Patriarchy and a Woman's Place

Gender relationships occupy a small part of the play, but when the matter does emerge it provides the turning point. Corvino's insistence that his wife obey his command to make herself sexually available to Volpone is not only the nadir of the merchant's ethical corruption but also incites the moment when Volpone attempts to rape Celia. This leads to the court case which eventually brings down the overreaching libertine. Mosca hoodwinks Corvino with the fiction that Volpone can only be preserved if a young woman ‘lusty, and full of juice [lively, sexually alluring] sleep by him’ (2.6.35). He clinches the matter by inventing a doctor, Signior Lupo (Mr Wolf), who has offered his daughter. The thought of being outdone in preparedness to assist persuades the merchant to offer Celia. Thus a father/ daughter (Signior and Signorina Lupo) and husband/ wife bond are subverted through the display of male dominance and disregard. Volpone regards Celia as sexual goods he can acquire, assuming that because of his wealth and rank she, as a mere merchant's wife, will agree readily to become his property. This belief by men of high degree that women of lesser status are willing sexual partners or if unwilling can be forced, was reinforced by long custom. Title, money and social power encouraged such thinking.

The matter of gender relationships is full of ambiguities, contradictions and inconsistencies. Two features are definite: theoretically men ruled, and in practice women often subverted male domination. Corvino, about to command his wife to let herself be used by Volpone, asserts,

Just as some men readily enforced their will physically, so some women got what they wanted if they wanted it badly enough. Custom, doctrine and law made husbands and fathers heads of families. God ruled creation, kings ruled nations and fathers ruled the home. God punished sin, kings punished earthly crime and a man could beat his wife, his children and his servants.