On Skepticism In Ben Jonson's Comedies

Ben Jonson was a literary giant and one of the best comedy playwrights in late Renaissance England.The present dissertation situtates him in his time to investigate the manifestations of his skepticism in his view of comedy and particularly in his three representative comedies,namely,Volpone,or the Fox;Epicene,or the Silent Woman;and The Alchemist.It argues that,in a drastically changing age that witnessed a widespread flow of skepticism,Jonson's humanist education together with his massive reading substantially contributes to the formation of his skepticism,which is a philosophical view that raises doubts about the certainty and reliability of knowledge and hence that all knowledge-claims are at best provisional before being sufficiently justified and that mankind should endlessly explore truth.Jonson's skepticism not only serves as a powerful instrument for him to challenge authorities and conduct innovation,but also provides him with an effective technique of dramatizing his reflection on such significant contemporary issues as law,gender,and “sciences” in his three comedies.By examining Jonson's literary ideas scattered in his works,this dissertation finds that Jonson's comedy poetics is both a creative synthesis of the theories of Aristotle,Cicero,Horace,and others and a challenge to contemporary dominant romantic comedies and farce,whose focus on marriage and courtship and slapstick practice in Jonson's eyes had deviated from the classical principles and brought bitter criticism against comedy.To Jonson,comedy should imitate contemporary folly and vice caused by moral degeneration or decorum violation in such a ridiculous way that it would provoke a sense of righteous indignation and contempt among the audience.According to Jonson,the chief folly and vice comedy should satirize is “hypocritical affectation,” which means dramatizing hypocrisy by revealing its efforts in concealing its truth of vice under the cover of virtue.Apparently,this exposure of the gap between appearance and truth simultaneously reveals the deceptiveness of appearance,the unreliability of sense perception,and the necessity of judgemental suspension,all of which are typical topoi of epistemological skepticism.Then,by analyzing Jonson's three representative comedies in the light of the historical context and skepticism,this dissertation contends that,Jonson in the three comedies respectively reflects and casts doubt on the legitimacy of the long-accepted convictions about law,gender,and “sciences” in his age by dramatizing the discrepancy between appearance and truth,which he intends to encourage his audience to “suspend” their judgment before they take things as they are in order to fashion a sensible judgment.Volpone seems to be a timeless beast fable attacking greed and folly in Venice,but actually alludes to the nature of law as a tool employed by the English authorities to suppress the opposing forces before and after the Gunpowder Plot.In the play,even though the justice system is extremely severe,crime is still prevalent in the society and the judges are unreliable as the tool of justice due to their moral corruption and cognitive limitations,which creates a paradox that conveys Jonson's skepticism about the validity and justice of law.Epicene appears to reflect Jonson's misogyny,but indeed implies his ambivalent attitude towards gender.The so-called classical sources of misogyny in the play are themselves diversified or even contradictory,which thus cannot be used as the premise to conclude that Jonson is misogynistic.On the one hand,Jonson satirizes the social phenomenon of transgressing against the norms of gender roles,but on the other hand,he subtly deconstructs those norms by dramatizing that traditional femininity and masculinity are socially constructed.The Alchemist looks like a satire on charlatan alchemists,but in fact reveals the deceptiveness and absurdity of alchemy,astrology,and magic as pseudoscience.Both the dupes in the play and most of Jonson's contemporaries believed alchemy,astrology,and magic to be beneficial “sciences;” by contrast,Jonson ahead of his time perceived them as harmful pseudoscience and in the play dramatizes their pseudoscientific nature of using contradictory and unprovable claims,using seemingly-scientific language and obscure jargon as disguise,defiance of experimental replication,and so on.All of these show that Jonson was able to keep aloof and act detached even though he was deeply involved in the vortex of the turbulence of his time,which demonstrates his skepticism and modernity.It can be seen that skepticism plays a significant part in Jonson's comedy poetics and practice.It is out of awareness of the limitations of human knowledge and cognitive ability that Jonson sets out to question and challenge the classical and contemporary authorities and to critically create a unique type of satirical comedy that can rival the dominant romantic comedy represented by Shakespeare.Besides,the theme of exposing the gap between appearance and truth that is typical of skepticism provides an effective mode of representation for Jonson's satirical comedy,and simultaneously offers him a channel to satirize the social follies and vices in his England,which imbues his comedy with profound connotation of advocating reason and enlightening the people apart from guaranteeing its dramatic effects and delightfulness.Therefore,skepticism to Jonson is mainly a tool which can help people get closer to truth and serve to achieve his humanist end,that is,society can be improved through literary edification enhanced by cultivating critical judgment because literature,virtue,and society are intimately interconnected.This demonstrates Jonson's reflection on and transcendence of extreme skepticism.