# The Beggar — The Beggar’s Opera character guide

> The Beggar in The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Beggar

**First appearance:** 0005-the-beggar-s-opera

## Snapshot

The Beggar frames the entire opera, stepping forward to present his 'opera' as a beggarly alternative to the fashionable Italian entertainments of the day.

## Who they are

The Beggar appears in the frame, introducing the piece and returning to comment on it, so that the whole story of Peachum, Polly, and Macheath arrives already wrapped in a beggar's claim to authorship. His presence is a joke with teeth: a beggar writing an opera about thieves and whores mirrors the play's insistence that high and low society are the same trade under different names. He matters because he sets the tone — ironic, self-aware, and refusing to let the audience mistake the gallows humor for mere entertainment.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_beggar_s_opera_se/characters/beggar
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_beggar_s_opera_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_beggar_s_opera_se/characters