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Act 3, Scene 16
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
Surrounded by a massive crowd, Macheath announces that it’s time to dance and be merry. He says that, rather than him choosing a wife, his wife will choose him by dancing with him. Then, all of the women in the crowd start dancing. He announces that he will pair them off for the dance, and that he will dance with Polly. As they dance, he privately tells Polly that they really did get married and that she’s his real wife, but she can’t tell anyone. He sings one final song about being surrounded by beautiful women who get to take turns seducing him; he can love them all, but he’ll only take one to bed, so that “the Wretch of To-day may be happy To-morrow” (Air 69).
John Gay gives his audience the happy ending that the Player demanded, but only ironically. While everyone acts merry and satisfied, only one person actually ends up better off: Macheath (who arguably least deserves happiness of anyone). Like at the end of Act 1 and Act 2, he inexplicably gets away with his crimes and learns absolutely nothing in the process. He cheekily promises that he’ll only be with one woman at a time—by which he appears to mean on any given night. Of course, what he really means is that he will continue stringing Polly along, promising to be faithful while consorting with other women and barely even making an effort to hide it. Thus, the play’s apparent happy ending is really a tragic miscarriage of justice: a criminal once again getting away with his crimes.
Themes
Literary Devices
