflect an absence of religion?
This idea is treated further in the line ‘Hail the world’s soul, and mine!’, emphasising that the Venice of Volpone will be a location driven entirely by monetary gain and further consolidated in the exaggerated action of Volpone kissing his treasure. It is clear that Volpone has transformed his inanimate money into a fetish, almost literally, as shown by the use of the word ‘idol’. In later scenes of the play, we can see that a similar transformation, or reversal, of attitudes towards people and things clearly takes place. Money and possessions are given the attributes of people and are desired as an ardent lover may desire the object of their affections, whereas human beings are treated as commodities to be bought and sold, especially women. Treating people as objects is known as ‘reification’ and is a recurring theme in city comedy. City comedies like Volpone and The Alchemist make great use of the humour to be had from the actions of avaricious characters and the ease with which they will abandon their professions, beliefs and families at the slightest indication of riches. When Volpone talks of money transcending all joys, especially personal relationships (‘children, parents, friends’), he is merely describing a state of mind that seems to be shared by the majority of characters in the play.
In this respect, Volpone’s language in this passage can clearly be seen to foreshadow the confusion and perversion of orthodox values that is central to the satirical force of the play.
Activity
Have a look at the inter-personal relationships of the play in the light of Volpone’s praise of his gold. Are there any relationships in the play that are not entirely governed, or subservient to, financial considerations?
It seems that a relationship with wealth has not only replaced familial relationships, but is also the sole motivation for any kind of social intercourse. The line, ‘Riches, the dumb god, that givest all men tongues’, suggests the very motivation of all the action in the play. Volpone here intimates to the audience that the promise of his inheritance is going to be the only thing that will induce people to talk to each other.
To conclude, think of the close reading and contextualising of extracts as a process that works from the specific details of language in order to understand the larger themes of the play. Familiarise yourself with the particular nuances of style in Shakespeare and Jonson and take time to learn something about rhetorical and poetical devices and forms. Close reading is a very important and useful tool in literary criticism and if you read with sensitivity, you will have no difficulty developing this technique.
Having read the section on contextualising extracts, in conjunction with your own study, you should be able to: