Face character, THE WAY OF THE WORLD

*Q.1: Face depicts the hypocrisy of the society. Comment. (2018)*

Face is an appropriate name for one of the two main crooks. Jeremy the butler is transformed by Subtle into many roles, the main one being Captain Face, an officer. He is also “Lungs,” the bellows operator for the laboratory of the alchemist. He even tries to get a Spanish costume to play the count so he can have Dame Pliant. He changes face, not only in terms of costumes and roles, but he “turns face,” ready to betray anyone in his own interest. He is never who he seems to be, a genius at improvisation. 

Face is the one who spots the potential victims. He recruits and brings them to the Blackfriars house so Subtle can con them. He is constantly arguing with Subtle about who is the cleverest and deserves the largest share. Subtle may have taught him how to act the part of a Captain, but Face is the one who keeps them all afloat, the one who can talk his way out of a corner, as when his master returns and he improvises improbable lies to cover for his actions. Even his master is taken in until there is too much evidence against him to refute. 

Face is like a cat that lands on its feet. At one point he is called Ulen after Til Ulen Spiegel, the merry German prankster who gets away with mayhem. He is not very likeable since he has no loyalty even to his fellow schemers, but his dazzling wit and inventiveness recommend him as a memorable comic figure.

Subtle and Doll’s criminal associate and Lovewit’s butler. After Lovewit escapes the city for the country during an outbreak of the plague, Face runs his criminal scams and cons out of Lovewit’s city home. Face represents transformation within Jonson’s play, and he easily changes as he greets each of his victims. Face himself is always changing, which speaks to Jonson’s broader argument that all people and things are constantly in flux. 

Face also represents deception in The Alchemist and personifies the many crooks and charlatans that practiced phony alchemy during Jonson’s time. Face deceives his victims with each new disguise and con, stealing their money and trust, and he makes them believe he can deliver them perpetual youth and riches with the philosopher’s stone. Face deceives Lovewit when he lies and uses his home for illegal purposes, and he also deceives Doll. Presumably, Doll will be jealous or hurt by Face and Subtle’s infatuation with Dame Plaint, and they go to great lengths to cover it up. 

At the end of the play, Face deceives both Subtle and Doll and keeps all their profits for himself after the police arrive with their victims. Lovewit has pardoned him, Face says, not Subtle and Doll, and they must run or be arrested. Everything Face does and says is deceptive, and he represents the widespread deception that Jonson argues is rampant in broader society. Thus it can truly be said that Face depicts the hypocrisy of the society.