The language of seduction in Ben Jonson's 'Volpone'

Ben Jonson's Volpone has attracted audiences since its first performance in 1606. This powerful work continues to present interesting problems for critics and teachers. Recent discourse-based critical approaches to literary works, based on the work of Heidegger, Kristeva, and Cixous, promise to reveal imaginative uses of the English language by Jonson in Volpone. The seductive figures of speech work in creating the dramatic interest of the characters and spiralling audience investment. What the audience members think they feel about the characters depends on Jonson's genius behind it all. Jonson used English for innovative seductive effects: for example, "Shall I make you a poultice?" (3.2.96) examined rhetorically and grammatically reveals seductive intent. By analyzing in detail the seductive aspects of the language of the play as if heard for the first time, a discourse-based analysis returns the beginnings of seductive dramatic effects to their creator, Jonson, who in Volpone creates multiple meanings of seduction.