Illness In the play Volpone pretends that he is very sick and about to die He lies in bed This is just a part of his scam to loot the legacy-hunters Voltore Corbaccio and Corvino These greedy people bring expensive gifts for Volpone to impress him only to be his heir after his death However the audience knows that Volpone is not sick at all The audience knows that Volpone is laughing at the legacy-hunters and deceiving them This creates dramatic irony The audience knows the truth and the legacy hunters do not The audience laughs at how easily they are fooled Mosca s Tricks Mosca is Volpone s parasite servant He acts as Volpone s helper Mosca lies to each of the legacy hunters and makes them believe they are the only heir to Volpone s wealth For example he tells Voltore that Volpone loves him most He then says the same thing to Corbaccio and Corvino The audience knows Mosca is lying to all of them This makes the legacy-hunters foolish and funny Their excessive greed makes them easy to fool This dramatic irony also makes the play very entertaining Corvino Offers His Wife One of the most shocking moments of dramatic irony is when Corvino agrees to send his wife Celia to Volpone s bed Mosca tells Corvino that Celia can heal his master Mosca says No it must be one that has no tricks sir Corvino easily agrees But the audience knows it is a trick Volpone is not sick at all he just wants to go to bed with Celia This situation is full of tension and disgust The audience feels sorry for Celia and angry at Corvino s greed Volpone s Final Scheme Later in the play Volpone wants to tease the legacy hunters more So he wills his property in Mosca s name and spreads the fake news of his death He just wants to see the disappointment of getting nothing in the faces of the legacy-hunters This again creates dramatic irony The audience knows Volpone is alive but the other characters do not Then Mosca decides to betray Volpone He says I'll bury him Volpone or gain by him I am his heir Mosca wants to take all the wealth for himself The audience is surprised and curious to see what will happen next Moral Lesson The moral lesson of the play also comes in an ironic and interesting way At the end of the play we see that all the greedy people are punished by the court This delivers the moral lesson avarice excessive greed always leads to punishment Earlier in the play Volpone actually told this when he was punishing the legacy-hunters for their avarice He said What a rare punishment is avarice to itself This creates dramatic irony The audience knows Volpone is also fit for punishment for his own avarice But Volpone does not realize this In fine dramatic irony in Volpone makes the play very entertaining The audience enjoys watching the greedy characters fall into traps Jonson uses this technique to make us laugh at human foolishness and also to teach a lesson avarice always leads to punishment