The Threepenny Opera

Content warning: This section of the guide discusses violence, sexual content, and death. 

Jonathan Peachum prepares to disrupt the queen’s coronation by staging a demonstration of beggars to display human misery. In his shop, beggars work on protest signs with messages like, “I gave my eye for my king” (90). Mrs. Peachum is berating the beggars for their poor craftsmanship of the signs when a drum roll signals the military’s preparation. Filch enters to report that a group of weary-looking women, Macheath’s former lovers, have arrived demanding payment for betraying him. Jenny and the other sex workers insist they were promised money, but Mrs. Peachum refuses to pay, claiming Macheath has escaped. Jenny angrily protests, revealing that Macheath already visited her after his escape and later went to Suky Tawdry (another sex worker). Peachum immediately orders Filch to alert the police.

As Mrs. Peachum leaves, she sings the third stanza of “The Ballad of Sexual Obsession,” describing a condemned man still consumed by thoughts of women even as he faces execution. Peachum mocks the beggars, explaining that the rich can create poverty but cannot bear to see it. He declares that misery must be exploited because the wealthy, despite their abundance, cannot ignore suffering when it is in their face.