The Story Archive

The Alchemist

Ben Jonson · 1610 CE · Play · English · Renaissance

With the plague emptying London, a master leaves town and his butler turns the empty house into a shop selling the philosophers' stone. A tobacconist wants a lucky sign, a clerk wants a familiar spirit, two Amsterdam brethren want coining, and a knight wants to bathe in gold; each is served in a different room while the three partners work to keep them from meeting. The whole action runs in one house on one day, and the timing is the joke.

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Attributes

Genre
ComedySatire
Theme
Wealth & GreedAppearance vs RealityTemptation
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
TricksterMagicianShapeshifter
Plot structure
Mistaken IdentityIronic ReversalComic ResolutionSingle Day
Quest object (Greimas)
Wealth / Treasure
Symbol / motif
Gold / TreasureThe HouseThe CityFire
Conflict
vs Personvs Society
Mode / tone
ComicSatiricalIronic
Culture / tradition
English

Closest analogues