The Beggars Opera is a very refreshing read since it is so different from the rest of the plays assigned to us this semester. Thanks to the footnotes and some research I have learned that this play satirizes higher class citizens as well as the Italian Opera. However, it is very interesting to note the difference between the rich and poor because this unfair treatment is still evident today. In this play, the people like Macheath who were thrown into jail, and could pay to live some what comfortable within their jail-cell could do so at a certain price:
Lockit: Look, ye, Captain, we know what is fittest for our prisoners. When a gentleman uses me with civility, I always do the best I can do to please him. – Hand them down, I say. – We have them of all prices, from one guinea to ten, and ‘tis fitting every gentleman should please him-self"
Because Macheath can afford the ten guinea, he is awarded the best and most comfortable chains that “sit as easy as a glove, and the nicest man in England might not be ashamed to wear them” (825). By poking fun of the unfair treatment between social classes in his play, Gay attacks the judicial system in a very effective way. It does not matter if some of the examples of punishment are extreme when compared to modern day judicial punishments; The Beggar's Opera is just enjoyable to read, or watch in performance, now as it ever was because the basic point of the play is a facet of human behavior that will always be with us, and it is summed up beautifully by the beggar at final lines of the play: But think of this Maxim, and put off your Sorrow, The Wretch of To-day, may be happy To-morrow. (846)
The Belle's Stratagem clearly speaks about the oppression of women experienced by females during the Patriarchal centuries that followed Cowley's play's premiere because from what I understand, during the eighteenth century, many women playwrights got little exposure, often having to "funnel their writing through theatres dominated by men" (Barker). It is commonly believed that many women drama writers' work has been lost or was given to men, so that the male's may wrongly take credit for the female's work. However, because of the strong female protagonist in Cowley's play, I am assuming that it was not claimed by a man because of its very powerful female protagonist?? This is very refreshing, especially after all of the oppressed women writers and characters that we have studies this term. What an excellent way to finish this course. 
The Beggars Opera is a very refreshing read since it is so different from the rest of the plays assigned to us this semester. Thanks to the footnotes and some research I have learned that this play satirizes higher class citizens as well as the Italian Opera. However, it is very interesting to note the difference between the rich and poor because this unfair treatment is still evident today. In this play, the people like Macheath who were thrown into jail, and could pay to live some what comfortable within their jail-cell could do so at a certain price:
Susanna Centlivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife is a very funny and romantic tale. Even though from the very beginning I knew how the ending would turn out, there were still some surprises hidden within this play that shocked me. One of the experts that shocked me the most was Periwinkle's advice to Colonel Fainwell about family:
