Gay's exploration of equality has an inherent irony to it, and understanding this irony is

essential to appreciating the sharpness of his satire. Both explicitly through dialogue and
implicitly through the story, Gay critiques the outright inequality between the rich and poor.
However, what makes the work unique is that he makes incessant comparisons between the
powerful rich and the desperate poor. His basic idea is that despite social class, all men are
naturally self-interested and corrupt. The text is rife with humorous equivalencies drawn
between statesmen and criminals, lawyers and impeachers, highwaymen and courtiers, all to
suggest that inequality is due as much to how hypocritical a man is willing to be, and not to his
virtue

In the world of The Beggar’s Opera, marriage bears no resemblance to the romantic

notion of a holy union between two soulmates. Instead, Gay continually mocks this notion,
suggesting that love is more closely aligned with lust and self-interest than with selflessness.
The closest Gay comes to representing the idealized conception is in the profuse
professions Polly and Lucy make for Macheath. However, both women are as focused on
physical intimacy as upon a transcendent union. Polly's marriage ultimately means little to
Macheath, and most characters think of it is in terms of its financial benefits, with little
thought of her emotions. The girls’ notion of romantic love, so misplaced upon an obvious cad,
renders the romantic ideal ludicrous.
For the rest of the characters, a woman’s only use for marriage is financial security -
resting on the hotly-anticipated death of the male spouse, from whom she might inherit.
Freedom of sexual expression is also put forward as a potential benefit of marriage, far
different again from the romantic notion of monogamy. Once married, a wife’s reputation is
vouchsafed by her husband. She may thus act with impunity, according to her whim. All of
these representations were unique in the time period, and helped to make Gay's work so
transgressive.

Hypocrisy is arguably Gay's most significant target in the opera. Both implicitly and explicitly,
he mocks the way that statesmen reach great heights not through virtue, but through their
hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy defines each and every character, action and employment,
suggesting it is an inherent, inescapable human quality. Gay's lyrics are the best place to find
witty articulations of his time's hypocrisy. When Peachum expresses the view that it might be
reasonable to consider their line of work dishonest, Lockit responds with a display of
indignation, singing: