Saint Gold Volpone sees his gold as a saint and worships it every morning The three legacy-hunters Voltore Corbaccio and Corvino want to become Volpone s heir They hope to inherit Volpone s fortune So they want to satisfy Volpone by any means On the other hand 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 Later in the play Volpone is caught in a fox-trap because of his avarice His servant Mosca tricks him and takes all his property It shows that avarice leads to moral decay deception and ultimately downfall Mosca's Manipulation Mosca Volpone's parasite servant is another example of avarice He is driven by excessive greed At first Mosca helps Volpone to deceive others But Mosca's own greed grows throughout the play He eventually decides to betray his master in hopes of securing his fortune Mosca says 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 away as a slave The Legacy Hunters The characters of Voltore Corbaccio and Corvino represent different facets of avarice Each tries to gain Volpone's favor They offer bribes to be his heir Voltore brings an antique precious plate But he is scammed by the sly fox Volpone Corbaccio is another evil character Though he himself is old he hopes to outlive Volpone and get his hands on Volpone's wealth So he brings a bag of gold coins to stay in Volpone s favor Corvino is another corrupted character motivated by avarice He brings a pearl and a diamond for Volpone as gifts He even sends his wife Celia to Volpone s bed So avarice blinds all three of them to reason and morality This also makes them easy prey for Volpone and Mosca Moral Consequences The play ultimately shows that avarice leads to self-destruction All the greedy characters are punished at the end of the play Volpone s entire property is donated to a hospital Mosca is whipped and sent away as a slave Voltore is exiled from the city Corbaccio is sent to a monastery and Corvino must pay a huge dowry to his wife Celia This ending reminds us of an earlier comment by Volpone What a rare punishment is avarice to itself Volpone said this earlier in the play when he was punishing the legacy-hunters for their avarice However he was blind to his own avarice The same ultimately becomes true for him too In conclusion this play is a satirical comedy of avarice According to Ben Jonson desire itself is not inherently evil Rather it is avarice excessive desire that becomes morally corrupting Through the fates of the greedy characters Jonson has shown that avarice leads to self-destruction