Eric H. Santana
Professor Chris Alexander
July 6, 2008
The Character of Polly
Polly is the daughter of Mr. Peachum and to me her motivations are the least clear
of all the characters. Throughout act one Polly appears and interacts with others in such a
way one could imagine many possible and alternate motivations driving Polly, such as
the young, naive girl who just loves to be in love or perhaps the cunning businesswoman
trying her best to make it to the top of her world, or even one seeking protection from the
negative influence the environment can have on an individual living in this time period.
After reading scenes one through three of act one the play leads me to believe Polly is
seeking some form of protection from what she feels is a hard, dangerous world.
The play leads me to believe this to be Polly’s motivation partly do to the “ The
World Is Hard” song. It seems most of the song is directed at displaying the common
ground between Polly and her parents, as they all agree they live in a difficult world.
They each express why they feel that way because of different reasons but they are united
in the realization of this adversity. Polly also mentions she is seeking a man who she can
marry and share the difficulties of her life with. She feels finding such a man is her
highest aim, or at least one that could quite possibly go unsatisfied. Polly States “All I
want is a man to marry. He must share the load I carry. Now is that too high an aim?”
expressing to me her greatest desire is the protection from a man who can survive with
her in their difficult existence. She is ultimately motivated by the necessity for a strong
partner in love and life who will not fall to the unknown trials Polly’s life may throw at
her.
This motivation is why I feel Polly ends up in a relationship with Mack the Knife.
Macheath is in a position of power of which allows him to go unhindered by the police,
seeing as how he basically has the commissioner Tiger Brown on his side. He is so stable
in his position he can reveal certain elements of it to Polly, which she cannot resist, in my
opinion. Polly is drawn by Macheath’s ability to throw on a wedding with stolen goods as
she finds nothing wrong with the setting, other than that it was at other people’s expense.
In this behavior the play leads me to believe she has a sense of moral values because she
experiences some form of sorrow for the victims as a result of the stolen property. This
emotion however, is not enough to motivate Polly to do anything to help the victims;
solidifying my idea she is more concerned with her own protection, rather than the
suffering of others.
Throughout act one Polly seems to avoid any position that would incur damage or
some other negative influence upon her almost entirely. She first stands within the
protective range of Mr. Peachum and then that of Mack the knife. In this fact the play
leads me to believe Polly is an intelligent individual, maybe even more so than Macheath.
At a point even Mack had to double check with Tiger Brown to make sure he was not in
any danger, whereas Polly never experienced such a moment of vulnerability. This
behavior in Polly leads me to feel she is focusing on self- preservation. In marrying Mack
the knife it is almost as if Polly took the safest spot in her whole city because quite
possibly all the crime can stem from Macheath. So in aligning herself with him she has
eliminated many possible threats to her from the lower branches of his organization. No
one would dare be the guy who did something bad to his crime boss’ wife; that’s the
sentence I feel Polly was focusing on during her whole marriage process.