character of Volpone Volpone's Greed Volpone is an old and wealthy man However he lusts for more money and sex He worships gold as a saint Good morning to the day and next my gold Open the shrine that I may see my Saint The legacy hunters- Voltore Corbaccio and Corvino are obsessed with becoming Volpone s heir because they hope to inherit his fortune Their greed is so strong that they have no regard for Volpone s life Volpone plots to deceive the legacy hunters He pretends to be on his deathbed after a long illness Hence Voltore Corbaccio and Corvino motivated by avarice come to see him with valuable gifts Volpone scams them with the help of his parasite servant Mosca As the play unfolds Volpone attempts to rape Celia It is avarice that morally corrupts him turning him from a sly fox to a predator Later in the play Volpone is caught in a fox trap because of his excessive greed His servant Mosca tricks him and takes all his property who is the example of another corrupted person because of avarice Mosca's Manipulation Mosca Volpone's servant is driven by greed He aids Volpone in his schemes He manipulates the legacy-hunters to extract more wealth Mosca's own ambition and avarice grow throughout the play He eventually decides to betray his master in hopes of securing his fortune I'll bury him Volpone or gain by him I am his heir In the end Mosca is punished by the court He is whipped and sent as a slave The Legacy Hunters The characters of Voltore Corbaccio and Corvino represent different facets of greed Each tries to secure Volpone's favor They offer bribes to be his heir Their avarice blinds them to reason and morality making them easy prey for Volpone and Mosca's deceptions Voltore is a lawyer He wants to be Volpone s heir after his death So he brings an antique precious plate Thus he is scammed by the sly fox Corbaccio is another evil character Though he is old he hopes to outlive Volpone and wants to get his hands on Volpone's wealth So he brings a bag of gold coins to stay in Volpone s favor Again Mosca manipulates Corbaccio to disinherit his own son in favor of Volpone Corvino is another corrupted character motivated by avarice He brings a pearl and a diamond for Volpone as gifts He even sends his wife to Volpone s bed Moral Consequences The play ultimately shows that avarice leads to self-destruction Volpone's and Mosca's greed results in their downfall All the greedy people are exposed and punished The harsh punishments at the end of the play remind audiences of Volpone's foreshadowing What a rare punishment is avarice to itself At the beginning of the play Volpone mocks the greed of the legacy hunters with this line He suggests they deserve their punishment and fate This comment foreshadows his own punishment at the end of the novel Through the fates of the evil doers Jonson underscores the moral that avarice is inherently destructive and leads to ruin