Betrayal and Moral Corruption

Like the "greatest story ever told," the story of Jesus, the protagonist of The Threepenny Opera is betrayed by a former intimate, But there the similarity ends, or rather, diverts to mirrored opposites. Macheath is not a savior like Christ but a moral corrupter, not a paragon of virtue but a f ountainhead of sin, not the archetypal human ideal but a base man of bestial instinct. In contrast to Jesus, he mames the woman with whom he has been sleeping in a stable rather than being born of a chaste woman in a stable. The wedding gown and gifts are not humble attire and ritual offerings but stolen goods.

Despite these oppositions to one of the best-known symbols of purity, Macheath is not a completely evil figure. He has some appeal, especially to the whores and women of low virtue. He is gallant in...