The Alchemist (Jonson) Lesson Plan

What parallels can be drawn between the audience's engagement with the play and the themes of belief and deception in the context of this theater, particularly considering the furnace and Mammon's belief?

Much like the theater of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, this play calls upon us to place our faith in the unseen. In this instance, we're not only asked to believe but also encouraged not to believe. It's possible that the furnace, as Lovewit describes it, may not exist or exists in a manner different from what is portrayed. This theme highlights a fundamental aspect of theater: the same kind of belief that Mammon holds, derided by Surly, parallels the belief the...