The Alchemist (Jonson) Lesson Plan

Jonson's portrayal of the Anabaptist Christians as avaricious reaches a peak in these two scenes. This darkly comedic irony reveals that these self-proclaimed moral guardians are surprisingly eager to engage in deception. Although Tribulation acknowledges that Ananias is driven by "ignorant zeal," it remains uncertain whether he's merely refraining from passing judgment on all the corruption promised by Subtle, or if he genuinely condones it.

Subtle even presents a Faustian proposition: "You may be any thing," a notion that may superficially resemble the Pauline idea of...