Failed Masculinity in Jonson’s Epicoene and Volpone

This paper examines Renaissance representations of failed masculinity in Ben Jonson’s two plays Epicoene and Volpone. Jonson employs dark comedy to mock society’s most austere and revered gendered subjects. He subverts aspects of the Renaissance ideal image of masculinity, which is shaped by a patriarchal society that constructs masculinity in relation to gender, sexual desire and social status. This paper explores how Jonson subtly utilizes two characteristics of black humor, namely amusement through repulsion and pleasure from wicked pranks, to ridicule falsely imagined ideals of Renaissance manhood.