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Act 1, Scene 5
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
Mrs. Peachum calls Filch over and remarks that she loves him like a son because he’s such a great thief. Filch brings her the seven handkerchiefs and gold snuffbox that he stole at the King’s Theatre last night. She remarks that sailors will buy the handkerchiefs, and the snuffbox is beautiful.
The King’s Theatre was the center of 18th-century London’s Italian opera scene. Thus, Filch’s reference to stealing from the King’s Theatre is a clever joke about the way that The Beggar’s Opera stole from Italian opera.
Themes
Filch explains that he was caught trying to steal a gold watch, so he had to make a daring escape. He’s afraid that he will get caught and executed, so he is thinking about becoming a sailor. Mrs. Peachum tells Filch to toughen up at the Beargarden (where blood sports like bear-baiting are held). She promises that, if he gets caught, he’ll get transportation, not execution, so he'll be able to sail anyways. And she tells him to go read his Bible (because prisoners who know it get their sentences reduced).
Filch’s ideas about quitting thievery show that he knows that not even his steadfast loyalty to Peachum is enough to save him from the gallows. But Mrs. Peachum’s response about transportation underlines how arbitrary the 18th-century English legal system is: it may kill Filch, or it may give him exactly the life he wants (albeit as an indentured servant). Similarly, Mrs. Peachum’s comment about the Bible shows how deeply corrupt the Peachums and their associates are: the jail’s policy is supposed to reward prisoners who work on improving themselves through religion, but the Peachums teach their followers to fake it and game the system.
Themes
Literary Devices
Mrs. Peachum asks Filch if he knows anything about Macheath and Polly. Filch says that he’s promised Polly not to reveal anything. Peachum and Polly are coming home, so Mrs. Peachum invites Filch into her room for a cordial if he agrees to tell her everything.
Like her comments about Bob Booty and her monologue about how women should be able to cheat on their husbands, Mrs. Peachum’s invitation to Filch is intentionally ambiguous: it’s not clear if she truly just wants information out of him or if they have other plans.
Themes
