... Should not have sung your shame, and dropped your cheese, / To let the Fox laugh at your emptiness." (P271) I think Jonson illustrates the fable directly in this quotation as the fox is laughing at the crow for dropping his presents and singing his out his declaration of cuckoldry to the court. The animal imagery in Volpone is very obvious immediately to the audience as he names most of the characters after birds or animals and suggests the depravity inherent in each of the individuals, whist at the same time creating caricatures of them. I think in doing this Jonson wanted to draw attention to the animalistic side of society and show how people's behaviour can be no better than animals, which prey on each other. I think Jonson's naming of the characters suggests what the play goes on to prove, that human beings can easily reduce themselves to animals ...

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