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Act 2, Scene 4
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
Peachum and the police arrest Macheath, who curses the women for entrapping him. Peachum proudly declares that “the greatest Heroes have been ruin’d by Women,” who are “pretty” but cannot be trusted. Macheath sings that he will “suffer with pleasure” at the hanging tree and compares the women to the Furies, the Greek goddesses of revenge (Air 25). Peachum promises that Macheath will be punished, and the police lead him away.
Curiously, Macheath immediately blames the women for his capture instead of Peachum, who actually orchestrated it. In fact, Peachum and Macheath’s conversation quickly veers into misogyny: they blame women’s self-interest and corruption for all of their problems, even though they are obviously just as self-interested and corrupt.
Themes
